Healthtips travel with small children in India

dhans

Health was our main concern during our last trip to India in december 2005 with our 5 and 3 year old kids. What follows may be open doors to some, but it certainly helped us.

Happy travels,

Hans

We thought that the hazards were manageable (otherwise we would not have gone). Everybody was inoculated for Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio, Typhus, Hepatitis A and B. As malaria prophylaxis we used Proguanil hydrochloride (Paludrine) during our stay. As a general precaution we took multivitamins every day. We trained our kids to wash their hands a lot more than we normally do (yeah we know you should always etc…, but sometimes these things just don’t happen). We even started brushing teeth out of a bottle before the last few weeks for the holiday.

In India we tried to keep a leisurely pace, building in a couple of hours of relaxing in the hotel room at teatime. Although we travelled quite a distance (about 2500 kilometres) we have the feeling that we took it easy. With the exception of Frank who was ill for a day, we were lucky as for the rest we didn't get ill. Some simple tips that worked for us:
• Drink bottled water (available everywhere).
• Use suntan Lotion (factors 30 and 15 (and sometimes 60))
• Keep your hands clean and don’t pick your nose (brings the bacteria straight into your system). Do not pick up stuff from the streets.
• Wash your hands before eating (or use disinfecting wet tissues; also good for cleaning feet after temple-visits).
• Keep nails short.
• Always put on hasty and sunglasses.
• Wear long or three quarter trousers (keeps knees whole)
• Wear long sleeves
• Wear sturdy shoes, no sandals. Check feet on cuts after temple visits and disinfect if necessary.
• Desinfect any cut or scratch as soon as possible
• Never eat anything from a stall / cooked in the streets. Stay away from buffet-style meals. Eat in busy restaurants.
• Donate small amounts of money to a Temple once in while and pray to the gods on a regular basis. Have Immodium ready anytime.
• Use mosquito repellent. For hotel rooms we bought and used the Bayer electrical mosquito coils.

Medical kit

During the day we always had suntan lotion (Vichy SPF 15 and 30; good stuff!!) and a medical kit in our day pack. The First Aid Kit was in a soft pack (‘Care plus’ branfd from ‘tropenzorg’) with some additions of our own and contained:

• Hydrophilic bandages 300*8 cm and 400*8 cm
• Burn dressing
• Sterile compresses
• Antiseptic wipes
• Adhesive tape
• Protection gloves
• Emergency bandages
• Tweezers
• Safety pins
• Wound plaster
• Emergency shears
• Shatterproof thermometer
• Emergency blanket
• Support bandage
• Triangular sling
• Tick out tick remover
• Chloorhexidine 0,2 % antibacterial spray

In our luggage we had the following medicines available:

• Paracetamol with caffeine 500 mg (adults); the modern aspirin; helps against all kinds of pains (and hangovers)
• Paracetamol 160 mg (perdolan); chewing tablets for children
• Tripelennamine HCL (Azaron) relieves itches from mosquito bites etc.
• Multivitamins for adults and children
• Proguanil hydrochloride (Paludrine) Malaria prophylaxis
• Amoxicillin ; broad-spectrum antibiotic (Flemoxin : tablets solvable in water)
• Ciprofloxacin 500 mg (another antibiotic especially against heavy diarrhoea)
• Oral Rehydration Solution (adult and children; basically the same stuff, but the child variety has an added taste (still lousy)
• (Miconazoli nitras 2,5 mg zinc oxydium 150 mg pro gram)Anti fungal cream
• Loperamide HCL (Immodium)
• Xylometazolin (nasal spray; 0.1% for adults, 0,05 % for kids; opens up all cavities in your head; good against pressure differences in planes)
• Fluconazol 50 mg (against slime in the airways)

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Tips for trips to India with (young) children: India with kids
Stories about our travels in India: Journal

Nick-H

Slime in the airways . Sounds nasty, that!

Most of that medical stuff is available here, so better not to carry it around (and probably a lot cheaper, apart from saving money on the things you didn't need in the end).

I used to put some of that antseptic wash they use in hospitals into a small spray bottle, and use as a handwash.

I've never (except in floods) not worn sandals in India, but it is important to make sure that they are not too small: overhanging toes can easily get cut.

I should think that one of the biggest challenges with smaller children is stopping them picking up stuff in the street and investigating it

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

dhans

Hi Nick,

You're right. We knew from earlier visits that you can get almost everything in India, but because of the kids we were more concerned anout the quality. I've got some nice pictures from pharmacies in the full sun from earlier visits. Like I stated somewhere else on Indiamike before: travel with children does make you far more cautious.

Check out:

http://www.indiamike.com/india/journ...urnal&j=9 402

For the full report. Happy travels,

Hans