Car sick in the back seat?
 

For those of you who drive with your kids in the back seat, or those who used to;

So I have kids, 4 yr old daughter and 2yr old son, and whenever my daughter rides the car in the back seat for more than an hour of drive, she always says she got car sick.

She sits in her child seat (which is the only place she will be until old enough) in the back.

My previous car was a E61 (530i wagon with m sport suspension), and it was never the case with the E61.
Though, I am speculating it may have been just because she was not old enough at that time (age 2), as my son who is currently 2 y/o never complains in the E53.

I only have the X5 and cannot compare, but am also suspecting that maybe it has to do with the way E53 (or to an extent tall SUVs in general) moves, due to higher center of gravity.
When I first drove the E53 the “shake” (kind of like a sideways wiggle shake on bouncy and uneven roads ) was pretty noticeable compared to the E61. I can’t really put it down in words but it is obviously not a movement from anything wrong with the car, but from the characteristic thereof.

My question is, any of your usual passengers like your family member get car sick uniquely when riding your E53?
Like he/she/they are ok with any other car but gets uncomfortable or sick in E53?


By the way my E53 is ’06 with 44k miles with tires only 1 year old and suspension components in ok condition, checked by my mechanic and myself, so pretty safe to remove possibility of any issues wrong with the car. 19" Style 132s in summer and 17" studless in the winter, but my daughter feels sick regardless:(

I think you should replace your daughter. Joke.

No never heard of this to be something particular with any car. Try not feeding her. And put up the side shades when on long rides.

Car sick in the back seat?
 

My son, 15, gets car sick as all heck in the back of mine... but my wife says that’s because I drive like I’m in a Nascar..... [emoji12]

That said, he gets sick in the back of my Enclave when I drive too, so not much help there.


Just a crazy though, but the back seats in mine are very firm and you did say she was in a car seat? Maybe try folding up a large blanket and laying it over the seat and seat back before you strap the car seat in. That may give the seat something softer to press in to and reduce some of the “wobble”.... maybe.

Both of my offspring are okay in both of our X5's. E70 and E53. Had my mother-in-law in the E53 for a 17 hour drive and she slept like a baby for much of the trip with no complaints. Our daughter's are about the same age. Has she overheard someone else talking about getting car sick in a vehicle? Ours will parrot ailments back at us at times, especially when it serves an ulterior motive like getting out of chores or something she doesn't feel like doing. LOL do you have another vehicle that she prefers to be in? Kids can be very conniving. ;)

Inability to see the horizon is the #1 cause of car sickness. Can you put the seat in the middle to help with that? The head rest on the front seat is all a kid will see from the side seats.

I used to have to make sure my son would not keep his face buried in the iPad when driving especially if on a curvy road. Have the kid look at the horizon whenever they feel like starting to get queasy. The normal cause of queasy is when the visual horizon doesn't match your inner ear's expectations of what horizontal is. It's made even worse when your head isn't uproght (eg playing video games or reading a book with head pointed down)

Sounds like your daughter really misses the E61. Its not a vehicle problem. In time she will become use to the SUV ride.

So far my kids and grand kids that have been in the back seats seemed to do fine.

Thank you everyone for the feedback!

It was such a family and dad kind of issue that I was not really expecting this much feedback so quickly, but I really appreciate the hospitality of this forum!

I am now pretty keen to believe this issue is very specific to my daughter and not the car, and not really and option right now to switch cars (I only got the E53) considering how I like it and also I have spent quite a lot on preventatives recently.

I will probably try another child seat a little higher up, so that she can get a good view out the window. Her eyes come just above the bottom of the window so she may not have a good outside view in her seat.


Very interesting, and indeed!! My wife always asks my daughter "are you ok back there?" when in car... And I stop telling my wife to stop asking that sort of question, it makes my daughter feel even worse... sort of like the opposite of Placebo effect.

Very interesting feedback. Rather than reeforce her intrigue into feeling bad. "Are you ok"?, do what I did, instruct her how to control her own queasiness with explaining how we become queazy.

"Car sickness usually happens when our eyes see something not moving when our head feels motion, so the best way to avoid it is to look at something far away and toward the front of the car outside the car"

It can be buildings, Bridges, power wires, semi trailers in case she's still too short to see the actual ground eg horizon.

And also certain drinks such as Ginger Ale have decent anti qwezy effect.

ginger biscuits !! always helps when I'm out boat fishing.. also never had any issues with people in the back of mine