Speaker 1 00:00:04 Hello and welcome to a Wonder Care podcast with me, Sheena Mitchell, pharmacist and Mom three. This week I'm gonna be giving you lots of advice on traveling with young kids. I'm gonna be joined by my brother who has four children of his own and he is also a community pharmacist. So hopefully we'll make your summer traveling plans a little bit easier this year with lots of tips and advice. Hello, Nile. Hi <laugh>. Hi. You can drink your tea. It's Speaker 2 00:00:34 Coffee. I do need you to talk to you. Speaker 1 00:00:36 Okay, fair enough. <laugh> was the last episode that hard on you. Speaker 2 00:00:39 A lot more conversation than I'm normally used to doing. Speaker 1 00:00:42 Well, you're here to entertain me now for the summer anyway. We'll see how you get on after that. You're on a trial period of no payment and Oh, Speaker 2 00:00:48 I'm on probation. Woo. Speaker 1 00:00:48 There's no payment in the future, so you know, we'll see. Okay. Yeah, there's a lot of prospects. <laugh>. Speaker 2 00:00:54 Yes. I like it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Speaker 1 00:00:56 So today we are talking about some of the difficulties and best tips and advice for traveling with young children. So you have four boys and I have two girls and a boy. I have traveled with all ages of kids and I think that's really important to say your expectations of what a family holiday is changed dramatically after you have kids like we've been lucky. Ours are relatively good travelers and they all like the sun, although two of them are very fair. So there's a lot of sun cream, but that's grand. Bit of a pain, bit of hard work. But a family holiday with kids is always going to involve you having to sit beside the pool or be in the pool with them. Speaker 2 00:01:36 It's an act of holidays, but anywhere around pool, you're gonna have to be on your toes anyway with water. And Speaker 1 00:01:41 So I reached out to the Wonder Care followers on Instagram at Wonder Care i r l, and I asked if anyone had some good advice for traveling with babies or young kids. So the first one that I want to highlight was from Catherine. And this is genius. And I actually, I think I had heard whispers that you could do this, but I didn't know it was actually a thing. So if you're flying with our Lingus, you can actually drop and check in your suitcases the night before. Ooh, now that's handy if you're living in Dublin or near the airport. Yes. <laugh>. Then Maria and I wanna give a big shout out from Maria because she's given me so many tips and I'm gonna run through the highlights here because they're amazing and we can discuss them as we go along. But she says, but good flight times, I agree with that. And sometimes, oh Speaker 2 00:02:26 A hundred percent that, that's why I'm going from knock this time around is because the red eye flights from Dublin. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:02:31 But I find sometimes obviously you're paying a lot more and when you're paying for five tickets, it could be like 150 euro, a ticket difference to fly now. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:02:43 As an I will always say for fly times and then when you go to book it, it's hard, hard to hit that button. It Speaker 1 00:02:48 Is. Another suggestion of Marias is, so in terms of where you're booking book somewhere with an indoor pool for babies, I'm a bit of an outdoor fanatic. I do obviously keep my children in the shade and use like bras and you know, whatever. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, and UV suit's a big fan of UV suits. Just Speaker 2 00:03:05 Oh a hundred percent. Yeah. Hats and with their, with the long necks. The long necks ideal. Love them. Yeah. Love. Great, great tip. There Speaker 1 00:03:11 Also a travel buggy that fits in the overhead and she's saying because they got caught out waiting for two hours before the buggy ugly came off when they landed. Like that's a nightmare. Speaker 2 00:03:22 That is a nightmare. Now I know some of them will take the buggies off directly at the plane like, cause if you go onto the plane and like you give it to them and you get off, you come down the stairs and it's there. Yeah. There's a plane. Otherwise they go through into the hole. So I don't know, is that a, an airline or a location or a, Speaker 1 00:03:37 And I remember we had to buy, when the kids were younger, we had to buy side by side, little double buggy that was smaller than the one that we used for say comfort like trips are