Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Sea sickness in infants?

gagirl2006

By gagirl2006,
in Family Cruises

Recommended Posts

gagirl2006

gagirl2006

Posted
Posted

Hi!

 

I'm due any day now with our first child and I'm already drooling for a cruise next year in the Spring or Fall. Someone asked me about sea sickness though and I'd never thought about it! Any experience with that or do you have other things I might not have thought of?

 

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tania7424

tania7424

Posted
Posted

No experience, yet. But I did ask our pediatrician about it and she said that babies are actually much more resilient than adults when it comes to stuff like this. I was looking for a recommendation for an anti-nauseant for DS because we leave on Sunday. I didn't get one. Same with the pharmacist. He said if we were worried at all, we'd be better off with a SeaBand for DS.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
crusinmama06

crusinmama06

Posted
Posted

Infants have little or no issues with sea sickness. Even young children don't get it very often.

 

Think about how little kids love things like merry go rounds or spinning round and round in circles makes them giggles, but would make US green. ;)

 

I have never had any issues with the kids getting sick. And we have only had one child in our group feel a "little tummy sick" on one of our cruises and he was 8 and pretty prone to motion sickness.

 

I can tell you that the medicine in motion sickness meds are an anti-histamine. So if worse came to absolute worse, you can ask your ped about the possibility of using children's benedryl just to get the child through it. But you'll have to see what the weight is of your child before you figure out if it's safe to give them a SMALL dose of benedryl.

 

But honestly, I am betting you won't have a problem. The baby is floating around in water right now. ;) I find that when my kids were infants, they slept ALOT better on ships because of the rocking motion, very soothing to them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
crusinmama06

crusinmama06

Posted
Posted
It's my theory that kids don't get seasick because they don't know they're supposed to get seasick. Seasickness seems to have at least some psychological component. I used to get seasick but I've mastered it for a long time.

 

You know there may be some truth to this. :) I *used* to get VERY sea sick. I couldn't go on glass bottom boat tours because standing up on a boat would make me very ill.

 

I cruised more and more. And little by little I have noticed that I don't get sea sick anymore. My hubby mentioned it on our last cruise. I was standing on the rocking boat that was taking us out to Blackbeards in Bahamas. The waves were high from the converging hurricanes. But I felt nothing. All I was concerned with was getting the right shot with my camera. ;)

 

And on the ship, I noticed a line of people buying dramamine in the store. One guy was complained to me that the waves were high...hmmm I hadn't noticed.

 

So maybe you're right, I always thought it was just biological but maybe it is possible to get over.

 

Interesting thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Tika

Tika

Posted
Posted
No experience, yet. But I did ask our pediatrician about it and she said that babies are actually much more resilient than adults when it comes to stuff like this. I was looking for a recommendation for an anti-nauseant for DS because we leave on Sunday. I didn't get one. Same with the pharmacist. He said if we were worried at all, we'd be better off with a SeaBand for DS.

 

WE have used sea bands and they have really worked for my DH who was very prone to any kind of motion sickness. I have him start wearing them the week before we cruise and throughout the cruise until he feels comfortable to take them off. We have been in super rough seas where the Captain actually shut down all the ship's elevators and restricted all senior pax to stay in their staterooms.

Do they make sea bands for young children? I wonder if the adult one size only would be too big for our 2 1/2 yo and 5 yo if we need to use them because of rough seas etc. in our upcoming family cruise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mcfam5

mcfam5

Posted
Posted

Do they make sea bands for young children? I wonder if the adult one size only would be too big for our 2 1/2 yo and 5 yo if we need to use them because of rough seas etc. in our upcoming family cruise.

 

 

It appears they are available for children.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Sea-Band-Sea-Band-Child-Wrist/dp/B0001AFM0C

 

Hope this helps!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Julienatul

Julienatul

Posted
Posted

Infants who do not walk do not get seasickness. It is also very, very rare in young children as well. I think your child will be fine. I would not medicate unless it was absolutely necessary. There are many risks to giving young infants benadryl and it is very, very easy to overdose. We have had to admit infants in my practice to the hospital for overdoses of cold medicine and benadryl it can cause increased heart rate, blood pressure and decreased respirations. With the medical staff on cruises not well-trained in pediatrics, I would be more nervous about the medication than I would the seasickness. My DD has been on 6 cruises starting at 7months and she has never been seasick until the last one at age 3 (hurricaine gustov) so you can imagine the rocking. Even then, we just went to the cabin and layed down and she was absolutely fine, never vomited again except the one time.

 

Have a great cruise! I am expecting #2 in Dec and cant wait until next summer when we can cruise again too.

 

Here is a quote from a medical journal article on the subject

"Infants and very young children are immune to motion sickness. However they have no difficulty vomiting. Motion sickness susceptibility begins from perhaps around 6 to 7 years of age (Reason and Brand, 1975) and peaking around 9 to 10 years (Turner and Griffin, 1999). The reasons for this are uncertain. Puberty begins later (around 10–12 years) than the age 6–7 years for onset of motion sickness susceptibility."

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kebhouse

kebhouse

Posted
Posted

I asked my daughter's ped about this last week. She'll be 9 months on our cruise. She said not to worry that it is very unlikely that she'll get seasick. She said don't give her anything for it and if she vomits a lot to give her some pedialyte. That's it. She said seabands wouldn't do any good on someone that young.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
gagirl2006

gagirl2006

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks to everyone for your replies! It is funny because I had forgotten all about posting the question and tonight I was looking for the answer again when I found this! I actually had my little boy 6 weeks ago on Sept. 25th so he's here now and we're still ready to plan a cruise!

 

Thanks again!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
crusinmama06

crusinmama06

Posted
Posted
Thanks to everyone for your replies! It is funny because I had forgotten all about posting the question and tonight I was looking for the answer again when I found this! I actually had my little boy 6 weeks ago on Sept. 25th so he's here now and we're still ready to plan a cruise!

 

Thanks again!

 

Wooohoooo!!!! Welcome to the cruising world baby boy! :D

 

Congrats gagirl! :D

 

So now, let's get down to business...lol....Cunard, Disney and now RCCL Oasis all have a baby nursery. :D:D Happy planning!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gagirl2006

gagirl2006

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Wooohoooo!!!! Welcome to the cruising world baby boy! :D

 

Congrats gagirl! :D

 

So now, let's get down to business...lol....Cunard, Disney and now RCCL Oasis all have a baby nursery. :D:D Happy planning!

Thanks! People already think we're crazy for wanting to cruise with him!

 

We live in GA so we want to leave from Florida or Mobile I think so we're looking at Carnival since it is more in our price range anyway. I saw that they just offer services for infants after 10 pm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bluegirl

Bluegirl

Posted
Posted
Both of my kids get horribly car sick but have never gotten sea sick. Go figure!

 

Same here! My two eternally car-sick kids had no problems whatsoever. And I also get really motion sick (even just in a rocking chair or on a swing) but was fine at sea when it got a bit choppy and all the other adults in my group were putting on their patches.

 

Our ped just suggested children's benadryl, but we never had to use it on a ship.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bigerr19

Bigerr19

Posted
Posted

I'd always assumed infants couldn't get seasick because their equilibrium could not be upset. They don't have any balance. I'm no doctor, but that's the story I gave my wife when she asked this question before taking our son on his first cruise :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...