Health: First aid
Be prepared by packing a basic first aid kit along with your regular holiday gear. If you take prescription drugs, take the prescription with you and their generic names. You'll avoid mix-ups with customs officials and, if necessary, can get new supplies.
What to take
Put together or buy from a chemist or travel clinic a basic first aid kit, containing antiseptic cream, water sterilisation tablets, assorted plasters, scissors and tweezers. To this you can add:
- Decongestant tablets for earache on flights
- A small, screw-top plastic bottle of distilled water
- Calamine lotion and antihistamine cream for soothing rashes, burns and stings
- General painkillers
- Multivitamins
- Treatments for diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting
- Motion-sickness treatments
- Insect repellent
- Bandage, tape and gauze
First aid for children
Travelling with an ill child can be a miserable affair for them and you. The following could be added to a parent's first aid kit:
- Junior painkillers/painkilling syrup
- Spares of any medication a child takes
- Rehydration treatments, particularly for babies on flights
- Plastic syringe/spoons for liquid medication
- Sterile antiseptic wipes
- High-protection suncream
- Junior decongestant nasal spray
- A thermometer - but not a mercury one, they're not allowed in airplane cabins
Final word
Prevention is the best cure for illness, so tailor your first aid kit to your holiday. Sleeping nets impregnated with mosquito repellent are excellent if you're going to Africa, for example. And suncreams with built-in insect repellent are another must-have.
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