in the zoo. A stroller at home. Yeah, yeah. Stroller, that's the word I'm looking for. But something like that and picking them up secondhand is the only way to go are borrowing. And also just make sure that it's easily collapsible and all that and that it, it'll survive the being chucked on and off the plane. A snooze shade for the Boogie is obviously a good one, but Oh Speaker 2 00:04:06 Yeah. Yeah. That's the big black Sunshades love them. Speaker 1 00:04:08 Yeah. And you have to be careful <laugh>, love them, love Speaker 2 00:04:10 Them, love them. They're great. Speaker 1 00:04:12 One thing I'd say about that, just make sure there's a lot of air circulating. The other thing is rent baby toddler equipment over there. And that's so true. Speaker 2 00:04:21 Yeah. And then some of the car seats you get are a bit, Speaker 1 00:04:23 Oh, like they don't do high back boosters. What's with that? Yeah, Speaker 2 00:04:27 There's just an Irish thing I think. And then you only get these small little things and you're kind of going, Hmm. Not that happy. No, all the kids love them. Speaker 1 00:04:34 This is a really important one. Time for the airport, you need time. Oh yeah. For every possible nappy change and every bad feed and every time just everything is so stressful. If you're in a rush with a baby, it just doesn't work. If Speaker 2 00:04:47 You give yourself time, you're, you're laughing. Yeah. Cause you can deal with anything then you Speaker 1 00:04:49 Can enjoy it a bit more as well. Then if you're bringing Formula, Maria said that, you know, she brought over 10 bottles of Optimal in the Baby bag, um, and some Ella's kitchen stuff. Wow. Through security all tested in a machine. But I think the whole point about that is even if you're bringing formula, it's no harm to have some in your hand luggage because when you get there, if your luggage is lost and say Yeah, a hundred percent and if you're on specialized formula, particularly for those who have case protein intolerance or whatever and might be on something like Optimal Pep, you might be able to get that straight away over there and Speaker 2 00:05:24 Are an equivalent. Yeah. That it might just have a different taste of the same thing and the child mightn't intake to it straight away. Speaker 1 00:05:29 Yeah. So it's definitely good, especially in the suitcase. I used to always bring my tints formula that I needed. So Yeah. Speaker 2 00:05:35 And realistically, I know we stressed a lot about getting milk through at the airport and stuff, but it's not the airport's first time to see a baby coming through. It might be your first time going through it, but generally the, the security, they've been there before, they don't really want to be standing there with babies, looking at them crying. They're gonna do their utmost to get you through. Speaker 1 00:05:54 I just want to interrupt this episode for one little second. Okay. More than one little second, but not a lot of seconds. Summer is here and it's definitely my favorite season. The only downside is all of the circulating dust spores and pollen that can make life miserable by affecting your sleep and respiratory health. That's why I'm so delighted that Salon Plus are supporting this season of Wonder Care podcast as the Salon plus device filters these Dustin pollen particles out of the air when used every night in your bedroom and circulates fresh clean air for improved sleep and comfortable airways. I cannot believe we're on season five. Where is the time going anyway? Back to the pod. Pay ahead for your to have your seats together. Hundred Speaker 2 00:06:36 Percent. I'm gonna put my hand up here and say I have paid for fast track just because less time in a queue with children pulling at you and pulling at you and Yeah. Um, less time that they have to make a scene in front of <laugh> other people basically. Uh, I will pay for that a hundred percent extra stone that I won't have to lose and sweat. Speaker 1 00:06:53 Yeah, no, I I do that too. Now one thing I'm gonna add here is especially for when you're with a young baby, so in my backpack or whatever I was bringing on the plane, I would always have two Ziploc bags that had a spare vest and sleep suit in it. And I always had two spare and always in their own plastic bag so that if there was any sort of incident of the puna type puking incidents, I would put the dirty clothes into the Ziploc bag so that it was sealed and safe. Speaker 2 00:07:24 So if, if a bottle leaked that's, it's all protected that if you need