Air Travel

Air travel is safe for most newborns, infants and children. Speak with your pediatrician before flying if your child has chronic heart or lung problems or sickle cell disease.

• Ear pain can be troublesome for infants and children while flying. Encourage your child to swallow or chew or allow an infant to nurse or suck on a bottle. Using antihistamines or decongestants is not recommended and has not shown to be of benefit to help with ear pain.
• Safety restraints: children should be restrained safely during a flight. The safest place for your child is in a government-approved child safety restraint system or device. Car seats cannot be used in all seats or on all planes and some airlines might have limited safety equipment available. Make sure to check with your airline about specific restrictions and approved child restrain options. 

Additional Resources for Flying with children:

• FAA: https://www.faa.gov/travelers/fly_children
• Healthychildren.org: Flying with Baby: Parent FAQs

International Travel

While incidence of pediatric illnesses associated with international travel are limited here are some important steps to take to increase the chance for international travel safety:

• Review and ensure your child is up to date on their routine vaccines.
• Review the CDC website for the location of your travel to determine if you need any additional non-routine vaccines to protect against diseases or illnesses common to your travel destination.
  • Please note, Sunset Pediatrics does not typically carry specialty vaccines beyond the routine vaccines recommended by the CDC vaccine schedule. 
  • If travel vaccines are recommended or required for your travel destination, please see the list of travel clinics below that are able to administer those vaccines. 
• Review the need for travel-related medications (i.e. anti-malarial medication, altitude sickness medication, anti-diarrheal, etc.) It is important to discuss any new medication with your pediatrician before administering to a child. 
• Establish a plan of where and how to seek medical care while traveling and consider purchasing travel health insurance if your medical insurance does not cover international care.
• Ensure children who have medication managed chronic health conditions have an adequate supply of their medication prior to the trip.
• Consider taking a basic first aid course before travel.
• Consider enrolling children and adolescents in swimming lessons prior to travel near oceans or other bodies of water. Many international destinations do not have lifeguards present. 

Diarrhea and vomiting

Diarrhea and associated gastrointestinal illness are among the most common travel-related problems affecting children. Infants and children with diarrhea can become dehydrated more quickly than adults. It’s important to ensure safe food and water precautions and frequently wash children’s hands to prevent food-borne and waterborne illnesses.

• Check the CDC website for your travel destination to determine the safety of water and food so you know how best to prepare.
• Breastfeeding is the best way to reduce infants’ risk for food borne and waterborne illness. If your child needs infant formula it is important to remember that formulas available abroad might not have the same nutritional composition or be held to the same manufacturing safety standards as the US. Consider whether bringing formula from home might be a good option for your infant or utilizing liquid formula which is sterile. 
• It is important to ensure water served to young children is properly disinfected, including water used to prepare formula, wash bottles, pacifiers, toys, etc. 
• Parents should wash hands well following diaper changes especially for infants with diarrhea to avoid spreading infection to themselves or other family members. 
• The biggest concern for infants or young children with diarrhea or vomiting is dehydration. Medical attention should be sought for an infant or child with diarrhea who has signs of moderate to severe dehydration such as:
  • irritability or lethargy, 
  • significantly decreased urine output, 
  • dry mucous membranes, 
  • reduced skin turgor or tenting, 
  • cool extremities, 
  • bloody diarrhea, 
  • body temperature >101.3°F
  • persistent vomiting 
• You can find additional guidance on rehydration by the American Academy of Pediatrics here.

Additional travel resources:

• Travel and Screen Time
• Tips for Safe & Stress-Free Family Travel

Travel Clinics:

• Providence St. Vincent Travelers Clinic
• Passport Health – Multiple Locations.
• AFC Urgent Care Beaverton Travel Medicine
• Travel and Immunization Clinic of Portland

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/yellow-book/hcp/family-travel/traveling-safely-with-infants-and-children.html