Your stress-free family travel guide
by Rhea Seymour
Health and safety
Whether you’re traveling to a nearby city or state or visiting another continent, make sure you take a few simple steps to protect your family’s health while you’re away. Here’s how:
Visit your doctor
Four to six weeks before leave, pay a visit to your doctor and your children’s paediatrician or a travel medicine provider. If you need immunizations to protect you from illness at your destination, some take time to become effective in the body or must be given over a series of days or weeks. Depending on your destination, vaccines such as Hepatitis B, Rabies, and Yellow Fever, may be recommended. For information on vaccine recommendations for infants, children and adults, visit the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Make sure the family’s dental appointments are up to date too — having dental work done in a developing country is not the kind of trip memory the kids or you will cherish.
Bring your own health kit
Pack oral re-hydration packets from the pharmacy in case your child becomes dehydrated from diarrhoea, the most common travel-related illness in children. Carry alcohol-based hand sanitizers for times when you can’t wash hands properly, child-safe hand wipes and diaper rash ointment for infants. If you’re traveling in summer, don’t forget bug repellent, mosquito netting for infant carriers and sunscreen with at least an SPF 15. To be safe, bring extra infant formula and any medications your child needs in case you’re unable to buy these at your destination.
Pack family faves
Since some fruits and vegetables in some countries might be contaminated, if you’re traveling abroad, carry finger foods and snacks from home to limit eating risky foods. Bring bottled water or water purification tablets if you’re unsure of the safety of the water at your destination.
Get insured
Before you leave home, check with your insurance broker to ensure that the whole family is covered for illnesses and accidents while you’re away from home. Consider buying special travel insurance for airlifting to an area with adequate medical care.
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