The last thing any parent wants to do on vacation is trawl the streets at midnight in the search of an open pharmacy. While you can’t prevent every type of illness while traveling, just as you can’t while at home, there are some preventative measures you can take to ensure they remain as healthy as possible. If you are planning a trip abroad soon with your kids, keep reading for some simple tips.
1. Pack Your Own First Aid Kit
Most parents choose to travel with a lot of items their children might need on vacation anyway, such as diapers, milk, sanitary products and wipes. However, it’s also a good idea to pack a first aid kit. You’ll want to include the basic items like saline solutions, band aids and sterile dressings, but you should also pack child friendly medication, Benadryl, diaper rash cream, and teething gel. For a full list of good items to include, check out this website.
2. Practice Handwashing
It’s important to wash your hands before you eat and after you use the bathroom. However, this is especially important in foreign countries and when using public transport. If you don’t have any washing facilities nearby, you can pack some alcohol-based sanitizer. This is usually available in gel form and works quickly to remove germs from hands.
3. Consider the Season
While most people know that babies under two months of age shouldn’t travel due to their lack of vaccinations, it’s still important to consider the season when traveling with children older than this. Choosing to travel during flu season has caused a lot of families to have a poor vacation, and it’s something that could easily be prevented. Likewise, when traveling to Asia, for example, it’s best to avoid the hot season and the monsoon season until your children are able to regulate their body temperature and be vaccinated against the disease prevalent.
4. Get Vaccinated
As we mentioned above, depending on where you are traveling to, your children may need vaccinations. It’s best to visit your doctor at least two months before you travel to ensure that these can be given in time. Depending on their age, children may need to receive more vaccinations than their parents, but this is definitely not something that should be neglected.
5. Know Where Medical Facilities Are
To avoid the scenario listed in the introduction, find out where the closest medical facilities are to your accommodation and know how to get to them. Even countries like Thailand have private, westernized medicine available, with pediatric care being available at Chonburi hospital and in all the other main cities, so you don’t necessarily have to stick to destinations close to home. Knowing where these facilities are, where the closest pharmacy is, and their opening times could save you a lot of hassle while traveling though.
Traveling is a great way to introduce your children to new cultures and new experiences. Keep the above advice in mind and you should have a great (and hopefully healthy) trip!
