kids and altitude sickness

Posted by: MTvagabond

kids and altitude sickness - 04/03/11 03:46 PM

Does anyone have any good advice on minimizing altitude sickness in children? I've read about keeping hydrated, eating carbs, etc., but wanted to see what others here think.

Last year, we did a day hike to a ranger lookout post at just over 9000 feet. Where we live is about 3200 feet. Neither I nor my wife felt any effects of the altitude (aside from the need to catch our breath more often). On the way back down, our son (almost 8) complained about a headache and got sick when we arrived back at the car. After giving it some thought, both me and my wife kicked ourselves for not being more attentive to altitude sickness before making the hike. We both grew up in higher elevations than where we now live, and I just don't think we feel it as much. (We felt really bad for letting it happen though....)

I think the main problem was doing this trip as a day hike and going up and down too fast. Does anyone have advice that would allow us to make this trip in a day and minimize the risk of altitude sickness for our son, or should we just abandon the idea for a day hike? Can we build up to it earlier with graduated hikes to higher elevations, or does it even make a difference?

I should clarify, the trailhead starts at just under 7000 feet and it's 3 miles to the top (approx 2500 feet elevation gain on the hike). It's only an hour and a half to the trailhead, so it's still a pretty significant altitude change overall.
Posted by: lori

Re: kids and altitude sickness - 04/03/11 07:36 PM

The advice is the same as for adults. Acclimate. Don't go too high too fast. Go down if you have symptoms.

Staying hydrated and eating enough helps a lot.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001190/
Posted by: OregonMouse

Re: kids and altitude sickness - 04/03/11 08:18 PM

Lori is right--acclimatize slowly and don't try for that much altitude gain in a day.

It appears that children and teens are often more susceptible to altitude problems than are adults. I found this to be true with my children. That makes it even more important to acclimatize slowly. At least spend a day or (better) two at the altitude of the trailhead before you hike this trail again or, better yet, find another trail with less elevation gain. (After that experience, I very much doubt that your son will consent to do the same trail again!) If you're backpacking, try to gain no more than 1,000-1,500 feet each day between campsites (symptoms of Acute Mountain Sickness are most apt to appear during sleep). It is fine to climb higher during the day and then reduce altitude to sleep (the preferred acclimatization method), but don't go so high that AMS symptoms appear. Each person is a bit different in reactions to high altitude, too. There is no way to predict and fitness level has little to do with it.

It once was thought that acclimatization to high altitude, once achieved, would last for years. It has more recently been shown that this is not true. (I found this out for myself, too.) It now appears that acclimatization is lost almost as fast as it is gained.
Posted by: MTvagabond

Re: kids and altitude sickness - 04/03/11 10:59 PM

Since that particular experience we have been pretty cautious about our altitude gain, and have paid greater attention to how he feels on the trail. Unfortunately, we have to consider times when he might be faking just to get out of a hike (don't get me wrong- he really does like backpacking but has a hard time with motivation the first mile or so). Our longer hike last year had some moderate elevation gain at first, up to about 6500 ft the first day, but stayed within that range for the rest of our trip. He mentioned headaches a few times, and we took them seriously. Lots of breaks, water, and snacks, and he kept going without any major complaints or additional symptoms.

I think we might have to find a way to modify our trip if we want to go to the top of the peak again. I'm not sure if we would consider camping lower or not, but it's a thought. There is a lot of traffic on the trail, and the main attraction is really the view from the peak.

I think we could talk our boy into the trip again (he had more issues with the horse flies the first mile than the altitude sickness). But we would want to know that it's safe to attempt it, and pay more attention to the signs on the way. For now, we'll probably avoid that particular hike until he has had experiences at other, lower altitudes. That way, we can start to get a better sense of what is realistic for him in a day without making him ill. Thanks Lori and Mouse.
Posted by: Paulo

Re: kids and altitude sickness - 04/04/11 08:26 AM

One of the frustrating things about altitude sickness is that the adjustments have to be done on the same trip. There's no guarantee that 6 months down the road you will or will not have the same problem.

I've been living at 10500 for almost a year. I tried an ascent to 20500 while on Diamox (altitude medicine) and had mild headaches and ringing in my ears.

Two weeks ago I went from 10500 to 14750 and had terrible headaches on the 3rd day and horrible nightmares.

It really is tough to predict how your body will respond.

Slow ascents and lots of water as has been said is very important. Another thing is low protein. Protein requires around 10% more oxygen to digest than carbs (that's not 10% of the oxygen, just 10% more than what is necessary to digest carbs).

There is a trick of pursing your lips and then exhaling with forced breath. This forces more oxygen into the lungs and is an old trick for high altituders.

Honestly though, most of the time the only real help is to descend once the effects start getting bad.
Posted by: MTvagabond

Re: kids and altitude sickness - 04/04/11 11:26 PM

I didn't know that about the protein. That's really helpful! Interestingly, it was after we had started back down that he started to complain about headaches and feeling sick to his stomach. Because we didn't really know what we were dealing with at the time, we hurried to get back to the car as soon as possible. This fast descent probably just made things worse.

Thanks for your ideas.
Posted by: Paulo

Re: kids and altitude sickness - 04/05/11 09:24 AM

Getting down is good. The symptoms can often be delayed as you noted...
Posted by: OregonMouse

Re: kids and altitude sickness - 04/05/11 03:37 PM

Paolo is right--when symptoms appear, descend as fast as you safely can!
From NOLS' "Wilderness First Aid" on Altitude Illness.
Posted by: MTvagabond

Re: kids and altitude sickness - 04/05/11 11:34 PM

There's probably not a good rule of thumb here, but how far should a person descend if they start to feel the effects of altitude sickness? Does it make sense to go back down, say, 1000 feet and wait for an hour to see if the effects diminish, or is there some other standard? If I'm out for a three or four day trip and started to feel like I was getting altitude sickness, I wouldn't want to lose too much mileage by going down farther than necessary? I just want to see what others have experienced on this.

I can't remember ever having to deal with altitude sickness for myself (or else I didn't realize the symptoms at the time), so I don't have much experience in this area.
Posted by: skcreidc

Re: kids and altitude sickness - 04/05/11 11:50 PM

First, I would have to say that you need to monitor each incident and respond accordingly. None of my kids (nor any of the other children I have hiked with) has ever had altitude sickness. With adults, however, I have been on 12 trips where someone got sick (nausea and headache). In each case, dropping 1000 to 1500 ft did the job. I have been lucky; over 17000ft and the most I have felt is just winded.