Travel sickness

When parents are worried that their children or even they themselves may feel sick on their upcoming trip, they ask at the pharmacist about ways to prevent travel sickness. PTA-Forum has compiled the most important vocabulary, questions and advice on the subject of "Kinetosis".

All the family is looking forward to the upcoming holidays. If, however, the journey by car is a long one, the high spirits often die down. One’s nerves are excessively taxed if the children on the back seats are whining or crying or if they start feeling sick.

Car sickness typically starts with a queasy feeling in the stomach. Many people break out in cold sweat and feel dizzy due to decreasing blood pressure. A characteristic warning sign is a strikingly pale face. Infants cannot get travelsick in their first year as they cannot focus properly yet.

Parents who are afraid, or have already experienced, that their child will suffer from travel sickness, seek advice at the pharmacist’s and wish to buy medication as a preventive. So that the optimal medication can be recommended PTA or the pharmacists need to ask a few questions and clarify if self-medication can be responsibly commended. When recommending any drugs, the child’s age must of course be taken into consideration.

Important questions for the consultation

Prevention/prophylaxis

• When do you want to travel?
• Who will be travelling with you?
• How old are the children?
• How long will you be on the way?
• Would you like a synthetic drug or would you prefer to use a homeopathic preparation?

Treatment

• How long has the nausea lasted?
• Have you or your child already taken any medication?
• Have you consulted a doctor because of these symptoms?
• Would you prefer suppositories or sugar coated tablets?

Additional information

• Interrupt your car journey regularly and take a few steps in the fresh air.
• Do not read during the drive.
• Have plastic bags and wipes ready.
• Read the directions for use carefully. It is essential that you take the drug as a preventive before the start of the journey, preferably one hour before travelling and, if necessary, also during the journey.
• In the case of small children or severe vomiting, suppositories should be used.
• Some drugs make you feel tired so that your concentration and your own fitness to drive may be restricted.
• During a sea voyage go on the upper deck for fresh air and focus on a fixed point, which does not move, for example the horizon.
• If you get travel sickness easily, pay attention to your seat. In an aeroplane the calm zones are at the level of the wings, on a ship in the centre and in a car you best sit on the passenger’s seat.