Would you ever drive..

[PollyannaMom]

DS takes Dramamine on long trips - 1/2 hour before we leave if possible! It does tend to make him sleepy (but thats not exactly bad on a long trip, in my opinion.)

If he's feeling car sick on shorter trips, he uses the Sea Bands somebody else mentioned. - We got them right at our local drug store, and you don't have to put them on early, so I just carry them in my purse. (Sometimes he's fine on shorter trips, but certain weather seems to make him more likely to feel carsick.)

I was prone to it as a kid, too, and we still made a 6-hour drive every summer to visit relatives. (Of course, back then, it wasn't a big deal for a kid to sit in the front seat, and that helped a lot!) I do better now, but I still can't read in the car.

 

[Mama Steph]

We drive from MI to FL once or twice a year. I usually do it on my own with all 5 kids. My 7 year old always gets carsick and the 5 and 9 yo do sometimes. I have started using the chewable dramamine for all of them and it works great! I now keep it in the car as sometimes she gets sick on shorter trips as well. She lets me know as soon as she starts to feel yucky and we toss her a pill.

 

[laceemouse]

No.

Have you ever been car sick? It sucks. Its a miserable feeling.

So what if the dramamine doesnt work? Then your child is looking at hours of miserable-ness.

I dont know... I wouldnt do it.

I have had severe motion sickness all of my life, sitting in the front seat and "natural remedies" do NOTHING for me. If I drive I don't get sick, but I don't want to drive every minute of every trip, and I know your son can't drive

I use dramamine, the regular kind. The non-drowsy dramamine is the same drug as Bonine and does NOT work for me.
Dramamine is one to two pills every 4 to 6 hours. I HAVE to take two pills every 4 hours the entire drive. It works great, I have to sleep, but it WORKS GREAT.

If you are worried that it will not work try a shorter drive, say an hour or two, first. Just let the kid sleep.

Motion sickness is awful! If you don't have it you don't know how bad it is. Also, people think if you have it you just barf and then feel all better.....WRONG!!! I have felt sick for DAYS after having motion sickness. Dramamine does work after the fact too, so if he ever feels sick after a drive you can give it to him and let him sleep it off.

If it weren't for dramamine I would be house bound. I can not stand cars, trains, planes....even swinging on a swing makes me sick

 

[laceemouse]

Dramamine worked for taking away DD's motion sickness but the other side effects was worse than the motion sickness for all of us. Turned her into another person who no one could get along with even herself lol Band director even told us he'd rather have DD puke all over the school bus than have the side effects of dramamine.

Wow, sounds like she was trying to fight it and stay awake!
There is no worse feeling than motion sickness, I can't imagine being sick (particularly on a bus) being better?

 

[judy-n]

When my daughter was younger we traded in our compact SUV for a full sized luxury van, and riding in the van made her so sick that we were forced to trade it in after only a week or two and go back to an SUV.

We took her to the doctor and he concluded it must be the van because she was perfectly healthy until she got in that huge van. She is a teenager now, but still refuses to ride in a van and when she flies she refuses to sit at the window seat because it makes her sick.

Thing is that we bought the van so that we would have more room on long distance travels to include WDW and Disneyland (we live in central TX, halfway between both parks) since flying these days is such a hassle, not to mention the cost.

It may be the spaciousness of your vehicle that is messing with your daughter’s equilibrium, not the ride itself.

 

[Tinkerbelle32]

I wouldn't do it either. I would hate for your daughter to be sick/miserable for that long of a drive!

 

[dana1003]

the first time we flew to disney from nj my girls got airsick and threw up, coming home i called the dr from the airport and he told me to give the regular dramamnine NOT the non drowsy kind. we gave it according to their weight and they did wonderfully. so every time we fly now we give it to them. i have to take it also so i guess its heredity. theyll do fine.

 

[labdogs42]

My DS occasionally gets carsick. Now I let him drink all the ginger ale he wants when we go on long car rides and that seems to do the trick. Ginger is very calming for the tummy and he loves the fact that he gets to drink soda! I think the combo of the actual ginger and the fact that it kind of takes his mind off the possibility of getting sick does the trick.

