Best Advice to Prevent Motion Sickness?

Seltzer76

Smiling's my Favorite!
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Hi - I will be cruising in Bahamas in November with someone who is quite prone to motion sickness. We already booked a low deck (6) mid-ship. What are your "go-to" ways to prevent motion sickness? Medications, foods, wristbands, etc...open to any and all suggestions. Thank you!
 
Hi - I will be cruising in Bahamas in November with someone who is quite prone to motion sickness. We already booked a low deck (6) mid-ship. What are your "go-to" ways to prevent motion sickness? Medications, foods, wristbands, etc...open to any and all suggestions. Thank you!
Best advice - talk to your doctor. There are so many options that, medically, your doctor would be the best source for sorting them out.
 
Do you happen to have an ocean view or a balcony? While the movement may be more higher up (if you don't have a balcony) looking out onto a fixed point on the horizon will help steady balance and in turn the queasiness.

Of course this won't help all the time as you won't want to spend your whole cruise staring off into the distance.

Some people swear by the seabands.

While I don't wholly disagree with the pp, your Dr. likely won't advise many of the homeopathic remedies.

There are a few medications with meclizine and Dimenhydrinate being over the counter and Scopolamine (the seasick patch) being prescription. These tend to have varying degrees of side effects (especially scopolamine).

I would get some Meclizine (causes less drowsiness) and maybe see Dr. For an Rx if very prone. I would also have some other remedies like the sea-bands, ginger gum or candies, etc. in case of heavy effects from the medication.
 
Every time I write this, I get flamed hard, but it helped me tremendously, so here goes:

The best way to deal with motion sickness is to realize that it's not real. It's all in your head.

Before I went on a cruise many years ago, I visited my doctor because I, too, was worried about motion sickness, having experienced it myself during a boat ride. My doctor's advice? Try some of those magnet wristbands; they'll help.

This puzzled me greatly. My doctor was telling me to use magnets? This sounded a lot like a placebo to me. I did some extensive googling, and sure enough: most motion sickness is self-inflicted, a result of your brain's inability to reconcile sight with motion.

Some easy things to do:

At the beginning of the cruise, stand on deck in the open air and scan the horizon. See and feel how the ship is moving. Get your brain used to the sense of motion despite the apparent immobility of much of the surroundings.

Avoid other people who are sick. If you see someone else being queasy, then *you* can become queasy. It's a weird psychological thing but it's absolutely true.

Antihistamines help, although they have their own side effects like drowsiness.

Speaking for myself, once I learned it was all in my head, I got over it. Really. I forced my brain to realize that I was in a moving ship and that everything was fine. Once I did that, I didn't get nauseated.

Others will have different experiences, I'm sure. :)
 

Others will have different experiences, I'm sure.
Definitely. When I returned to the United States via ship after being born in Europe (I was 1 year old), I was "sick as a dog" the entire trip. That's according to my mother, of course, as I don't recall it. I seriously doubt that as a 1 year old it was "all in my head".

That being said, I do agree that mental preparedness is good. As a young child my motion sickness switched to "land sickness". Every time we flew anywhere, I was fine while the plane was in motion, but, once we landed, I got sick. Now, that could be release of stress over the flying, who knows?

As an adult, I've conquered the nausea that accompanies any motion sickness. In fact, I love cruising, with no ill effects. Maybe it's because, as an adult, I've learned to recognize the symptoms and can mentally control them more - I can't say.

But, to basically say "it's all in your head" just isn't fair. There are those who never are able to "get over" motion sickness.
 
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There is some mental aspect of it, to be sure, and my soon-to-be cruise buddy can manage plane trips by distracting himself during turbulence with music, ipad, etc.....that works about 90% of the time. But then there is that 10%...will definitely be getting a dr.'s advice before the trip, just curious to hear other folks experiences. I have only been on one cruise, I am not prone to motion sickness, took nothing and wasn't worried about it, though did feel slightly queasy when there was a storm nearby.
 
What worked for me, that may not work for others, via doctors recommendation, I took over the counter medication (Bonine - less drowsy) before I left. And continue to take them (morning/late afternoon). He recommended I take them about 36 hours before the ship left, thus giving my system time to get used to them. It worked. I have taken 3 cruises and I felt the best on this last one. Only felt slightly ill once, for maybe an hour.
 
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I was worried about motion sickness and talked to a friend who cruises a lot. One of her children is very prone to motion sickness and her best advice was green apples. All the cruise lines have them on the buffets. So, when we boarded the ship and grabbed lunch from Cabanas, I grabbed three green apples and brought them to the stateroom with me. As soon as the ship was pulling away from the dock, I started feeling woozy. I ate one of the apples and I was fine after. The pectin and the natural sugar settle the stomach.
 
