Those dreaded words are hurled from the backseat, “Mom! My tummy hurts!”

Before you can take your eyes off the road, you try to imagine what the issue could be. You run down a list of questions to ask your child as your vehicle cruises down the street:

• Do you have to poop?
• Do you have to burp?
• Would you like some fresh air?
• When was the last time you had a sip of water?
• Do you have to throw up?

Remembering you let your child watch their tablet to entice them to get in the car seat without a fuss, you glance in the review mirror and gently advise them to put the tablet down and look out the window. Half a minute goes by, your child’s tummy feels better, and disaster is averted…for now.

But what happens if your go-to technique doesn’t work? Here are a few tips to help with being car sick (for your child or any one else). No matter the case, if your child has frequent bouts with car sickness, go to the dollar store and load up on plastic buckets (plastic bags are a hazard!).

Tips To Help With Motion Sickness

Look Out The Window – staring at the horizon helps quite a bit. If your child is too small to see the horizon out of the window, have them pick a cloud to focus on.

Crack A Window – who doesn’t like a little fresh air when feeling “off.” Sometimes the caress of fresh air can settle the mind and body.

Chew Some Natural Gum – natural because there’s no toxic chemicals to make matters worse. Gum for the chewing action to help resolve the conflict between vision and balance.

Carry Ginger Water To Drink – I know what you’re thinking: “who carries around ginger water?” If you have a Filipino mother-in-law like I do, you’d be surprised. You should probably carry drinking water with you at all times any way (I live in the desert). To make a tasty, sugar-free ginger drink simply cut a knob off of some fresh ginger (it doesn’t take much) and toss it in your water. The flavor will infuse throughout the day. To expedite the infusion you can simply boil water with ginger, reduce it down to concentrate the flavor, then use the concentrate to flavor water in the future. Voila! Sugar-free ginger water.

Dissolve A Ginger Drop In The Mouth – no water, just carry some ginger drops with you.

Acupressure – you can probably learn a few different acupressure points to use in your everyday life. Here are a few neat links about the acupressure point for car sickness.

Get Professional Help

If, however, your attempts to prevent motion sickness are unsuccessful, you can always hire this amazing, professional service which specializes in cleaning car seats, strollers and other gear that sees life’s unfortunate events.