Sea Sickness Medication for Children

[cruising with the family]

Hi. :) We'll be cruising in just 3 short weeks! We have 3 children (10,7,& 5 y.o.) who will going with us. This is our first cruise (for all of us). We spoke to our pediatrician about what to give them should they get sea sick. He said either dramamine or benadryl (both of which, I'm pretty sure, will have them sleeping for the entire cruise).

 

Has anyone used anything else successfully? I am really worried about them being sick...I have had sea sickness before (in small boats on rough seas) and it is not fun! but sleeping thru your vacation doesn't sound like much fun, either!!!

[mcfam5]

Are your children typically prone to motion sickness?

 

In six cruises, my kids have only had one time where they were feeling ill. (It was the worst seas we have ever experienced, where the crew put out "the bags" and even the staff was getting ill.) We gave our kids partial dramamine pills and they did go to sleep to sleep off the sick feeling. We continued small doses of the dramamine for the last day and a half of that sailing, but it did not have an extreme drowsiness effect on them.

 

Hope this helps!

[6rugrats]

There is a less drowsy version of Dramamine. You can find it almost anywhere.

[cb at sea]

Unless they have motion sickness on land, I wouldn't worry about it...kids typically don't suffer like adults might!

[onthelake]

We like using ginger. My son, now 16, never has gotten seasick but started getting airsick when he was about 10. Here in Canada there is a product called Gravol and they have a chewable ginger version that has no other active ingredient. Most health food stores have ginger in some form since lots of folks use it for digestive reasons.

 

Advice from the crew is don't let your stomache get empty and eat apples - preferably green (like Granny Smith). And drink ginger ale.

[Mack2]

There is a less drowsy version of Dramamine. You can find it almost anywhere.

 

 

Dramamine Less Drowsy contains meclizine.. the active ingredient in Bonine.

Meclizine is in the same family as Original Dramamine (dimenhydrinate) and Benadryl (diphenhydramine), but it's NOT recommended for children under the age of 12 (mostly because nobody ever did studies on meclizine to ensure safety in children under 12... not that it doesn't work on them... and it's so old, nobody wants to spend the money on studies for it)

There's a Children's Bonine (cyclizine) that's recommended for kids 6 and up (again, the whole "nobody conducted a safety study for kids under 6)... but that knocks them out as much as Benadryl/Dramamine

 

Sorry for all the big words... I'm a pharmacist, and that's as straight forward as I know how to go with these drugs.

 

 

So, Original Dramamine:

http://www.dramamine.com/chewable-formula

To prevent or treat motion sickness, see below:

 

• adults and children 12 years and over 1 to 2 chewable tablets every 4-6 hours; not more than 8 tablets in 24 hours, or as directed by a doctor
  
• children 6 to under 12 years ½ to 1 chewable tablet every 6-8 hours; not more than 3 tablets in 24 hours, or as directed by a doctor
  
• children 2 to under 6 years ¼ to ½ chewable tablet every 6-8 hours; not more than 1-1/2 tablets in 24 hours, or as directed by a doctor

That's pretty much it, in a nutshell...

 

Of course, Ginger works... and you can find Ginger Altoids... which are curiously strong.

 

Also... Sea Band makes a ginger gum

 

 

Fortunately, unless you're in the middle of a tropical depression or a hurricane, the kids won't feel any motion sickness... these ships today are so big... but if you do, an hour or two of fatigue might help them sleep through a spot of rough weather... but none should be needed for the entire trip.

 

I posted the same info on this board here a while back.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=24097120&highlight=#post24097120

 

 

You can ask your doc about using Less Drowsy Dramamine/Bonine for it's off-label use in kids... It's also known as Antivert for prescription treatment of vertigo (dizziness), but there aren't any published guidelines for use in kids under 12.... So it is probably safer to go the Dramamine/Benadryl route in cases of acute (on the spot) motion sickness.

 

 

edit:

And Gravol is a trade name for dimenhydrinate... it's Canadian Dramamine!

[Keith1010]

When our daughter was 10 we did use Bonine for her. And she was prone to car sickness and that carried over to cruises.

 

The best advice I can give which we did at the time is to discuss the children's physician to get a recommendation which might be different for each or some of the children.

 

Keith

[crAZytwinmomma]

thank you for the specific replies - one of my girls seems sensitive to motion (twice from car and twice from flying) good to know a little background on the OTC medication and alternatives too.

[hello!]

Hi. :) We'll be cruising in just 3 short weeks! We have 3 children (10,7,& 5 y.o.) who will going with us. This is our first cruise (for all of us). We spoke to our pediatrician about what to give them should they get sea sick. He said either dramamine or benadryl (both of which, I'm pretty sure, will have them sleeping for the entire cruise).

 

Has anyone used anything else successfully? I am really worried about them being sick...I have had sea sickness before (in small boats on rough seas) and it is not fun! but sleeping thru your vacation doesn't sound like much fun, either!!!

I was worried my children would get sea sick as well. I also asked the pediatrician and she suggested Sea Bands, they are bracelets that press on a pressure point that eliminates motion sickness. You can buy them over the counter. I bought them but my kids never once complained about feeling ill.

[highbridge5]

If I had to do it over, I'd bring and try those motion sickness wrist band things. (And the drugs too...)

 

Everyone who was doing "well" on the rough seas claimed to be wearing the wrist band things.

 

When my kids started feeling poorly, I gave my 9 year old some non-drowzy dramamine (bonine; against the recommendation on the box...). I gave my 6 year old and 4 year old nothing. My 4 year old threw up and was absolutely fine after that- better even than any of the rest of us.

 

Also, I requested saltines at the MDR at every meal and kept a stash of them and bread and rolls and on rough seas, just made sure that the kids kept eating bread/crackers and drinking water. Having something in the stomach makes a big difference.

 

hb5