Traveling MamasWondering how to entertain your 2-yr-old on a long trip? Got questions about airfares or car routes? Want to know where the best tourist or camping spots are? Moving across the country? C'mon in!
I'd check with the CDC (I think that's the organization) to see what they "recommend" for travel in that area as a starting off point and then go from there. I'd personally be wary of issues of hepatitis (street vendors are common), tetnus (sp?) - three y/o fall alot, avian flu, not sure if malaria is an issue - I guess it depends alot on the season,......................
If cdc doesn't have info, any foreign travel website/agency can point you in the right direction.
I don't have any ideas for you, but I think it is great what you are going to do. My dh and I were going to move to Swaziland, in Southern Africa to work at an orphange until we found out we were having our own baby. Now we are still making more babies and dreaming of helping the orphans once we get out of school and pay off the loans!!
Have a great trip!! How long will you be there? I do have friends that have traveled to Vietnam to do missions work and they brought an 8 year old with them. I could ask some questions if you like.
Oh what an awesome experience for you family!! Yes, I would definitely check the cdc website.. Also, you can check with travel clinics as well, so see what they recommend. It will all depend on where and how long you are going to be in country.
I went Southeast Asia last spring on a medical mission and received numerous shots, as well as took malaria meds before I got there, during my stay as for a couple weeks after. Also, my doc prescribed me numerous "just in case" meds, since I was going to a rural part of a country where there wasn't medical care. Although I didn't need alot of it, it was better safe than sorry.
I'm getting ready to go on another medical mission to Haiti June 2008, but thankfully, I won't have to get any new shots, as I'm already up date.
First thing I can think of is heavy duty probiotics. Esp since a major stomach bug can lay a 3yo FLAT, yk? And with all the new bacteria in her system, that she isn't used to, a case of the runs can seriously and RAPIDLY dehydrate her, and I would be wary of ending up in the ER in a place like that. I dunno about Vietnam, but the stories I have heard about the hospitals in the PI are enough to make me want to avoid them at all costs, lol. Oh, and antiparisitics, like garlic pills and olive leaf extract and stuff. As well as whatever the doctor loads you up on..you really don't want to be caught empty handed in an area that poorly supplied.
For shots, I dunno how you feel about them, but for a 3rd world place like that, I would def do the hep shots, and the tb shots. Hepatitis is EASY to get, as well as TB, and are very common in places like that.