A Solution for Car Sick Kids | Car Seat Bib
Meet the first-ever Car Seat Bib
Our daughter started getting sick in the car when she was around six months old and it didn’t stop until she was about three and a half. Our pediatrician said she was probably getting motion sickness, which is common for babies, toddlers, and kids. We started asking other parents about this: Nearly every mom or dad we talked to had a car sickness story.
We commiserated about how upsetting car sickness can be – your kid is uncomfortable, unhappy, and usually covered in spit up. Some parents attributed it to motion sickness, others to reflux (which has become more and more common in babies) or a temporary sickness. We asked our pediatrician about it and he said there is basically nothing you can do. He recommended carrying extra clothing with us.
We asked about medications and our pediatrician said there is nothing for a kid under age 2. After age 2, you can try dramamine. We nicknamed it “car candy,” but it never helped our daughter and she hated taking it. Some suggest turning the car seat from rear-facing to forward-facing to help with motion sickness, but many parents today prefer to follow expert guidance that recommends keeping it rear-facing for several years. We tried pressure bands on the wrists, and told our daughter they were “Wonder Woman Bracelets,” but they didn’t work.
If you’re on a trip or far from home when a kid gets car sick, there is nowhere to clean up. You have to change your kid into a new outfit, store the old outfit somewhere where it won’t make the car smell, and clean the car seat.
Cleaning the car seat is the trickiest part...
The spit up soaks into the fabric and often slides right into the buckles, seatbelts, and bottom of the car seat. You have to take the whole car seat out of the car and take it apart to clean it. The fabric needs to be washed to get the smell out – not something you can easily do one a road trip, or on the way to a birthday party. The fabric generally needs to air dry, which adds hours of waiting before you can put the car seat back together. The seatbelts often need to be scrubbed to get the vomit and smell out. The plastic base of the car seat needs to be washed with a hose. Once it’s all clean and dry, you have to reinstall the car seat.
This happened to us constantly. It was so bad that we would avoid driving places, which was a very sad solution. It didn’t matter if we were driving 10 minutes away to a local park or three hours away to grandma’s, our little one got car sick on at least 50% of our trips. So, we turned to clean-up solutions.
We spent years and hundreds of dollars testing other big bibs and never found one that worked.
We tried all of the oversized bibs on the market. In fact, we spent years and hundreds of dollars testing other big bibs and never found one that worked. Waterproof plastic bibs send messes flying like a slip-and-slide. Standard fabric bibs let messes soak through to clothing and buckles – and most aren’t big enough to catch the mess.
We bought ultra absorbent microfiber towels, air fresheners, big water bottles, vomit bags, car seat covers, and on and on. Nothing worked. Then, we safety pinned ultra absorbent towels to a large plastic bib and created a prototype of the bib we actually needed!
That’s how the Car Seat Bib started. Using kid-safe fabric, we designed the perfect big bib and now we’re sharing it with fellow parents.
The Answer to Car Sick Messes: The Car Seat Bib
The Car Seat Bib is an oversized, absorbent, and waterproof bib designed specifically for kids to wear while in a car seat – and anywhere else!
Between car sickness, spilled drinks, and messy food, kids can make major messes in the car.
Infants and children are particularly susceptible to car sickness. There is no medication approved for children under age 2 and no other intervention (i.e. pressure bands) that stop car sickness.
Spills and spit up in the car get everywhere…
Inside buckles and seatbelts, soaking into car seat fabric, and all over the back seat. Children’s car seats are complex and inconvenient to take apart for cleaning.
The Car Seat Bib was created by a real mom with a really car sick kid. We spent years and hundreds of dollars testing other oversized bibs and never found one that worked. Our big bib is the first-ever bib designed specifically for kids to wear while in a car seat – and works wonderfully during mealtime at home and messy art projects too.
Why It Works:
- Oversized: Covers from neck to legs and edge-to-edge of the car seat.
- Absorbent and Waterproof: With super soft, ultra absorbent fabric on the front, the Car Seat Bib quickly catches and absorbs messes (milk, formula, juice, vomit, throw up, spit up, puke, pouches, baby food, snacks, and meals) while an impermeable waterproof layer on the back keeps kids and car seats clean by preventing the mess from soaking through.
- Lightweight, soft, and comfortable.
- Washable: Easy to clean in the washer and dryer.
- Safe: Goes on over the car seat buckles so it doesn’t affect the functionality of the car seat.
- Made in the USA with kid-safe, hypo-allergenic, BPA-free, PFAS-free, PFOA-free, CPSIA certified, eco-friendly, high-quality organic material.
- Multi-use: The Car Seat Bib isn’t just for the car. Bring it in the house or to a restaurant to use as a feeding bib. It also works well as an arts & crafts bib.
The Car Seat Bib is woman-owned and based in Philadelphia. We proudly work with ethical, local vendors – from fabric to web design.