it. So if you had just one bottle leak that Yeah, all the clothes aren't wet Speaker 1 00:07:32 And you just need to have them on you, there's just no way about it because obviously once it's down at the hold, you're done. Then Maria is also saying, knowing which bag allowance is assigned to each boarding pass. I think because you could say have a 20 kg bag and a 10 kg bag, but you need to make sure that St. Sheez is the 20 Speaker 2 00:07:50 Sheena Sheena's good. Oh yeah. Okay, nice. Speaker 1 00:07:52 Yeah, so that can slow you down. And also obviously wearing, having lots of comfortable clothing and then not forget Snuggly. Teddies on the plane or a soother for when you're taking off. If your child uses a soother for any breastfeeding moms out there, breastfeeding is amazing at basically neutralizing that pressure in the eardrums because the motion it does is kind of like yawning. So if you've got a child who isn't obviously breastfeeding, if you can keep yawning around them, it'll help your ears in pressure zones. But also if the yawns can be contagious because of empathy so it can encourage them to yawn, this is making me want to yawn now. But anyway. And having enough soos so they don't go missing. Now what about the child who's at that crawly stage and they just want to crawl up the plane or under the seats in front of them? Speaker 2 00:08:42 Oh, I let them and complete disowned them somebody else's issue. I know. Yeah, like, I mean you go with them or you're, you stand behind them and you make sure like, uh, well first off the do's gone on to wear a string so that it's not dragging along the ground. But I am probably the parent that other people hate. Uh, and I will let the child go up the, I'll obviously not disturbing anyone, but uh, I'll walk behind them and then if there is an issue I'll pick the child up and and stand aside or move them outta the way. Speaker 1 00:09:09 It's hard though cause you can't stop them and Speaker 2 00:09:11 No you can't. And then it's either that or have like have a happy child cry, crawl up alongside you or have a cranky child two rows behind you screaming, shouting. It's, it's the lesser of two evils. And Speaker 1 00:09:24 If you can try and time naps for when you're on the plane, Speaker 2 00:09:27 I always get a great clip on the plane. I'm Speaker 1 00:09:28 Sure you do <laugh> but does your messes. Yes. So yeah, if you have a young baby, they're fairly adaptable and sometimes like it can actually be hard to keep them awake for half an hour, but it's worth it if you can or you know, have them in a carrier so that they can kind of fall asleep and then you can kind of settle them into your knee with the baby seatbelt around it. Blackout blinds. Now these are something that I've brought in Ireland but I have never brought on a plane because <inaudible> Speaker 2 00:09:57 For on the plane or for No, no for on Speaker 1 00:10:00 Holidays. Yeah, for on holidays. Speaker 2 00:10:01 On holidays is makes great idea. Yeah. But then you don't know what windows you're going to so you have to get the side like I presume you're talking about the hang up ones. Mm. Speaker 1 00:10:08 Do you know what I Yeah, those grow blackout blinds and they are very good that grow company do them and I have them for down in Casie actually cuz mom's curtains aren't blackout. However, one year we went, we were going away and I can't remember, we must have been flying to Scotland and I did bring them on the plane but we ordered online basically blackout paper blinds. So you just draped them on or you could like stick them on somehow around the window. But we actually just hung them through the rail and they were paper so they were disposable and recyclable afterwards. And you didn't carry them home, Speaker 2 00:10:42 Did they work? Speaker 1 00:10:43 Yeah they did. Yeah. Oh excellent. But so, and if you've have no blackout blinds, a towel will do the same job. Do you know? Yeah. But my god are they important cut sheets? Yeah I've had to pack cut sheets before because sometimes Speaker 2 00:10:55 Yeah, I think a lot of the ones abroad are, they might, you might get the same quality of material or they could be that plasticy type of material that like I would say bring your own equally the child's going back down onto something that they know they're gonna go to sleep easier. Speaker 1 00:11:09 Yeah. Milton tablets for sterilizing. Excellent. Yep. Yeah absolutely like them cause they take so little room and you don't need to be bringing your giant sterilizing