Emma started getting carsick right before she turned one. The first and second time she threw up in the car she was sick and had a cough, so we assumed that she made herself throw up from all the coughing. The third time she threw up we figured it was because she had a big breakfast, but by the fourth and fifth, and….well, you get the picture…we realized that it was just a common occurrence of a carsick toddler. 

We tried to look back on the various times she was carsick to try and pinpoint the cause, but we really struggled. Even if she didn’t have a full belly, she would still manage to throw up if the timing was just right, HA! One thing we did realize is that the stop and go that you get with traffic and traffic lights are a no no. She is still rear facing, so that, combined with the back and forth motion of the car, is a recipe for disaster. We came to terms with the fact that she was most likely going to have some sort of accident from time to time and over the months we slowly got better at planning and prepping for setbacks so that we caould still enjoy weekends and little getaways.

Here are a few things that we do to prepare ourselves:

1. Burp her before she goes in the car. She’s 18 months now, but we still try and burp her before she goes in her car seat. Sometimes she lets out a nice big burp and other times after minutes of mommy patting her on the back, nothing. I normally give up after a few minutes or when she just flat out gets annoyed at me patting her on the back for so long.
2. We put a cotton bandana bib on her to catch any surprises.
3. After we load her up in the car and make sure she has her bib on, we place a muslin cloth over her as well, so that if she does have an accident and the first level of protection (the bib) isn’t enough, she has another layer of protection. We use muslin cloths because they are lightweight and don’t make her hot in the car.
4. We stock a bag in the trunk with extra bibs, muslin cloths, and plastic trash bags to clean up the mess.
5. I also carry plenty of clothes just in case.

I hope this helps moms out there because travelling with a toddler can be stressful in itself, but add in some throw-up and that’s a recipe for a full-blown meltdown.

On a happier note, here are some pictures from our little Santa Barbara getaway (Emma threw up twice on the drive over).

For anyone interested, I used my Golden Pastels Lightroom Preset to edit these photos.