Migraines and motion sickness?

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-02-2003
Migraines and motion sickness?
5
Tue, 07-11-2006 - 12:32pm
DD is doing day camp on the USS Intrepid permanently docked in the Hudson River this week and she had a great time except she got motion sickness. She has been getting migraines since she was 5 years old (she is currently 7) and yesterday I thought that initially she had a migraine because it was a long day and she probably didn't get enough to eat. She has seen a neurologist who said that when her blood sugar get too low a migraine will develop. So I always make sure she has plenty to eat, but after she threw up on the city bus, a packed full city bus, she told me that they had plenty of snacks and drinks for the kids so I think it was motion sickness from a permanently docked retired air craft carrier. Luckily when she threw up we were only one block from my sister so we could go there and get cleaned up. We then waited a couple of hours and she ate half of slice of pizza and then threw up in a taxi on the way home (the taxi driver kicked us out). This time we were not so lucky in getting cleaned up and were over mile from home. We finally got home and got cleaned up. Dd was complaining of a headache so she laid day and had some ginger ale and saltine crackers then went to sleep. I gave her a motion sickness pill this morning hoping that will help and gave her a big bottle of water. Does anyone have any suggestions on anything else I can do?
She does have an already scheduled doctors appointment for Monday the 17th so I am definately going to talk to the doctor about this.
 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 07-11-2006 - 3:24pm

Have you ever before had reason to believe she had motion sickness? Does she complain about queasiness in movement before? Is she particularly prone to vomitting? If not what I am thinking is that you have yourself a bit of a bug going on. I am not sure as I am not an expert on motion sickness by any stretch of the imagination but kind of sounds like it could be a bug if not.

She also could have gotten a migraine from just being over tired, in the heat, and on crowded buses and such all day. Perhaps low blood sugar isn't the only trigger for migrains, but if it is are you sure she actually ate the snacks that were provided? Excited overstimulating day and she may not have eaten as much as she should.

Also, are you talking about your AS type kid? I can't remember, I am sorry. If so if she is anything like my kids, communication is not a strong suit. They may have told me there were plenty of snacks but not thought to tell me that they didn't eat if I didn't ask the exact right question. For instance "Cait, did your teacher have snacks for you today? Yes but I am hungry! Cait did you EAT any snacks today? Yes. What did you eat? A cracker, they were mean. They didnt have anything I like and that is all I got!" If I didn't go past did you eat? I never would figure out that she had 1 cracker and was starving. This isn't an actual conversation but an example of exactly what millions I have had are like.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-02-2003
Wed, 07-12-2006 - 4:31pm
She is not my AS kid, but I am familiar with the example conversation you described; I have had millions of those conversations myself with Everett, my AS kid.
She did eat pretzels and cookies plus yesterday I confirmed with the camp director. She is like a typical girl and will describe her day to me minute by minute in the exact order they did everything when I ask "How was your day?". It is sooooo much easier with her. She was complaining of a migraine like headache from the second I picked her up from camp. As soon as she threw up the first time she started feeling better. She was fine yesterday morning. I think that it is mind over matter in this situation. I was on the ship today and the ship doesn't move at all. I did give her a motion sickness pill yesterday and today. She has been know to get car sick on even small car trips. She hasn't gotten car sick in a long time though. The reason why the doctor think low blood sugar brings on her migraines is because they started when she was going through a faze of not eating enough and when she would eat they would go away. Once she understood this she learned what she felt like when one was coming on and would eat something like pretzels or bread and the headache would go away.
This past April we switched doctors the new doctor ran a routine blood work on the kids. I asked the nurse a few days after the blood work was done about the results and she said that everything came back normal. However, I just found out last week that something came back abnormal on Anita. She is going to the doctor on Monday for her follow-up. I have tried getting a hold of the doctor to find out what was abnormal but I am not urgent and have an appointment so he hasn't returned my call. I did speak with him however he was with an urgent patient at the time and couldn't speak with me. I spoke with another nurse who took a message but never heard back. The guy is nice and kids love him but three months after an abnormal test and I am just finding out isn't good. At that appointment I will bring up what happened on Monday.
 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-03-2006
Thu, 07-13-2006 - 1:01pm

I think it's pretty hard to pin down what triggers migraines in young kids...my DD (2 years old) has been having migraines since she was an infant.

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Registered: 03-27-2003
Thu, 07-13-2006 - 9:19pm

I don't know if I'll be of much help.....

I've had motion sickness all my life. The motion sickness pill actually makes the nausea worse for me. I went on a whale watch in high school, threw up the dramamine and didn't get to see much of a whale ( I ventured a peak out the window of where I was laying down and did get to see a tail.)

I also get mother headaches after driving for a long time. Then that makes me nauseous! The only thing that helps for me is to either sleep or pretend I'm asleep! LOL I haven't figured out anything else. It's tough when we fly because I have to pretty much shut down to make it through the flight and that's hard to do with kids. I'd love to fly somewhere far away like Hawaii or Europe but the idea of being that long on a plane freaks me out!

I hope the Dr has something that will help!

Chrystee

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Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 07-14-2006 - 3:26pm

just my two pennies......I'm inclined to believe that the vomiting/nausea are directly related to the headache. I suffer from migraines. I remember having my 1st migraine at the age of 9. I still get them to this day. I get nauseated from the pain of the migraine......I will vomit as well (although not with every migraine). I have so many triggers that I finally stopped trying to prevent the migraines and just focus on finding something that gets rid of the pain. I now take 100 mg Imitrex......works for me. some of my triggers were: change in humidity, low blood sugar, stress, forgetting to keep myself hydrated, too much caffiene or sugar, eatting (in excess) foods with a lot of salt - processed foods, being in directly sunlight too long without a hat......you name it, I'd get a headache.

I guess I would make sure she has a decent breakfast, plenty of water throughout the day and healthy snacks to keep her blood sugar at a good level......again, just my $0.02

Hope she feels better,
Christie