Is traveling with children safe for health – especially now
The topic of my first entry couldn’t be any different – I owe it to those of you who have missed, craved and desired new travelling adventures. The question whether travelling with children (especially if they are very young) is safe is probably one of the most frequently asked ones by parents before they make their final decision to go (or not to go). Even before the covid pandemic, the issue of health-related safety gave many parents sleepless nights 😉 The pandemic has intensified concerns about children’s health while travelling and inspired even more doubts and questions than ever before. Since we have always been cautious and prioritized broadly understood safety (especially since Marysia became our travelling companion), the pandemic hasn’t changed much in our attitude to this issue. Travelling should be as safe as possible!
It is rather difficult for us to even imagine our life without bigger and smaller family trips, which means that we simply always need to be well-prepared and take all the necessary precautions. If it makes you feel any better: ironically, we have experienced more serious accidents at home or nearby than while travelling. Still in doubt? In fact, our most serious incident to date, a spider bite (yuk!), happened on our very own terrace! Obviously accidents do happen and none is forced to leave home any further than their backyard, but if you want to travel with children, if this is your dream, we can really minimize potential risks.
How to be healthy on holidays – what can we do to minimize health risks?
To put it simply, when it comes to our health, and especially our daughter’s, these are the steps that we take before every trip:
A visit to a GP in order to make sure that there are no contraindications for the trip,
consulting a tropical medicine center (if need be) and having the required and/or recommended vaccinations,
preparing and carefully packing a first-aid kit (containing everything that we need every day, as well as all medications that we may need while travelling),
protection from the sun (clothing, UV protection hats, sunscreens),
insect repellents (various sprays, creams, specialist products, mosquito nets).
During the trip we make sure to stay hydrated, seek shadow, use insect repellents, and choose accommodation with air-conditioning, where we can seal all windows and doors. When it comes to hygiene, we wash our hands frequently, use disinfectants, and are careful about food – eating sensibly and healthily. Additionally, it is good to take out a high quality insurance policy and make a list of contact details to all nearest medical points before departure. That’s all in terms of our “private” precautions regarding health on holiday with younger and older children. Perhaps it’s a bit laconic, but the topic will definitely appear in a more extended version in our Guide 😉 If you travel with children, there is a risk of contracting an infectious disease, but a lot of these can be dealt with by vaccinations. However, you should remember that there are also places with diseases against which there is no vaccine, including some really dangerous ones. We always think carefully before visiting such places. Still, destinations with good accommodation, sanitary conditions, healthcare, high hygiene standards, and water quality on a good level do not pose a serious threat to visitors’ health.
What does the World Health Organization say about travelling with children?
WHO recommends the following pretravel care:
Visiting a travel medicine provider or family doctor, ideally 4-8 weeks before the trip, in order to get information and needed and/or recommended vaccinations,
getting counseling on potential local diseases,
inquire about the risk of malaria and malaria prevention (insect repellents, mosquito nets, adequate clothing, safety precautions, medications),
a medical and dental checkup,
obtaining drug prescriptions (bearing in mind the length of the trip) and preparing a first aid kit,
taking out an adequate (in terms of the destination and way of travelling) health insurance policy.
While travelling, WHO recommends:
consuming boiled foods and drinking bottled water or factory packed beverages (you can always boil water if you do not trust it),
having written information about blood type, allergies and chronic diseases with you at all times, as you can always be a victim of an accident or face traffic-, animal-, allergy-, sun- or sport-related problems.
Finally, after returning home, travellers are recommended to undergo a medical examination if:
they return from a country where malaria can be present,
they suffer from chronic diseases,
they underwent malaria treatment during the trip,
they may have been exposed to serious infectious diseases,
they stayed in a developing country for over three months.
What are some other health concerns while travelling? Of course, flying.
WHO lists who should avoid flying:
infants less than 48 hours,
women after 36th week of pregnancy (32nd for multiple pregnancies),
those suffering from: angina pectoris or chest pain at rest, any active communicable disease, decompression sickness after diving, increased intracranial pressure due to hemorrhage, trauma or infection, infections of the sinuses, or of the ear and nose (particularly if the Eustachian tube is blocked), recent myocardial infarction and stroke, recent surgery or injury where trapped air gas may be present (especially abdominal trauma and gastrointestinal surgery), craniofacial and ocular injuries, brain operations, and eye operations involving penetration of the eyeball, severe chronic respiratory disease, breathlessness at rest or unresolved pneumothorax, sickle-cell anaemia, psychotic illness (except when fully controlled).
As can be seen, except for newborns, women in advanced pregnancies and patients who suffer from very specific conditions, the list is not that long 😉 Obviously in individual cases we should consult a doctor before making our final decision – especially if we are concerned about our health during the flight. I myself decided to fly (alone!) with my little M. when she was only 7 weeks old. I was extremely worried, but I needn’t have: my baby girl slept for the whole journey (except for one time when I had to feed her 😉) and didn’t experience any inconveniences. She bravely went through all the take-offs and landings in the following months, not giving a damn about pressure changes 😉. Hence, it is likely that your child will be OK on a plane. It is definitely worth giving a try, for you won’t know for sure if you don’t try. It is the only way 😉
Is it safe to travel with children during the pandemic?
The current situation has influenced virtually all aspects of our lives, and it is difficult to belittle its effects. However, we are slowly trying to return to normality, which also means that we are becoming increasingly more mobile. More and more countries are opening their borders for tourists, and we ourselves are hopeful that we will travel someplace far away soon (obviously we already have several ideas to choose from 😉). However, the situation remains uncertain. Before deciding about the trip, you should carefully analyze the situation and think through on what stage of the pandemic a given country is, i.e. check the current number of active cases and the curve. Information on Covid can be found, for example, here: WORLDOMETERS.
Regardless of the pandemic, on its website WHO lists key factors which determine health risks while travelling and which should be considered when planning a holiday: means of transport, destination, time and period during which we want to travel, accommodation, meals and sanitary conditions standards, the traveller’s behavior and health. Travellers with children can encounter a number of potentially risky situations, such as:
insect bites, such as: mosquitos, tics, fleas, or some flies which spread diseases,
exposure to blood or other bodily fluids,
weather changes resulting from changes in altitude, humidity, or temperature,
diseases that can be contracted through food or water,
insufficient level of health care,
traumas, including those resulting from car accidents and recreational activities,
mental health issues, including stress and cultural shock.
Obviously these warnings do not sound nice – some of them are actually pretty scary – but the point is to stress the need to carefully analyze and plan everything before deciding whether to go. After all, all we want is to minimize the risk. A careful analysis and a good plan allow you to easily verify whether the real health risks actually live up to our fears. It is possible that sometimes we have only a vague picture of our holidays in our heads, and often our fears and concerns can turn out to be unfounded – and as such they become an obstacle that makes us resign from seeing the world with kids. If you are brave and sensible enough, sky is the limit! By observing safety precautions and staying up to date with the situation and recommendations by a country’s officials (especially considering warnings issued for travellers), we can sensibly plan and organize our trip. Kids are prone to minor accidents and diseases, but this is what the first aid kit is for. Not to mention the fact that something can happen even in your own garden or a nearby forest 😉 If home remedies are not working, you should see a doctor or go to hospital. Besides, we should remember about prevention, especially vaccinations (as long as they are available). To put it simply, we prepare ourselves, plan, and then have a good time, relax and enjoy being together on a holiday 😉
