How to Prevent Car Sickness: Effective Strategies & Medications

If you, someone in your family, or a friend you travel with gets car sick, you know how quickly excitement for a road trip can turn into dread. While taking motion sickness medicine with you is a good plan, an even better one is to understand how to prevent becoming nauseous and sick. 

Since kids are more prone to car sickness than adults, anything you can do to prevent that from happening will help keep your road trip on track, your car staying clean and fresh, and your passengers happy.

How to Prevent Car Sickness

Because motion sickness is caused by your eyes, ears, and body sending varying signals about whether you’re still or moving to the brain, the following tips can help prevent car sickness:

• Put a motion sickness prone adult in the front passenger seat – Being able to see out a forward-facing window can help your passenger’s brain and body stay in sync.
• Choose a middle seat for someone in the back – This works especially well with kids—or small adults—who may not be able to see out the front of the car when sitting in the back seat. It also helps with dogs who get car sick.
• Let the sick-prone person sleep – Traveling overnight or leaving very early in the morning can encourage passengers to sleep. Even though motion sickness is still possible, it’s much less likely to happen while sleeping.
• Focus on the horizon – This works better when you’re not in crowded highway traffic and can actually see the surrounding scenery. If your backseat or front seat passengers are prone to motion sickness, remind them to focus on the horizon or a non-moving object toward the horizon. 

These strategies work by helping the eyes, ears and body all tell the brain the same thing. Now, what about distracting your kids with games, videos, or books? 

Activities that prevent car sickness

Books and screen require a person to look down while moving, so these can actually bring on motion sickness or make it worse. However, there are still a few activities that might help:

• Listen to music, podcasts, or audio books through headphones.
• Play call-out games that make passengers look out and focus on something outside. I Spy, the License Plate Game (see how many different state plates they can find), or the Alphabet game where you spot letters on road signs, stores, people’s clothing and more.
• Watch movies (with headphones) on a screen that hangs at eye-level off the back of the front seat. This won’t always work and can make motion sickness worse, but it can help some people, especially if it’s a favorite movie and they don’t have to look down to watch it.

The key is to find things that are engaging—a fun game, a funny movie—that keeps the head and eyes focused upward and outward instead of down in a book or a phone screen. 

Using Motion Sickness Medication for Prevention

Medicine can also be a powerful tool in preventing car sickness. Motion sickness medications are typically most effective when taking them before traveling or as soon as possible if nausea or other motion sickness symptoms occur.

Types of motion sickness medication

1. Over-the-counter medicinal motion sickness treatments are available in stores and online. These remedies typically use an antihistamine, so they often cause drowsiness. Dramamine® products fall in this category. For shorter trips, you may want to use a “less-drowsy” formula so you’re not too sleepy when you arrive at your destination. There are also formulas for kids, often in chewable tablets, that help prevent and treat nausea and motion sickness. 

If you or your child takes other medications, it’s a good idea to check with your doctor first to make sure it’s safe to take.

2. Prescription motion sickness medications are also something to consider, especially if motion sickness tends to be frequent or severe. These include prescription antihistamines and other pills, as well as scopolamine patches. 

The patch can last for up to 72 hours, which can be a good option for extended travel such as on a cruise. Talk to your doctor about potential side effects, just like you would with any other medication.

3. Non-medicinal motion sickness remedies have been used for centuries. Ginger root is a popular example as it’s been used by generations to relieve nausea and motion sickness. But results can vary as the quality of ginger does too. Make sure the remedy you choose contains the “clinically tested” dosage of ginger to help prevent and relieve nausea from motion sickness. The Advanced Herbals® line of dietary supplements from the makers of Dramamine® fall into this category and are designed to provide nausea relief in a non-medicated, non-drowsy form.

As you can probably tell, the common theme here for a happy road trip is to be prepared. Remember these tips to prevent car sickness, and also be prepared to treat nausea and motion sickness while on the go. Keep clean-up supplies in the car, just in case! 

Most of all, remember, car sickness is temporary, but the memories you make on these trips will last forever—so enjoy!