Traveling with sick kids can be one of the most challenging things that parents can face. But with some preparation, we can make all our lives easier and get through with our travel plans.
When Traveling with Sick Kids is Necessary
We plan for family travel with different goals in mind. Sometimes, we travel for pleasure, as we want to spend the holidays or summer vacation with the whole family. Or sometimes, we need to attend a family gathering, like a reunion, a wedding, a birthday party, or even a burial in another city.
However, no matter how solid our plan is, it can easily get ruined when health problems get in the way. Sicknesses may be something that we can minimize with diet and supplements, but not entirely control. After all, we don’t live in sanitized bubbles.
Travelling with the whole family, with children of different ages, can already present a challenge in itself. And it’s all the more stressful when one or all of the kids are down with something. Tantrums and tears are unavoidable and tempers of parents can also flare up.
So how can we make things easier? Here are some tips for traveling with sick kids.
10 Family Travel Tips When Kids are Sick
1. Make the kids comfortable as much as you can.
Whatever mode of travel you are taking, try get your child to be as comfortable as possible. Keep them warm when it’s cold and cool when it’s hot. If it’s possible, get them to lie down so that they can rest.
2. Bring caps and jackets.
Whether kids are sick or not, a cap and a jacket or a hoodie sweater are travel must-haves. Even when the weather prediction is sunny, sometimes, a sudden downpour happens.
This happened during our recent trip to Silay City in order to visit Magikland Theme Park. It was sunny all day but by 8:30pm, torrential rains poured and soaked the whole park. If we didn’t protective clothing, we would have been soaked as well.
- Related: Silay Heritage Tour for Araw ng Lahi
3. Bring a shawl.
Many moms like to wear shawls. They are fashionable, give protection against the chilly air, as well as lightweight. However, if you have kids, shawls can also serve a different purpose — they can also be used as blankets.
4. Bring all the necessary medicines.
If your child is already sick when you left, prepare all the necessary medicines and supplementation in a container. Bring your own teaspoons and measuring cups.
The fever patch is also a good thing to bring. It helps to bring down the temperature to safe levels while the child is asleep. We usually put it on when the febrile child is already asleep. And oh, don’t forget your thermometer.
We also brought a pouch of Young Living essential oils that I thought would help add to their comfort and healing. Some of the oils I usually bring are antiseptic ones as well as those that can help in respiratory ailments.
I also included one for digestive problems and another one that can help for sleep. Moreover, I also have a blend for pain that I put in a roller bottle for convenience.
- Read this: Are Essential Oils Good for Your Family?
5. Stay in a hotel that’s near a hospital.
If possible, book your accommodations near a hospital, a drugstore, or a convenience store. If emergency arises, you would not have to travel far to get medical attention or to buy things and medicines you might need.
6. Keep kids hydrated.
Almost all viral ailments are alleviated with drinking lots of fluids. Water also helps in flushing the body of the medicines that the children ingest. Make sure they are hydrated throughout the day. Get them to drink as much water after every dose of their medicine. Dehydration can bring about more complications and other ailments than the ones they already have.
7. Bring snacks.
Children naturally want some food to munch on while traveling. But when they are sick and don’t have appetite, you have to be ready with snacks that are easy to munch on.
They might not be getting enough nutrition at this time, but they need food before they can take medicines. So be ready to feed them with something when it’s time for their medication.
8. Let them wear face masks.
The kids can wear face masks when out in public. This will keep them from inhaling more germs that could make them sick further in their weakened state. Additionally, it keeps them from infecting other people. In our children’s case, the face masks also protect them from dust, fiber, and other allergens in the air.
Construction sites are everywhere, even in our favorite malls. If we inhale some of the construction dust, we can easily get sick because of our inherent allergic rhinitis.
9. Pack extra clothes.
Aside from packing extra clothes for the kids in the luggage, which is an SOP for parents, pack a change of clothes in your handy bag. Children who have cough and colds are prone to vomit. If you are in a middle of a birthday party or a wedding and can’t go home immediately, you can clean up and change clothes while the event is going on.
10. Be extra patient.
It’s easy to lose our cool when kids get difficult to handle. But let’s remember, we grown up can also be grumpy when we are sick.
Kids who do not know how to handle their feelings can throw tantrums and vent in different ways. We may distract them and coax them, but the most important thing is, we try not to get mad at them. They’re just not feeling well.
Get Them To Rest
When you are traveling with sick kids, there will be activities you could miss so that they can rest. During our recent trip to Cebu, we had to skip one family dinner so that Shane can sleep early. We also needed her to be well-rested so that she will be in good spirits for when she plays flower girl the following day.
