Altitude Sickness

My son (13)suffers with altitude sickness when we first arrive at the resort, he is sick and has headaches for the first day or so. :cry:
We have driven and stopped over night near by, made sure he drinks plenty of water, and keeps quite, all to no avail. We are flying this year again.
Any tips to prevent this.

Leave him behind, or go to Niederau )

Just kidding.
I believe there is no real cure. You've tried the right things, trying to acclimatise and plenty of water. Have a read of this:

http://www.traveldoctor.co.uk/altitude.htm

Hi Snowy,

Sorry to hear about your sons AS , this can be in two forms Pulmonary or Cerebral oedema ( not sure if thats spelt correctly).....

Pulmonary I believe is when the lungs start to fill with fluid, and Cerebral is when the brain starts to swell due to lack of oxygen ( again I think these are the correct medical symptoms from memory ).

If anyone starts to get either of these one of the best things to do is to lose altitude , even a drop of 500m can help reduce the affects, and then just rest for a day or so, while getting plenty of fluids.

In the mountians ( more so when skiing )one of the main health effects is a lack of fluid intake, as with dry mountain air , and the physical excertion the body can lose a two or three pints worth in a day if skiing/climbing hard.

In saying all this though, it's not always guaranteed that anyone who has been affected by AS will get it everytime they venture into the mountains, so don't be too worried, choosing a resort that has skiing between say 1400m to 3000m+ will give your son he opportunity to acclimatise on the lower slopes before heading further higher up, also on another point does your son do much excersie normally as increasing his cardiovascular fitness may also be benificial ( says the chap sitting here typing this with a large black coffee and large bag of Minstrels :D ).


Please do not let this put your son off skiing a I am sure it is something that should be reletively easy to overcome with the proper advice, as with all things medical , your Doctor should be able to offer the best advice , but there are natural ways to overcome this other than pills.


Best of luck

Jon.

Hi again,

Sorry about the blummin smilies in my last reply.......kep forgetting to put a space when I have added something in brackets........doh!


Jon.

There could be all sorts of reasons for your sons problems.
I would have a chat with your GP as a first port of call. It could be altitude issues, it could be something else, even excitment!
He could just grow out of it or he could always be succeptible to problems.
As jonG said general fitness is very important.
Aclimatisation takes ten days, so not much hope for a weeks skiing. Years ago there was a fad for taking iron supplements before a skiing holiday, probably just a fad but who knows.
Good luck, especially if he really enjoys his skiing.

How high are you when this happens? If it's happening at resort level in European ski villages then altitude is unlikely. Different in some of the US resorts which can be considerably higher than the peaks in the Alps.

Is he getting a bit dehydrated travelling, perhaps triggering a migraine?

Does the same happen on summer holidays?

Thank you all for the Advice, he doesn't suffer from migraine's, and is generally fit. We have been skiing in the high French alps Tignes, Val Thorens etc. It could be excitement,though as he really enjoys it.