The keys to traveling with children in a healthy way

A trip is an opportunity to deepen and get to know our children.

Routine change is very positive for children and adults

If there is one thing that children still like more than holidays, it is the trip they make each summer with their family to the beach, to the mountains or wherever their parents have chosen to spend a few days away from home together. Because if it is necessary and beneficial for adults to have a (deserved) holiday, it is equally so for children. Being away from home, everyone's routines change and are completely modified, but "it is very positive and recommended for the little ones that these changes take place and that variation in our daily habits", assures EL MUNDO Iván Carabaño Aguado, head of the Pediatrics Service at the General Hospital of Villalba (Madrid).

It is clear that a trip will always be positive for all members of the family, but if we also want to remember that stay in a special way, without anything, much less health problems, the muddy, is essential when traveling with children, follow a few simple recommendations. The important thing, as in everything, is to follow common sense. Choosing the 'best' destinationYou don't need to make very long trips or go abroad to enjoy. "A child under 10 or 12 years old will not appreciate or recognize the cultural or gastronomic differences of countries outside their environment," says Juan Sanchez Muliterno, president of the World Association of Children Educators (AMEI-WAECE).

There are many destinations designed to travel with children and for adults to enjoy as well. The most important thing when planning them is to know what will surprise the little ones the most: "When travelling with children, the ideal holidays are those in which, beyond the final destination, and as long as they enter into the child's level of interest, they allow all members of the family to enjoy and rest". In addition, and for the holidays to be a real success, "we have to be able to change our usual rhythms and adapt our cravings to the children, enjoying them, playing, talking, without haste or stress. A trip is a great experience, but above all it is an opportunity to enjoy the children and deepen the knowledge of our children, that is perhaps the most beautiful thing we will take with us on any trip we make with them. During the journey by car... The most common when traveling in general and with children in particular, is to do it by car, so safety in the vehicle should be more fundamental. "Traffic accidents are the first cause of infant mortality from injuries and also cause many disabilities," recalled from AMEI, who reports that children can start making short trips from three or four months of age being preferable and advisable, choose the family car as a means of transport instead of any other.

It is important to hold children securely with safety seats and never rush their use when it starts to get too small, and if it suffers a sudden blow, check carefully that it has not deteriorated. For its part, the saddle should be oriented upwind in small of less than 18 kg and up to about four years. If both parents travel with the child, the one who does not drive can sit on the back to attend to his needs, but never hold the child in his lap: "It has been shown that, at a speed of more than 50 kilometres per hour, an adult is incapable of holding the child in the event of a sudden braking," says Sánchez. As far as the duration of the journey is concerned, it should not be excessive on the first journeys, and as the months go by and the child gets used to the road, they can be extended progressively. On long journeys, it is advisable to make stops every 200km at most, to stretch your legs, drink some liquid and play with the little one... and the dizziness on the roadWe should not overlook something more than frequent on car journeys: dizziness. According to Carabaño, up to 20% of children between the ages of two and 12 suffer from dizziness related to movement (motion sickness); and spontaneously disappear when they give birth during adolescence. They are produced mainly in displacements in cars, something less in coaches, less frequently even in trains, and in airplanes it is almost nonexistent. Before the age of two they rarely get dizzy because their vestibular sense is not yet fully developed.

However, the main advice parents can be given is to "be patient during the trip: make all the stops, bring some wet towels, containment bags and spare clothes," Carabaño admits.