Tips for you who will travel to India with babies. I just succesfully came from India. We have been there for 3 weeks with our 5 month old son Alex.
No illness, no diarrhea, nothing :). But we kept very strict condition. First I have got special vaccination plan, that he will be vaccinated fully till indian trip. I planned our trip with travel medicine doctor. He gave me some antibacterial and antiviruses wipes and sprays. Very good thing. Main was that Alex has to be fully breastfeeded, to avoid infection from food, it is the most dangerous. For Alex confort we took all his stuff possible - travel bad, pram, carrier, blankets. We had to travel 12 hr. by train and pram was the best. We took I.AC and Alex slept in the pram, he didnt need to touche anything from train. I took for him also all diapers, in India are very poor quality, but for sometime it is ok. Pampers sold in India - oh God.
Than my doctor told me never give him anything what was even packaged in Idnia (should be from europe, america or australia), so I took all the formulas with me, in the case I cant breastfeed, but it wasnt neccessery. Than he suggested me to not to drink milk myself in India, I took dried milk with me. We forced parents to install new water filter, and I washed Alex in filtered water and his face I washed by boiled filtered water. His clothes I washed in filtered water and cloth like bodysuits I boild also. We avoided that people touche him. We just explained that he was born in europe, so indian bacterias can be very dangerous for him. Generaly people understood. Only grandparents could play with him. We always washed our hands and changed our clothes before touching him from coming out. And if we were outside, we always used antibacteria wipes or spray. I always boild his dummies and toys.
So many protection, but it was very usefull, he didnt have a single problem :). Meena Ray replied. Was reading all the replies to Martina's letter.Well!I guess Martina was just too much but I guess you cannot blame her as well as she is not born in India and she lived and lives in States where everything is much advanced and knowledge of illness in India is wider there.And also her doctor told her about it and there is nothing wrong in taking precaution for your own child.(Even though I feel that it was too much of precaution like boiling the sleepsuits and not allowing anyone touch the baby.......that's way too much,sometimes I wonder why she went in first place?)But as a mother she is fully right in taking all the precautions for her child,after all its her baby and if her son had got sick it would be totally a shame for her to cope,not for us,so lets respect that.
And Yes babies in India are much better in health wise more than the western countries.My niece has allergy of milk and soya milk which I had never heard in India,so you see India is not that bad at all,infact I tell you the best stuff is in India......only what is not India is the money that we earn here.
So wherever you are take care of you baby and India is definately not so bad,you can go for a holiday with your baby and enjoy the climate and food besides this pasta and snow out here
Good luck to all and take it easy all you mothers Martina replied. I agree with u that kid can develop imunity by letting him in environment, but problem is that baby needs to have at least some of antibodies from mother. I wasnt born in India, so I havent anything what can I give to my son. Doctor explained me that for kids born there or at least they are born abroad to indian mother it is much better. But illnesses like thyphus or malaria are kind of deadly for people not born in India. I was also surprised that indians takes such illnesses as ok, it is curable. But for western people it is hardly curable. It is just that I am not exposed from childhood to such kind of illness. And if my son will bring such illness from India I will be in TV news in my country :). indian mom replied. amazing protection for ur baby .. kudoos ... but then let me tell u that there are kids who strive in india, the way u ahve written make it look like u were visiting some part of jungle, maybe then u should have not come atall till ur baby is grown up.even i have made tours abroad/ within india with my 1 year old kid. Its perfectly ok to expose kids to the environment around rather than to be over protective. Rgding not allowing people to touch ur baby, that we really disgusting :-( !!. ohmygod replied. I am really amazed to see the amount of protection you had to take for your child! But belive me its not THAT bad as you have projected. Millions of babies in India thrive and thrive beautifully! Infact better than their western counterparts. I think its better to expose babies to a small amount of outside world.. its helpful to increase their immunity. I am not putting you off for taking care of your kid .. after all u are his mother.. but this is just to tell others also that they need not be so overprotective.. babies have a amazing self protection system.