Back in the day, we gave the new Cadets nothing more the saltine crackers, it worked more then you would think. The tummy juices moving around in a person, is a big part of motion sickness. The crackers dry up the tummy and Vala!.........you feel better!


AKK
 
I took over the counter medication (Bonine - less drowsy) before I left. And continue to take them (morning/late afternoon). He recommended a take them about 36 hours before the ship left, thus giving my system time to get used to them.

Everyone will be affected to differing degrees if at all and have solutions that work for them specifically. Little bothers me but for the DW, taking Bonine prior to sailing and the day after returning (as sea legs have followed her prior) definitely helped. Green apples and some ginger ale (brought on-board) for the worst times helped out as well.
 
I get severe motion sickness even in cars, and so I asked my doctor for a patch prescription before we left. It was great. On my first cruise I was slightly queasy the first night going through the Florida Strait and no problems otherwise. The second cruise I felt fine the whole time. My patch came off while we were swimming on Cozumel about 2/3 through the cruise and I decided to see if I could do without it and I was ok!
 
Also they will bring you ginger ale in the dining room if you ask and it does help.
 
I've had great luck with the prescription patch. I am prone to motion sickness and can't even ride as a passenger in a car without becoming sick. Because of how bad mine has been, I was pretty skeptical about the patch as nothing else worked for me. Much to my surprise, I noticed on the way to Port Canaveral that I didn't get sick even though I was a passenger in a car for the first time in years. The only side effect I had was the dry mouth but even that was hit or miss. It's different for everyone though, so your friend should definitely consult with her doctor. Mine wouldn't prescribe the patch until all other OTC and home-based remedies failed.

While I agree that it may get worse for some people if they are expecting it or thinking about it, I don't agree that it's all in everyone's head. My husband had ear surgery 8 years ago and was never prone to motion sickness prior to that. It's not something he expected or was concerned about, the doctors never even mentioned it could be a possible complication. It took a years worth of therapy and exercises to try and balance him out again and he can finally be out on open water but does need the patch if the seas are even a little rough. He doesn't like to use it, he doesn't even like taking tylenol so relying on a prescription drug is not something he is very comfortable with, but with rough seas, it's either that or spend a large part of the cruise hanging over the balcony railing.
 
Back in the day, we gave the new Cadets nothing more the saltine crackers, it worked more then you would think. The tummy juices moving around in a person, is a big part of motion sickness. The crackers dry up the tummy and Vala!.........you feel better!


AKK

I love the technical term... :rotfl2:

I can actually see my daughter saying "Daddy my tummy hurts, it must be the tummy juices being all mixed up..."

My response, "let me get the saltines..."
 
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My ex boyfriend just sipped on ginger ale and I had some ginger candies that he sucked on, and we he was fine. Getting out on the deck and looking at the horizon helps (works for me on little fishing excursion boats - they get tossed around a bit, which makes me super queasy!). I know this might sound odd, but nibbling on cheese along with plain crackers helps settle my stomach as well.

I've never had a problem with motion sickness on the cruise ships (probably due to the size - you really can't feel it moving most of the time), but I feel dizzy and lightheaded sometimes for a few hours after debarkation - on one trip it took me nearly a week to get my 'land legs' back before I felt right, but I'm sure that had at least something to do with the fact that I REALLY didn't want to go home :rotfl2:
 
Best advice - talk to your doctor. There are so many options that, medically, your doctor would be the best source for sorting them out.


And your pharmacist about over the counter. I took 2scrips with me: the patch for motion sickness and Zofran for nausea. I did not need either, but was glad to have them in case. I also used Bonine 1x per day -taken at night before bed to avoid drowsiness. Many mention ginger capsules or ginger candy or ginger ale. I've seen MotionEase mentioned - it is an herbal preparation easily available at many stores. I've seen some mention bring a small personal/portable fan as a constant cool breeze can really help.

Overall, speak to Dr, pharmacist about scrips -the patch has some side effects to be aware of before using. Any over the counter items should be tried out in advance of the trip to make sure it works and doesn't cause problems.
 
I did a lot of research on this before our 2014 cruise and at the end of the day, it was ginger pills. Take them a couple of hours before you board and then pop a couple as necessary and then once a day....I never had an issue (with the exception of the first time I went into a room without a view....right when we got on board, and I definitely felt "off" but nothing that lasted.
 
For me, wearing my seabands and drinking gingerale helped immensely. I'm going to order Bonine from Amazon on our next cruise (we don't have it in Canada, at least not over the counter) because we are leaving through the Gulf and I've heard that can be quite rough.
 

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