Air Travel Tips For Maintaining A Healthy Youngster
Remember way back when you could just take a trip at the drop of the hat? Well, when you have youngsters in the household, those days are long gone. Now you have to come up with a carefully crafted game plan to prepare your trip with your young children. However, the rewards are worth it, seeing your child’s eyes light up with wonder at some of the things they get to experience.
Since you know the times of day when your children nap, when they eat and when they just get generally cranky, you can take these cues to plan your itinerary. This especially works if you are planning a road trip. Traveling by other modes of transportation is dependent on other schedules, so you have to be creative with diversions. Health-wise, you want your children to be raring to go and you definitely don’t want them getting sick during your travels. Therefore, you should ponder some of the helpful healthy hints below for making your travel time easier on you and your children:
1. Bring your children current on all their immunizations. Depending on where you go, you may need to provide proof that their shots are current. In addition, if you are traveling out of the country with them, where you are going may dictate additional precautionary measures such as malaria prevention. In order to get the correct dosages and advice, you should really visit with a doctor that specializes in travel medicine.
2. If you are flying, check with their accommodations for children. Do your children need a safety seat? What about special meals? Can you bring your own children’s snacks? With the tighter security, some rules may change about what you can and cannot bring on the plane. Also, prepare for the pressure changes by proving gum or teaching them to swallow or yawn to equalize the pressure in their ears. Everyone’s plane ride will be a lot more enjoyable if no one is in ear pain.
3. Take extra precautions with food and water where you are traveling. Domestic destinations are not always the problem. It is those places abroad where water sources may be contaminated and conditions may not be the most sanitary. Wash hands often and use anti-bacterial gel when you cannot. Only drink bottled water and do not get drinks with ice. Do not eat raw foods of any kind either and this includes fruits. Only those fruits that you can peel yourself like oranges are safe bets. Taking extra care will help avoid that dread diarrhea that plagues quite a few travelers.
4. Sun and bug protection is important. You should always have sunscreen lotion at the ready with the highest SPF rating possible. Preventing sun burn is important for protecting kids. In addition, always put insect repellant on them to protect against possible disease ridden mosquitoes and other bugs.
With children, it is always something and traveling tends to compound the problem. However, with the proper precautions and some games and activities to keep them occupied, you can have yourself a great family vacation.