Research from elephant.co.uk reveals levels of child car sickness

New research from elephant.co.uk has found nearly two thirds of parents have a child who suffers from car sickness,* and parents with car sick kids who are planning a long journey should be prepared to hear the words "I feel sick" after just 22 minutes.

The car insurance specialists surveyed 2,000 parents whose children suffer from car sickness, discovering over half (54%) say illness is most commonly caused by simply being in a moving car. Nearly one in three (30%) say reading in the car triggers car sickness and a quarter (26%) say being in a hot car is the main cause.

The research found that over half (54%) of parents say car sickness is most commonly caused by simply being in a moving car. Nearly one in three (30%) say reading in the car triggers car sickness and a quarter (26%) say being in a hot car is the main cause.

On average children manage to get 22 minutes into a car journey before the symptoms start, but most parents (66%) make sure they're prepared by packing plastic bags just in case. However, having a car sick child impacts on some families so much that two fifths (41%) avoid long journeys altogether.

Brian Martin, elephant.co.uk managing director, commented: "Car journeys with children can be challenging at the best of times, but when you add in the complication of car sickness, they can become even more stressful for parents and children alike.

"Parents react in differing ways to their child's sickness according to our study. The majority are sympathetic when their child feels unwell, but 17% get impatient as it happens so often and one in ten argue with their children, which surely can't make them feel any better."

Parents were also asked what they did to deal with car sickness in their children. Opening the windows and getting air circulating around the car was found to be the best way to alleviate the symptoms, with nearly three fifths (58%) saying it works. Almost a third (32%) of those polled said travel sickness medicine works, followed by getting their child to sit in the front (29%).

However getting them to wear an acupressure wristband (9%), getting them to sit in the middle seat (7%) and the old wives' tale of sitting on brown paper (2%) were found to be the least likely to work according to the parents quizzed.

It also appears the queasy feeling when travelling runs in the family as 57% of parents with car sick kids suffered themselves as a child. And it looks like bad news for their children, as three quarters who suffered as a child still experience symptoms as an adult.

-Ends-

Notes for Editors:
*Out of 4,077 parents surveyed by OnePoll for elephant.co.uk, 61.49% have at least one child that suffers from car sickness. OnePoll then surveyed 2,000 of these parents whose children suffer from car sickness for the main survey, for elephant.co.uk.

About elephant.co.uk:
elephant.co.uk was launched in August 2000. elephant.co.uk is a trading name of EUI Limited and is part of the Admiral Group plc. which also includes Admiral Car Insurance.

elephant.co.uk specialises in providing car insurance online. elephant.co.uk targets 17-35 year-olds living in cities, who traditionally pay higher premiums for car insurance.

elephant.co.uk writes its motor insurance business to a consortium of insurers, these being:
a. Admiral Insurance Company Ltd
b. Admiral Insurance (Gibraltar) Limited
c. Great Lakes Reinsurance (UK) plc

The Admiral Group employs over 4,900 people in the UK and has over 3 million customers and was named the best large place to work in the UK by the Great Place to Work Institute in 2012. Follow Admiral Group on twitter: www.twitter.com/AdmiralGroup.

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James Carnduff
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http://www.elephant.co.uk/