Motion sickness advice for 5 year old?

Hi All, We are taking our first WDW trip in March. My DD5 gets pretty terrible motion sickness. On our last vacation she threw up every day that we were in the car for more than an hour. Even driving around town, if we are in the car for more than 20 minutes she will complain of feeling sick and we end up with all of the windows down. It makes for some cold drives in the Michigan winter, but it is surprisingly effective.
Does anyone have any advice for kids and motion sickness at WDW? I want her to enjoy the rides, and I’m hoping to avoid knocking her out with a medication that makes her drowsy. Any advice is appreciated.

Have you tried SeaBands? My son is the same way and we’re a little worried for his first trip coming up, but these have been effective in the car so far. They look a lot like sweatbands but have a plastic piece on the inside to hit a pressure point. Maybe worth a shot.

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Dramamine makes a chewable version for kids. It is grape flavor and works well without drowsiness. My kids and I take it for long drives, amusement parks, and plane rides. The adult one makes me super drowsy, but the kid version is great.

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Do your kids take a full 25mg, or do you give them a half tablet?

The SeaBands worked for myself. I road Everest in the past and would get sick and it would be so bad that I would be out of commission for many hours. I used these when I took my future wife to Disney to propose and she wanted to ride Everest, so I had heard about these and I wore one on each wrist. They worked. I didn’t get sick and was only out of it for a much shorter time. They do work.

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Dramamine has a “naturals” product that is mostly ginger based I believe. My husband has vertigo issues and that product works well for him without drowsiness.

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Not to rain on the parade, but actually SeaBands do nothing. Many studies have shown the effect they have is purely placebo. So, in your case it wasn’t the SeaBands doing anything, but your mind thinking the SeaBands we’re doing something.

Dramamine is proven effective. Ginger sometimes helps, but I am not sure if it is just effective at reducing signs if nausea or preventing it. As such, Ginger based forms might not be effective for motion sickness in the same way normal Dramamine is.

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I should say that just because she gets sick in the car doesn’t mean the same will be true for rides. My daughter gets sick in the car, but has no trouble with rides. But it is best to be prepared.

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I’m pretty sure the effect has been placebo with my son, but it has still worked for him so still a success. As with anything, your individual mileage may vary.

I give them the dose on the kids package. I think it is one chewable pill for older kids and a half chewable for younger kids. Mine did well with one chewable for many years. Now that they are 12 and 15, they take 1.5 or 2 chewables depending on what we are doing.

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This gives me so much hope! My daughter is a major road-trip puker, I’m hoping that this won’t translate to the rides as well.

They may be placebo, but sea bands helped my son tremendously! He would get sick on a 20 minute school bus ride! I think you can get a kids non-drowsy dramamine as well.

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I would not give anything to a 5 year old with out consulting a doctor first. Also being a fisherman I have found SeaBands, do work they work by hitting pressure points so they need to be worn correctly. I have used this technique on others while fishing and it has worked many times.

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For what it’s worth, I got incredibly car sick when I was little (still do sometimes) but have never had a problem with rides. It might turn out to be a non-issue, fingers crossed.

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Another vote here for children’s Dramamine. All three of us (myself, DH, DD7) get sick on rides without Dramamine, but with it, we have a great time. Can’t control that annoying nausea without some chemical help!

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The problem with motion sickness is a disconnect between what you see, and what your inner ear perceives. Cars & especially boats bring this out- it’s better if people can look out to see the change in orientation. However, sometimes that’s not even enough, in which case things like Dramamine, scopalamine and ginger root can help.

This is why Mission Space is so notorious. What you feel is out of sync with what you see. For most other rides, kids’ ears and eyes will BOTH perceive the motion. So even if one’s kids are prone to car sickness (two out of three of mine were), they usually will do fine on rides- they’re brief and “make sense” to their brains. But there’s no harm in a little ginger ale, ginger root or Dramamine, either. And tell them not to close their eyes!

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Thank you for the replies! I am hopeful she will be just fine on the rides. I really want this trip to go well, so at this point, I think I’m going to buy the seabands (if they are only placebo, it’s fine with me as long she believes!) I will also get some ginger based motion sickness medication and the children’s dramamine. Hopefully I won’t need any or all of it, but it never hurts to be prepared, I did so much planning for this trip, it seems crazy to skimp on this. Thanks again for all of the suggestions!

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I have no experience with motion sickness and the rides

However…

I used to get sick everytime we drove my grandma’s car when I was younger. The smell of the air conditioner and the heater used to make me super sick. No one else in the car, just me. Does she do this in other cars?

And does she always have something in her hands in the car? If you don’t give her anything to occupy herself with and “force” her to look out the window does she still get sick? Sometimes it is just a big mind trick because your head is down and what you are looking at doesn’t move but your head says that you moving up and down and side to side. Then your head doesn’t know what to do so it makes you sick.

Hope this helps a little. Good luck and enjoy your trip!!!

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You can also request front seating on Safari and Rollercoasters.

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