Traveling with Toddlers and Children

Safety tips you should consider while traveling with children

While travelling, safety of children is of utmost concern to most parents. However, some easy measures can be adopted for ensuring children’s safety during vacations like:

Packing details

• Carry your child’s skin friendly sun block, sunhats, UV blocking sunglasses and UPF apparel to protect your baby from sunburn, which may lead to skin problems in future.

• Pack mild, child-friendly insect repellent and mosquito nets to avoid insect bites. Do not apply adult insect repellents, which may prove too harsh for your baby’s skin.

• Do not forget to carry the first aid box equipped with pain reliever, bandages, antibiotics, ointment, tweezers, thermometer and the regular medicines your child takes.

• Bring a child tether or a simple child locator to prevent your child from getting lost.

• Carry your child’s health history and other ID information, including a recent photograph, which will help you to identify your child if any trouble occurs.

Avoiding safety hazards in hotel rooms

• You can request for childproofing kits in some hotels and cruise lines.  

• If your hotel does not have the provision of childproof kit, then carry your own kit including inexpensive outlet covers, removable, non-marring cabinet locks and a portable safety gate.

• Remove the unsafe articles including coffeepots, hair dryers, toiletries, drinking glasses and dry cleaning bags from the reach of your children.

• Examine the locks of the doors and the windows and do not keep any furniture near the window side.

• Any sharp-edged table in the room can prove injurious to your child. So cover the edges with hand towels or remove the table from the room.

• Check whether the room has any odor or pest poison and see if the wall bears any cracks. Remove the small items left behind by other guests.

Taking care of the kids on plane

• Pack all the necessary things for your child such as diapers, wipes, foods, toys and medicines.

• Bring some drinks or pacifiers or ear lifters to soothe the little ears during take offs and landings.

• Consider a flight, which has the provision of a lap belt to secure your child.

• The Federal Aviation Administration recommends that small children should be seated in a Child Restraint System, or CRS – i.e., a car seat. According to FAA guidelines:

• A rear-facing car seat is recommended for babies less than 20 lbs.,
• A forward-facing car seat is recommended for children 20 – 40 lbs, and
• For children weighing more than 40 lbs., airplane seat belts should be used

Check in advance whether the safety equipment bears a label indicating it is FAA approved.

Things you did not know about traveling with children in flights

Air travel with kids is a nightmarish experience with most parents. However, this apparently tough job can be easily accomplished if you are well prepared with all necessities to engage your child in the flight. So creating a plan beforehand about how you will handle your children while air travelling is very important. Here are some tips to help you out:

• When travelling with children by air, try to avail the flights at non-peak hours (late at night, midday and Monday to Wednesday) and arrive at the airport early. This will give you the chance to grab a free seat for your child to stretch out and sleep.

• Make sure that your children go to the bathroom before boarding the plane.

• Always carry some little chewy and tasty fruity snacks, which work great in keeping your children’s ear comfortable during the take off and landing of the flight.

• Do not forget to carry a spare set of dress for your kid and yourself in the hand baggage. It will be very useful if in case, your kid spills the drinks served on the plane.

• To make your children’s travel enjoyable in the flight, buy a small carry on (children’s size) bag with wheels and stuff the bag with “surprises.” Make your children roll the bag around the airport and during the flight reveal each surprise to him / her at a regular interval. You can also ask your kid to guess his next gift and while they keep quite you can take the chance to “catch a nap.”

• You can also wrap goldfish, gummi bears and a small amount of M&M’s individually in aluminum foil and ask your children to unwrap them to find out the surprise. This is an effective tip to entertain the kids during flights.

• You can carry a map with the route of the flight and show your kid the route that your flight will follow.

• Pack some finger foods, such as fruits, pretzels and cereal for your kid to savor during the flight. These foodstuffs might help them to adjust the pressure variation in the cabin. Try using bottles, “sippy cups” or pacifiers for the younger children to deal with inner air pressure.

• Take loads of favorite storybooks of your children and music on tapes to entertain them.

• If you need to change airplanes, put a safety bracelet on your child with all necessary information written on a piece of paper inserted in the bracelet. Make sure that your children are carrying their identification cards.

Following these tips would definitely make air travelling with children less problematic.