machine and often if microwave sterilizer you don't have the a microwave. So just in a lot of cases. Okay. I'm looking through here. Insect palant obviously just asking your local pharmacy or we have some online on Wonder care.ie. Nile, I'm sure you've got a great selection down in Casre. What's, what's Speaker 2 00:11:36 Hidden? We do and we have them on promotion at the minute. <laugh> Dee I'm a big fan of diet. Yes. Are there some more natural ones which are suitable for younger children? Speaker 1 00:11:43 Yeah. So just to make sure to check that the age group that you're using it for, it's right. There's also some really good little bracelets that you can put on your kids. They're infused with citronella which helped prevent bites. I remember one year walking around in Portugal with them and sure they had one on each ankle and one on each wrist. We looked like they were let out on day release or something from prison because <laugh> they were just, Speaker 2 00:12:07 They are very handy though. Speaker 1 00:12:08 They love them and they did work. And in terms of medicines, now obviously you're also a pharmacist so I like for the older kids Calpol melts and Neurophin Tubals purely because they're not liquids and they're easy to pack. Speaker 2 00:12:23 Mine children are hypochondriacs so we'll line up when a syringe comes out with calpol like little birds. Speaker 1 00:12:30 Another thing actually in terms of antihistamines for any kind of skin rashes or bites or anything like that, we were just using uh, Satine liquid, either Zyrtec or anti hist. And then I realized that a whole Clain tablet can be given to a child over the age of six. Speaker 2 00:12:51 Yes. Are you of half an anti hist is over the age of six as well, but it's still half an anti hist twice a day. Speaker 1 00:12:56 Yes. Whereas you can take Claritin once daily and my kids um, are grand with swallowing tablets thankfully. But if your kids aren't a bit of fruit pot or yogurt can be helpful in that situation. So you have four children? Yes. So I'm sure you recommend these a lot. Op site, post-op dressings. Anytime there is a cut in our house or cut elbow or koan thing because they're so handy cuz instead of bringing plasters that are flimsy and fall off and don't last or maybe aren't breathable or potentially allic if you're going shopping over there, I love po upside post-op because they are a really comfortable plaster that children can like still bend their knees while they're using and run around and plane and they have a little cushion pad. Um, if they fall on them, it gives a bit of protection to the wound that's already there and there is a seed through plaster, which just the pad looks white. So I always recommend them to parents and have a few in the bag because even if you get a bad wound or just a simple graze on the knee, they're brilliant. Travel sickness. Do you have any of your suffer from travel sickness? Speaker 2 00:14:02 They say they do, they have issues in the car and stuff, but generally I think they're just fighting for a better seat in the car. <laugh>. Yeah. That they don't want to be sitting at the back cuz we, we one seat in the boot, uh, that no one likes to get into Speaker 1 00:14:14 Travel sickness. I have a podcast on that so I'll put a link in show notes because there's loads of different medication that you can use and it's really, really helpful to use. We have a bit of travel sickness, but enough that the Accu Pressure travel bands actually do work the c bands in terms of toys, what do you find the most useful thing? So I do cheat and I use iPads here, but they're not actually useful for younger kids who don't have the interest in watching something. Um, Speaker 2 00:14:39 No, I I would find that there's a couple of magnet games are, are coloring with pencils are the Speaker 1 00:14:45 Ones with the water that it's painting, but it's just water. Brilliant. Speaker 2 00:14:49 It is very good. We got great use out of the, the scratch ones Speaker 1 00:14:54 And stickers, top model books. Speaker 2 00:14:56 Stickers are always, yeah, stickers are always great. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:14:58 Another option is like audio books. If you've have something downloaded to give older kids, uh, mine, just making sure you remember to download a movie. We, we get a few and we did cheat and at times we were bad parents and we'd go out for dinner like five or six in the evening and the kids were really tired after the sun and we'd be sitting in hundred percent and we were like, do you know what, just sit there and watch that little movie and at least then the adults can have a bit of a holiday too. What do you do when you're outnumbered to that extreme? Speaker 2 00:15:27 When I went with number one and two, I was that parent who had all the bags backpack on. I actually had them with those leads <laugh> tied onto my arms. So I had one Are they the Speaker 1 00:15:40 Ones that they wear like a Bumblebee backpack or Speaker 2 00:15:42 Whatever? No, it was, it was literally a cuff on my arm that went with a stringy cord to a cuff on their heart walking through the airport. And realistically I looked daff as a brush, but I was there going, if I lose one of these children in the airport, I am going to be shot <laugh>. Um, so I went full on. There's no one taking this child away. Now equally, if the children got taken away from me, I'm pretty sure five minutes later they'd be returned. Speaker 1 00:16:05 But I have never used one of those lead per se things because I have visions of my child just lying to end the ground and me having to drag them Speaker 2 00:16:14 Like they were tied to me, they were marks in front of me, the whole shebang because this is my first time going away, which is to do with them. It it's just the importance of of time give like give your time for everything and not to sweat it. Speaker 1 00:16:26 Yeah. And children never go to the Speaker 2 00:16:27 Toilet and if you look like an Egypt, so what at the end of the day, make it easier on yourself. Anything you can do to make it easier on yourself, whether it's a tablet, whether it's getting there early, whether it's fast tracking, whether it is given someone a dirty when the dirty has been taken off them a couple of weeks beforehand, whatever security, whatever calms them in the moment. I'm going for it Speaker 1 00:16:48 A hundred percent. Yeah. The, because it actually can be quite stressful and then when you get over there, you're just so relieved to actually have landed and to have arrived with everyone intact and all of the bag when Speaker 2 00:16:59 You go away and there's another child screaming, do you actually pay any attention to them? As in you might be in a sweat to say, oh my god, my child's acting up and everyone's just happy that it's not their child. <laugh> <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:17:11 Yeah, but like the, the whole thing is like tolerance. Everyone needs to be tolerant. Family holidays, like summer is the time for family holidays and everyone expects there to be kids on the plane. Everyone expects like it's child appropriate place to be. And if people are given out about your kids, well that's a them problem and not a you problem. Speaker 2 00:17:31 Yeah. Not your issue at all. Yeah, a hundred percent agree. Even even clothes packing, like we would've packed nearly a pair of shorts per the day we were there the first time around. Kind of gone realized there were about three pairs of tos for two weeks, <laugh> of holidays and that's about it. And that you bring home three quarters of the stuff that you actually bring unworn. Speaker 1 00:17:48 Yeah, a hundred percent. I buy the random and like we have eczema so I shouldn't do it, but the random detergent hand wash stuff and I try and use as little of it as possible just to, to wash a few basics or the, do you know what, they go up there and they pick their favorite dress anyway and lecture. Sure. It's so hard to get them out of it that you just have to keep washing. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, we're rambling. We'll get snap beer. Have Speaker 2 00:18:12 We finished? I was only getting going. Speaker 1 00:18:14 <laugh>. No, I'm cutting you off now. You're done. All right. Okay. That's it for today. Travel tips. All right, travel. Well everyone, and if you are lucky enough to be able to travel this year, just enjoy it. And as Nile said earlier, drop all your standards and focus on having a good holiday just Speaker 2 00:18:30 To get you into that travel mood. I'm gonna start. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Speaker 1 00:18:37 If you found this podcast helpful, please do give us a follow or subscribe on your streaming platform. You can also keep up to date with all of the Wonder Care News at Wonder Care underscore i r l on Instagram and Facebook. In the show notes, you'll see a link to visit the podcast website page and all of the products mentioned in this episode are linked there for you. Happy traveling.