What are your thoughts on traveling with kids - fun or brutal?
Of course traveling with kids can be brutal, but you can certainly take steps to help make sure you all have fun and survive your trip.
Wait, what do you mean survive?
Well, while most folks are probably thinking survive in the sense that that don’t lose their mind, you can also think about this in the literal sense.
Traveling can be dangerous!
How to Survive International Travel With Kids
And if you want to help make sure you make it back home happy and healthy, in addition to packing snacks and toys to keep your kids busy, you will make sure that you are all fully vaccinated. And that includes getting any extra travel vaccinations that might be required for your specific destination.
Why?
You will likely be exposed to more people, and more diseases, many of them vaccine preventable, when you travel out of the country.
And do you really want your kids to get measles or pertussis while you are traveling half way around the world?
Do you?
Do you want them to come home sick and expose other people, including those who are too young to be vaccinated or who may be too sick to be vaccinated, to measles or other diseases?
“The majority of measles cases imported into the United States occur in unvaccinated U.S. residents who become infected during international travel.”
Global Measles Travel Health Notices
Do you want to start an outbreak because you didn’t get vaccinated before you went on vacation or a business trip?
Remember, you might get away with hiding in the herd back home, when most other folks are vaccinated and protected, but that free riding strategy doesn’t work when more people are unvaccinated and you can get exposed to more disease.
References
Hungary:National Center for Public Health and Pharmaceuticals. Újabb tízezer szamárköhögés elleni védőoltás érkezett.
ECDC Surveillance and monitoring Monthly measles and rubella monitoring report - July 2024.