Bonine dosage for kids??

[mshinrockford]

It seems that many of you have had excellent results using Bonine. My family and I will be going on our first-ever cruise next month (the May 11 Wonder sailing). I'm a little concerned about sea sickness since I have chronic trouble with fluid in one of my ears. As a result, I plan to take a Bonine each morning. My question is, have any of you used Bonine with your children? My kids are not extremely young (DS 12, DD 9), but they are quite slender and lightweight (62, 40 lbs). I've noticed that the Bonine tablets are scored to allow you to easily break them in half. I'll ask our pediatrician what he thinks, but I was wondering if any of you have had good results giving your children ½ of a Bonine tablet per day.

 

[Michelle]

Bonine is not recommended for children under age 12. Definitely check with your pediatrician.

Most kids do not get seasick at all so unless they are prone to motion sickness I would not recommend medicating them.

 

[DVC4US]

We used Bonine for both of our DD's (14 & 7). For the 7yo we gave her 1/2 a tablet every morning. She was seasick on the last cruise with Dramamine (sp?) but did not have any problem this time. DH is a Dr., but his specialty is orthopedics so he doesn't know squat about Peds. LOL He said it would not hurt her and she did not have any side effects. You may want to check with your peditrician just to be safe. The thing I didn't like about Dramamine was it makes you drowsy.
LeiLani

 

[djs113]

Please always check with the individual pediatrician that specifically knows your kids before ever medicating your kids.

Much better to be safe than sorry.

- David

 

[mshinrockford]

Thanks Michelle and LNaylor863. I agree that it's best to not give any meds to children if not needed. We'll just see how it goes with the kids. Hopefully we'll have smooth sailing and the kids won't even give it a second thought. Just to be sure, I'll talk with their pediatrician to see what he would recommend if they do experience some seasickness. I agree that Dramamine makes people too drowsy. I've heard that Dramamine II is essentially the same active ingredient as Bonine. Thanks again for the advice.

 

[tkd lisa]

I used the chewable kids dramamine for the kids the first day or so. They didn't have any problems, so I stopped giving it to them after the 2nd day. Didn't use it for them at all on our second cruise. My kids are also pretty small, so I was leery of giving them an adult med.

 

[thedisneymom]

My daughter was extremely thin- 13 yrs and only 65 pounds. Her pediatrician said not to use bonine only chewable kids Dramamine. We tested her before leaving and it didn't even make her drowsy.

 

[mshinrockford]

I recently purchased some chewable Bonine. I wonder if this is different from the regular Bonine (and more like the chewable Dramamine)?

 

[Jobro2]

We checked with our pediatrician before cruising and they also said do not give your children Bonine...they suggested the chewable Dramamine for kids.....like the previous poster, I gave it to everyone the morning we left for the cruise...my kids showed no side affects and had no problems with sea-sickness, so I didn't give them anymore...no problems on the cruise...I think it is best to check with your children's doctor and get their opinion...

 

[Dean]

Kids usually do finewith nothing but I definitely would not recommend Bonine for anyone less than 12 y/o. Dramamine tends to make smaller children less sleepy than older ones at the recommended dosage.

 

[tezb]

I don't know of any Bonine that is NOT chewable. The ones I've always purchased are chewable.

Also, don't assume that kids don't get seasick. Kids can get any kind of motion sickness and the ages where they are most prone are between 9 and 13...it peaks at its worst in this age group and then most will outgrow the tendency. Two of my kids never complained of motion sickness problems until these ages and then outgrew it by early teens. A pedi book I read once gave me this info. I always bring something as a precaution because each cruise is different, etc.

 

[Bev J]

You are better off to be prepared with whatever your DR recommends since you never know when a kid will get sea sick. Our son who had flown many times without any problem suddenly he was totally sick, he was 7 or 8 at the time. When we cruised he took bonnine without any problems at all. We did give our then 6 year old kids drammamine and he did fine.

Keep in mind that once you are sick taking the meds will not help for some time and that is time out of your vacation. So you are better off trying the meds for the first day or so and see how they react to the meds and the sea. Have a great trip.

 

[Jeanne434]

I have been medicating a son who gets severely motion sick with bonine since he was two years old. Now it does say on the box not to give to people under 12 but Dramamine did NOTHING cept knock the poor child out cold till he started throwing up. Pharmicist friend recpmmended trying bonine and it was an answer to our prayers! This was a kid who could not ride in car for five minutes- not exagerating! It changed our lives.
So- Docs sort of have to say that you shouldn't use it. They are practicing CYA medicine- and you can't blame them these days of multi million dollar malpractice suits. It has not been officially tested on children. BUT- the pill is scored to break in half easily (and then in half again if you have to)
I will be giving calibrated doses of Bonine to each of my children each day of our upcoming cruise. I will not be waiting for them to start feeling queasy- its too late then.
All of us- every morning- whether we need it at that moment or not. I thought I was okay on a past cruise but then in the evening the seas got rough and I felt awful for the last few hours of my cruise. Not again!!