 

[mdetloff]

We live in MI also. We are going on our 3rd trip in late Aug/Sept. We have not drove yet! I have three kids and would go crazy with them. We have always found great deals out of DTW to MCO on flights. Watch NWA and Airtan. We are flying out with Airtran and 7 tickets were $974 RT with taxes. I keep checking and have seen NWA as low as $858 for 7 tickets. Yes, I am OCD and keep checking to make sure we have the best deal. Sign up for Spirit Airs email and watch their sales. I was able to find our neighbors a deal on Spirit and he got 3 RT tickets and paid for his baggage fees online and only paid $313!

 

[blondietink]

I used to get car sick within 20 minutes on any car trip when I was a kid. It was awful. Then I figured out what could do to stop it. I made sure I ate a good breakfast with no milk products before the car trip. Then I made sure that I had some dry snacks like crackers or chips in the car. My problem was an empty stomach. I also learned not to read or do anything in the car that required my eyes to be off the road or outside scenery. I love to read so this was torture. We usually played the license plate game or name the road sign game. Good luck! It is much cheaper to drive a family to Florida than fly.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I'm going to second the ginger cure. My DH goes out deep sea fishing sometimes and he used to vomit at least two or three times everytime he went out.

Now he takes ginger capsules starting the night before and drinks plenty of ginger ale and eats ginger candies (World Market and whole foods have these - but they're spicy - the capsules have no taste, so maybe stick to those with a little one). He doesn't get sick AT ALL anymore.

When my stomach is upset, I'll eat some ginger candy and I'm fine, generally.

Works for us, it's easy and has no side effects!

 

[asoko]

We live in MI also. We are going on our 3rd trip in late Aug/Sept. We have not drove yet! I have three kids and would go crazy with them. We have always found great deals out of DTW to MCO on flights. Watch NWA and Airtan. We are flying out with Airtran and 7 tickets were $974 RT with taxes. I keep checking and have seen NWA as low as $858 for 7 tickets. Yes, I am OCD and keep checking to make sure we have the best deal. Sign up for Spirit Airs email and watch their sales. I was able to find our neighbors a deal on Spirit and he got 3 RT tickets and paid for his baggage fees online and only paid $313!

OP here

I watch them all the time too. Last time we flew I got flights for me and the 2 kids round trip for under $300 total. The big issue is that we are going with in-laws so I don't have a choice of the time. They are going at Thanksgiving and I can't find a great price.

BTW that side is also where she gets the car sickness from.

I would hate to not be able to go because I can't figure out a way to afford it, but most importantly I don't want her to be miserable. She is a trooper when we go for rides. She'll stick her pook bucket (that's what she calls it) under her face and just ride.

So if anyone is traveling at that time and sees a great rate, please post it.

 

[tzolkin]

In the past year we've made two 23 hour (one way) trips to Disney with two children who are basically home-bound due to motion sickness. I also have motion sickness. The first trip we felt that we had to drive because 5 plane tickets were expensive and we were also going to a wedding for a friend and visiting family. We were pleasantly surprised at how well it actually went that we drove to Disney again this May.

My middle and youngest child have each had severe motion sickness from 6-8 months. They're now 3 and 5. They will get sick within the first 5 minutes of being in the car. I'm a SAHM and usually don't leave the house with them. I do my shopping, etc after DH is home. Once a week, the whole family goes out. That's about all they can take. For the past 5 years we have not been able to get into a vehicle without each of their personal puke buckets, a stash of plastic bags, paper towels, wipes, and a change of clothes. The older one was not able to go to pre-K this year, and we're still debating how to get her to/from school this fall.

The regular dramamine works only because they pass out. They have to take it long enough before the trip that they fall asleep within the first 5 minutes, otherwise they get sick. If/when they wake up, they get sick. Of course, this only works if the car trip is long enough that they can sleep, but if it's only an hour or two they're still drowsy and can't enjoy themselves when we get there. I gave them 1/2 a tablet last May when we left for Disney, but they refused to take any for the rest of the trip or since.

The non-drowsy dramamine and Bonnie (even the Bonnie for kids) are not recommended for younger children.

Amazingly, on the main drive of the trip neither one of them vomited. We drive throught the night so they are asleep for half of the trip, but they did well on the main highways. They did get sick while we were there--driving to the grocery store and from Pop to CSR-- and the last half hour of our trip home (we live on hilly, windy roads).

 

[toledo13]

My parents used to give me Dramamine. It would KNOCK ME OUT, but I didn't get carsick. NOW, I swear by BONINE!! And they have a kid's Bonine which I think is a lower dosage. I will never ever take Dramamine again- Bonine all the way!!!