motion sickness

Sorry, there doesn’t seem to be a connection of ADHD with motion sickness in my family. Neither of my sons (one with, one without ADHD) get car sick!

Both my sons, ADD and NON LD suffers from motion sickness too. I also suffer from motion sickness.

My Non Ld son has it the worst, so the Neurologist put him on Periactin and he doesn’t have motion sickness when he is on it. Neuro suspected he had migraines as well. So the Periactin works well for both.
If he forgets to take it (he takes 1/2 a pill at night), he will get motion sickness on the way to school on the school bus. It is only a 15 min ride for him.

As for the connection with ADD/LD, my ADDer only suffers from it on occassions not frequently.

We did a road trip to Washington a couple of years ago, 6 hour car ride, and their peds gave them a patch that lasts for like 3 days. They even did the simulator at the Smithsonian, and did not feel nauseous at all. I thought both kids would be really sick from that. But they were fine, you should have seen the faces of the other kids when they got out of the simulator, teenagers etc. were green.

Hi Jen,

As you know, my daughter has never been diagnosed with ADHD, but she has suffered from motion sickness since she was a baby. I’ll never forget the first time it happened. She was 11 months old, I was in a cab in New York City, and she threw up all over me and the back seat of the cab! Disgusting! I was so-o-o embarrassed! :oops: I cleaned it up as best I could, and gave the cab driver a HUGE tip! But he was clearly PO’d. That was way long before I (and the rest of the world) carried a cellphone with me, so he had to put up with us until we reached my ex-husband’s place of business (about a 20-minute drive further), where we got out, and I handed her over to him to clean myself up.

Yes, I make sure I have a bucket in any vehicle we’re traveling in, if it’s a trip longer than a few blocks, even now. I know from experience it’s better to be safe than sorry! She still gets car sick if it’s a long trip, but not very often anymore. She says it’s the smell of the car, plus the motion that gets her sick. And I KNOW the look she gets on her face right before she’s going to be sick.

We tried everything when she was little, and we noticed that putting her in the front seat helped, telling her to look out the window, opening all the windows, and when all else fails, just pull over to the side of the road, and get out with her and the bucket. Usually after that, she’s fine, like nothing ever happened.

I remember a time ago someone had posted about their child completing a program and the motion sickness stopped. I think it was Interactive Metronome. I;m not positive though. If someone knows for sure, please post and enlighten us.

Its a common trait for kids with some types of LD NOT to get dizzy. Its a vestibular thing-that part of the system just hasnt developed. My son could spin and spin on a toy or swing and not be phased.

Supposedly, once this improves, learning can also improve. I THINK I read this in a book about sensory integration disorder

There is also a theory out there related to babies who are breech being more likely to have this type of problem. The idea is that if the system had developed properly at the appropriate time, the baby would have turned into the head down position

Interesting, and my LD vestibular issue kiddo was breech!

My daughter was breech too. “Footling” breech, one foot up and one foot down.

It’s interesting to think if or how this is all related. I do believe that everything is somehow interrelated.

The first time my daughter got car sick she was a baby not even walking yet. She was not breech but did have some birth difficulties. She was in distress so she was emergency C. She had merconium in the fluid, cord around her neck, transitional breathing difficulty and low blood sugar which had her body temp down in the 80’s. The dr has said she does believe this could be a contributing factor to the problems she has now. Actually, both my kids had similar birth circumstances.

I don’t know if it’s inter-related, but it seems like it has to be somehow.

My daughter (yikes, I almost typed her first name… and I’m thinking it’s a good idea to remain anonymous on this board, yes?) didn’t walk until she was 14 months old— but hey, she didn’t have to, she was SO spoiled, by everybody, as the first female grandaughter. We all carried her around. And she was only 11 months old at the time of the taxi-cab incident.

It was a difficult pregnancy, to say the very least. When I was 6 months pregnant, I was admitted to the hospital for about 2 weeks for premature labor. Then, at week 30 of my pregnancy, I was admitted again, because of her footling breech position (CANNOT be delivered vaginally), and because the amniotic fluid was diminishing. So, I was awakened every morning at 7am, to have an ultrasound, and then be on the fetal monitor for two hours, and then the same was repeated around 4pm, every single day! One day, to my humiliation, a group of med students were invited in “to observe” the ultrasound, because I was such an “interesting” case!

One morning, my doc didn’t like the look of the printout of the fetal monitor, said it was a little “flat”, so they scheduled a C-Section for that afternoon. My ex-husband, prince that he was, had to be paged to come for her birth. Seems he was fishing in Central Park, and we had to wait for him to arrive to start the operation.

But, I digress, and I’m sure that’s more information than you ever wanted to read! Anyway, she was born 5 weeks early, but weighed 6 pounds one ounce, and so wasn’t a premie.

It was my son that had a reduction in motion sickness following vision therapy.

DS suffered from car sickness since he was 18 months old. We had to give him dramamine for even the shortest car trips! He never seemed to have a problem on roller coasters or similar rides however.

He started VT last spring and the one thing I can say about it is that mid way through last summer he dramatically stopped feeling car sick. We still use sea bands for long trips (psychological comfort I think) . We recently moved out of New York city into the suburbs so he’s in a car much much more. Ocassionally on a long windy road he’ll complain, but its so much less severe!!

He also has a history of mild vestibular / motor planning issues. And he’s dyslexic. (maybe ADD inattentive, but not hyper.) I definitely think there is a connection.

Oh and PS, he wasn’t breech but there were complications following his birth which I think are at the root of all of his issues. But that’s another topic.

Karen, I am curious to see if there are any changes when we do extensive traveling this summer. Right now it’s hard to tell just running around town. My daughter is currently do VT and since the summer has had her diagnoses of ad/hd inattentive.