But it’s not always easy to get them to rest, especially Shane. If she feels a wee bit better, she will start playing actively until another febrile state.
Even When Kids are Well
We travel many times in a year for different reasons. And because we are homeschooling, we can easily take off when there is a need for official travel.
Most of the time, the kids are just dandy. But we are still prepared with a first-aid kit. Among the things we bring are over the counter medication for fever, allergy, bandages, fever patch, and skin ointments. We also bring their food supplements to strengthen their immunity and to reduce travel stress.
Vitamin C is part of our daily immunity booster. The kids used to take Ceelin syrup, but now that they are older, I give them Ceelin chewables.
Accessible Hotel Accommodations
It is also best to stay in hotels that are accessible to conveniences, such as drugstores, supermarkets, and such. In Iloilo City, Richmonde Hotel Iloilo as well as the Courtyard by Marriott Iloilo are just across 7-Eleven. They are also just beside the Festive Mall with a supermarket.
Meanwhile, Park Inn by Radisson has the SM City Iloilo in front. These hotels also have easy access to taxis.
Traveling helps us learn a lot. The kids learn about the world while parents learn a lot about themselves–especially in handling the stress of traveling with sick kids.
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Oh man, I’ve been sick myself when traveling, but never with kids. That would be so hard. Thanks so much for sharing this with us! I can only imagine how difficult it is to care for young children who cannot fully express what they feel! Health is always so important, whether at home or on the road. You miss a lot of things when you’re sick.
Great advice for all parents who are always planning family holidays. This is a tough spot to be in. Our kids did get sick once while we were traveling, and it wasn’t fun. Luckily it was only a 24-hour bug, but oh man, it was gross.
You have some great tips for parents with sick kids. It’s hard for me as an adult to travel sick, I can’t even imagine how it can be for kids! Poor babies!
Woof. Traveling with sick kids does NOT sound like a fun time. I feel like I would cancel plans if I could. That being said, for the times you really can’t – these tips would certainly prove helpful! I feel you!
My child got a bug while traveling and it did not make for a fun car ride. We had to stop so many times so he could get a diaper change.
Traveling with kids can be stressful to begin with, but oh man traveling with sick kids seems so hard. I love these tips though! Sometimes you just can’t help but travel with sick kids. All we can do is to make things easier for everybody.
We had to travel home from vacation with sick kids years ago. We actually stopped immediately and got a hotel and stayed there until they were better. Fortunately it was close to pharmacies and we were able to keep them comfy. They were able to rest until better and then we just traveled the rest of the way home 2 days later. Fortunately, we didn’t have to be anywhere and could afford to take the two extra days. It would have been nice to have your list of things to do, although we did do a lot of them!
What an extremely helpful blog post!!! We’ve only traveled with sick kids once, and we didn’t realize it til midway over the pacific from US to Japan when my 1 year old got sick on me for 4 hours straight. I regretted not heeding advice to pack a spare set of clothes for all of us in our carry on. To top it off, our luggage was lost for 3 days, and by that time the rest of us caught the sickness. UGH!
Oh my gosh! The horror! I cannot imagine how you all must have felt at that time. Sometimes the adrenaline and the pressure can be overwhelming!
I am loving the travel tips here when you have sick children on board. It is sensible to stay close to a hospital when possible. You never know sometimes when you need to bring them in.
This is a really helpful and insightful article. I remember that a friend cancelled her trip because their kids were sick. She had no idea as to what to do. This is definitely good to know!
Welcome. But of course, it depends upon the child’s sickness and the age. There are cases that the kids should be brought to the doctor or worse needs to be admitted to the hospital. Thankfully, ours were just minor ailments.
A lot of great tips to follow when traveling with sick kids. Definitely always be near a hospital is a good tip! And that shawl — it is indeed multi-purpose.
I can imagine it must be challenging to travel with sick children. Your tips are very welcome and you have managed great with your sick daughter whilst away.
It’s tough to be travelling with sick kids. Parents can get really worried and stressed out and everyone does not get to enjoy. But these tips are really helpful, at least just to make things easier and also so that the kids will get better faster.
this post is a wonderful resource for anyone who needs to travel with sick kids. I need to share to this with a couple of friends who are already parents and are always traveling with their kids.
Minsan hindi din po talaga maiiwasan na we have a important appountment and need to travel pero biglang may magkakasakit. Thanks for the tips mommy sig..It helps me a lot
Great tips for traveling with sick kids. Very helpful blog post. These tips are definitely good to know! Thank you for sharing this.
Thanks for sharing this tips, very helpful. Let’s be more careful and ready.