 

[FredS]

I know what you mean, Jeanne. Kids most definitely can and do have problems with motion and sea sickness! I had problems with motion sickness as a child and even now I can recall how horrible it was to be so queasy and stuck in the car on a trip. And once on a boat trip --- eeew, don't want to think about it. That "please let me die" feeling........... I still get a little sick sometimes on winding roads.

I haven't asked my children's pediatrician about Bonine, but since our pharmacist has recommended it, unless I am informed of some serious side effects of which I am unaware, I plan to give it to my children on our upcoming cruise, as well as taking it myself! Doctors do have to practice, as you say, CYA medicine, so I expect an "it isn't recommended for children under 12" statement but no real opposition. If I had very small, thin children then I might have more hesitation, I guess.

I really, really don't want any of my family to experience seasickness!

 

[Verniebird]

Does anyone know anything about the seasickness ear patches? I called my sons pediatrician and she called in a prescription for the child version. I have not picked them up yet......also getting some for myself from my doctor. Anybody have any experience with the patch?

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by Verniebird
Does anyone know anything about the seasickness ear patches? I called my sons pediatrician and she called in a prescription for the child version. I have not picked them up yet......also getting some for myself from my doctor. Anybody have any experience with the patch?

I'm not aware of a kids version of the scopolomine patch. The only one I know about is the 1.5 mg version. There is definitely a significant side effect potential for scopolomine, as many as 20% of people have enough trouble that they have to discontinue it's usage. There are some potentially serious problems with it.

As it turns out most medications used in pediatrics are not technically approved for the age they are used simply because drug companies don't do the studies in many cases. At times enough other studies are done and enough experience gathered to feel comfortable with lower and lower ages. I'm not sure Bonine falls into any of these categories simply because it's not generally recommended for the ages less than 12. That doesn't mean it's not safe, simply that we don't know it is.

 

[Verniebird]

Thanks for the input Dean. I am going to try the patch myself this weekend and see if I have any side effects. Someone suggested cutting the patches in half if I just wanted a slight dosage. Also will speak to the pharmacist when I pick up the prescription. I will write back to let you know how I did with the experiment this weekend!

 

[mcnuss]

Someone suggested cutting the patches in half if I just wanted a slight dosage

I am not sure about doing that verniebird. I am worried that by cutting it, you will affect the time release aspect of the patch. It may cause the meds to leach out of it at the wrong pace, if you see what I mean. Please talk to your pharmacist about it. I used the patch 2x. The first time it worked like a charm, no problems. The second time, I was fine with the first patch, but when I changed it on board on day 3, it gave me dry eyes and I could not read (my greatest pleasure on a vacation) so I took it off.

Also, from my observation, we parents are much more likely to get seasick than our kids, and we worry about it more. In fact, I did not see or hear of one seasick kid on our cruise! That said, of course there are children who are prone to motion sickness so it is best to be prepared. I did give DD a 1/4 dose of the chewable Dram (it's the same formula as non-chewable, BTW) the first day or 2, and when she showed no signs of being affected, I stopped and she did not get queasy at all. What is interesting is that carsick and boatsick (eg: DD yakked all over the place on our whale watch on Cape Cod) do not always correlate to seasick. I get dreadfully carsick and I cannot stand to be on any boat or ship that "bobs", but a boat or ship moving quickly is no problem to me. It's such a weird thing, the brain!

 

[Bev J]

On our first cruise we all used the patch and most of us did ok, but some of the side effects are annoying. Dry mouth and eyes, bad for contact lens wearers. Some felt hyped up others sleepy.
One gal used hers for the whole 7 days and she was found to be addicted more or less to the patch. It took a month of cutting the patch smaller and smaller before she could stop using it.
We have not used the patch at all since, bonnine does it for us all now.
Alot of people use the patch without any problems, I would be very carefull about using one on a child though.

 

[FredS]

No medical studies, but every person that I have spoken to who used the patch had bothersome side effects, but no one who has used Bonine/Meclizine has mentioned any. (Only talking about a couple of dozen people, but still saw a pattern there.)

Several using Dramamine complained of excessive sleepiness, so I am not too crazy at the prospect of sleeping extra during our cruise. I guess it would be my second choice, after Bonine, but before the patch and before taking nothing!