Hi Everyone, I am contemplating taking my 1 year old and 4 year old to India to visit relatives in late March. We will be in the North, Ahmedabad and Bombay. Maybe a trip to Udaipur. Anyhow, my question is what shots or pills should they take or not. We have had all regular required immunizations in the states, and I will ask our pediatrician but I also want to know from folks around the world who have traveled with kids these ages. All my in-laws and family who have travelled there recently have not done so with kids, so they know the adult precautions. Do they take malaria pills, how does this work? We will be with family and such and so can be more particular about water and such (and grandma and grandpa will help us be careful) but still you can never tell when travelling what will happen. That goes for anywhere but anyhow, what do you think? And if we fly on Air India from Newark to Ahmedabad (direct minus stops for refulling like 14 hours - so no getting off the plane) will this really be bad or should we plan a flight where you have to get off and stretch for the kids sake? What are your experiences with these long flights and kids, so far I have taken one kid to Europe so far and its a short flight by comparison.
Please let me know.
Thanks
Valerie
Hi Valerie. We haven't yet travelled to India with our kids (ages 2 and 4) but in 6 weeks are leaving for India ourselves, for three months. Our kids have had the usual Australian scheduled immunisations for measles/mumps/rubella, diptheria/tetanus/pertussis, hepatitis B etc. We went to the specialist travel doctor (Travellers Medical Vaccination Centre) and also got them hepatitis A, tuberculosis (very important, prevalent in India and very contagious) and typhoid shots. Malaria won't be a problem at the time we're travelling and shouldn't be for you either, but in any case I wouldn't give malaria pills to young children, certainly not to a 1-year-old. Most of them have nasty side-effects. We decided against rabies shots because the vaccination doesn't give full immunity anyway--if there are any animal bites/scratches you still need follow-up treatment anyway so there didn't seem to be much point. TMVC is an international organisation and you should track one down and go there, as they specialise in travel medicine. I hope you enjoy your travels as much as we plan to enjoy ours! Re the flights: my feeling is just to get it over and done with in one long flight-from-hell (maybe; it might be fine!). It would be worse to get off a flight and wait around, then get on another one. Once you're on the plane it won't make much difference to add another few hours and not have to face a plane again for a while.
the best Thorn Tree branch for accurate non-anecdotal info on vaccinations, anti-malarials, etc, is the health branch
malaria pills... ...Most of them have nasty side-effects
this is a myth -- the overwhelming majority of people experience no significant side effects; only an extremely small percentage suffer side effects so bad that they need to consider alternatives
rabies shots... ...doesn't give full immunity anyway--if there are any animal bites/scratches you still need follow-up treatment anyway so there didn't seem to be much point
this is another common mis-conception -- post-exposure vaccination is much simplified if you've already had pre-exposure vaccination; not only do you have more time to facilitate this, but you also get to skip the IG component (which can often be very difficult to find) completely -- plus, if you get the right type, pre-exposure vaccination is usually effective for life
worth bearing in mind that India has by far the highest incidence of human rabies worldwide -- estimated to be somewhere between 25,000 - 50,000 deaths per year
Hi
Would be interested to hear how you get on. We are expecting a baby on 1st January 2005. We are thinking about going to visit my husband's relatives in October/ November when baby will be 10-11mths old.
Obviously this is not set in stone and we are trying to get a feel for other peoples' experiences first.
Hi Valerie,
We took our boys to India last summer when they were 4 and 6. They had all the recommended vaccs and took malaria tablets because our doc (whom I trust) convinced me it was better to take them than risk malaria. They were amazingly good at taking the tablets apart from one time when the 6 year old didn't swallow straight away and 'got the taste'. One screaming fit later, the next morning I put it in a spoonful of jam, did that for a couple of days and we were back to OK. Long flights are better than several short if the airline is OK, we flew Air India and I would NEVER go with them again! The plane was really hot and the stewardess explained this by saying that Indians like to be very warm and there weren't enough blankets to go round. My 4 year old went to sleep, totally overheated, and when I tried to wake him up I couldn't, which was petrifying, then he kind of came to and was very dozy and was then sick. We caught it in the sick bag but they were both frightened and the stewardess walked past, saw what was happening and said 'you'll need to take that down to the toilet to put it in the bin'! Loads of other examples of them being useless - consider this a false economy. We've done 12 hour flights with Thai Air that were trouble-free.
Good luck, you should have fun :o)
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