What to take?
A lot of people ask me: “What medications do you travel with?”
(First, my caveat and disclaimer: Please remember, I am NOT a doctor – nor am I giving medical advice. Always consult your physician and child’s pediatrician for anything you are seeking professional opinions/advice on.)
The answer really depends on where we are traveling. If we’re going to London or Paris, I wouldn’t think to take anything different than I might take to San Diego or Chicago or DC. You can get pretty much anything you need at a local, reputable drugstore.
If we’re going to more developing countries (ex: Guatemala) or more rural areas (ex: camping in the desert in Egypt) or locations where we’d really struggle with language barriers (ex: Morocco) and where access to meds, especially children’s medications might be challenging/impossible (ex: MANY countries in the world), that’s a whole different story.
Here is what our family travels with when we go to these more challenging destinations
First, the kid-friendly meds & things
For gut and diarrhea issues
- Pepto Bismol for kids, chewable tablets
- Liquid Imodium for kids. I have only been able to find liquid for kids, not tablets.
For constipation
- MiraLax
- EX-lax laxative (or the generic)… I give this if the MiraLax isn’t doing the trick.
Cold/congestion
- Nose sucker of some sort (there are all different types, like the Nose Frida)
- Children’s Sudafed PE. It’s slightly annoying because it’s a 4oz liquid, but I have not been able to find an alternative. I’ve also never had it confiscated from carryon luggage, but I’m sure it could be.
Headache/fever/ general pain
- Children’s tylenol in a tablet form. I prefer that to the liquid form, which requires a child to be willing to take the syringe or drink the liquid. With the tablet, 1) you don’t have to worry about more liquids, 2) you can stick the tablet in yogurt or applesauce or ice cream, a chocolate bar, or whatever – and I find my children prefer that, especially if they’re not feeling well.
- Thermometer
Allergy/allergic reactions
- Children’s Claritin, tablets
- Children’s benadryl, chewable tablet. There’s also a liquid kind, but I find that harder to travel with.
1st aid general & ointments/creams
- Tweezers (always helpful for the randomly irksome splinter)
- Bandaids
- Medical tape. It’s good for so many things, from fixing a loose shoe sole, to taping a gauze wrap, to taping a badly split lip together if you don’t have a steri strip, to patching a down coat (yes, I have done all of those things)
- Wrap stuff. Like a gauze wrap/roll (it can help be taped with the medical tape)
- Desitin/diaper cream (especially if kids are still in diapers), but also, it’s helpful for older kids if they’re in hot/humid places and get rashes from underwear/pants rubbing
- Neosporin or some type of over-the-counter antibiotic cream with bacitracin
- Antifungal cream– especially if kids are in diapers.
- *not pictured: cortisone/hydrocortisone. Helps with itchy bug bites or other skin irritations
- *not pictured: Sting ease/Benadryl “pen”. Helps with itchy bug bites or other skin irritations
- These are both prescription, but not hard to get if you ask your doctor for them ahead of time (or if you’ve needed them in the past and have them around already)
- Nystatin. A stronger antifungal
- Mupirocin: A stronger antibacterial cream (it’s helped us to kill off actual bacterial skin infections rather than just try to ward off ones you might get from a cut/scrape, where I’d use the Neosporin)
Dehydration/Rehydration
- Pedialyte (or the like) powder or tablets which can be mixed with filtered/purified water
Note: I’ve actually found some of the kids’ medications (like the sudafed and liquid imodium) more easily on Amazon than in a local drugstore (presumably because of various supply chain stocking issues?).
Next, additional over-the-counter medications for ADULTS
For gut and diarrhea issues
- Pepto bismol
- Anti-diarrheal / loperamide
For allergies
- Benadryl
- Claritin
Cold/congestion/flu
- Mucinex
- Pseudonepherine
- Nyquil/Dayquil – or the equivalent
Pain
- Tylenol
- *not pictured: Ibuprofen
(Note: the Cortisone and Benadryl pen mentioned in the kids’ section are both pictured here)
Prescription medications
- Traveler’s diarrhea antibiotics as recommended by our doctor and pediatrician
Other (yep, there’s more)
I do have an actual mini prefabricated “first aid kit” that we throw in also, which has the emergency sterile gauze pads, steri strips, butterfly bandaids, etc – and that I’ve never once opened up to use. I count myself lucky.
The end result is pictured below
1 zipper bag of all the OTC meds and accessories, one ziplock for the prescription meds, and then the little “pre-fabbed” emergency kit. Ready to hit the road!
Still curious about the easy destinations?
And for those still wondering what I might travel with to the “easy” destinations:
- Tweezers (slivers are everywhere!)
- Tylenol
- Bandaids
- Hydrocortisone
- Neosporin
- …and usually I throw in the thermometer because I got annoyed at the expense of buying one when I would leave it at home and then a kid felt warm when traveling. Ugh.
Pro-tip…
if you’re checking bags, remember to keep the medications in your carryon! You do not want to arrive in your destination, get traveler’s diarrhea, and have your bag of medications lost somewhere in the belly of an airline…
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