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Welcome to the Simply Pediatrics Podcast simplifying holistic health care for infants and children. We're so glad you're here. Join Jennifer Zeffner, holistic pediatric nurse practitioner and holistic mom of three on a mission. Listen in as she shares the answers to the most asked questions from parents in her practice every day and offers parents practical strategies and actionable steps to support their child's health and well being. Enjoy this insightful episode of the Simply Pediatrics Podcast and stay tuned for more information at the end of the podcast. Today's Episode Traveling with your children
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hello and welcome. I'm so happy to be here with you today. Today I am addressing all of those lucky parents out there who are traveling on a plane with their children. That's a big question I get from families often. What can they do to stay healthy while they're traveling? Avoid the quote unquote germs on the plane and kind of, you know, stay healthy for their traveling experience to wherever it is that they're going. So here's a couple tips. First of all, congratulations. That's amazing and wonderful that you're able to go away and get in a plane and go somewhere enjoyable. I hope so. When you know that you're going to be flying and you're going to plan out that trip, ideally plan it out way in advance. What I mean by that is don't pack the night before, right? As parents, we're already at a heightened level of anxiety and stress just from being parents. All right? You're not traveling on your own anymore. If you are already a stressed, anxious person before you had children, then that's even more elevated, right? For you. But it is a whole level of kind of stress when you are traveling with your child. So, so help yourself out by being prepared. Pack in advance a week before. Start thinking to yourself, make a list. Make sure you have all those things in the house. Start packing. Physically packing, getting everything into its luggage days before, days before. What this does is it actually makes the whole experience of travel to me enjoyable because you got that excitement of figuring out where you're going, what you need, right? So you're doing it way in advance. Also, getting everything into the home that you need for the travel allows you to be able to technically pack those items at any hour that you'd like to if you have little ones, especially to be able to do it while they're napping is ideal. So pack and plan way in advance to avoid this stress of having to run around and figure out what you need and Run to the store or whatever it is that you need to do to get the, the, all of the things that you need to pack up. All right? So packing in advance the day of travel, parents. I've been to the airport a gazillion million times. There's so many things to do in an airport. There's so many things for a child to see in an airport. Get to the airport early, get there early, get in, go through security and get to your gate way before you need to. Trust me, and believe me, me and my family of five have actually missed a flight. A whole family of five. We missed a flight because we got there too late and it was quite a devastating event. So trust me from experience and also just from, you know, taking care of children, they'll be very excited to be in the airport. If they're school age, they're just going to be so excited about the trip and it begins the moment they step out the door. If you have little ones who are kind of a little oblivious, you know, under three year olds who don't really understand what's going on, they're just going to be excited to see everything that goes on in an airport. So get there a good, a good hour or two before you're supposed to be there, all right? Because that varies from whether you're traveling internationally or nationally. So get there way early so that you're on security and your kids don't look up and see you all anxious and stressed. You're just, you're relaxed because you're there way in advance. All right? Get to the airport early. Plan, plan, plan. Get into the airport, go to your gate and stay as relaxed as you can on the airplane. Bring with you a small container. I believe it's only 3 ounces that we're allowed to bring. I like to bring like a blend of essential oils that to me are cleansing and antiseptic and clean the area of the seat around you. You know, it's not so much about the germs that I'm as concerned about on the airplane as I am about the chemicals that they use. Many times I'll hear from families that their children come off a plane with a rash and, you know, they use things all over the plane. So take a small bottle that you're comfortable with and just gently spray down your, you know, so that you're cleansing off your space. Bring extra receiving blankets if you have little ones under the age of three that'll become very helpful for you to use to cover up things like the changing Table that's found in the bathroom, which by the way, many families don't know about that. There's a changing table in the bathroom. So every single airplane has that. So just you? It's not hard to figure out. And I used to bring one receiving blanket that I would use in the bathroom only because I didn't want to be putting my child down on those surfaces. I found it a little icky, but it's a very nice space for them to be if you need a break, if you just need to get your child up and out and give them like a break from their seat in the plane or obviously to change their, to change their diaper. So cleanse your area. Bring extra receiving blankets for the space in the airplane for takeoff and landing. If you're breastfeeding your little one, perfect. They will suck, swallow and the pressure in their ears will be adjusted easily. If you don't have a breastfeeding child because they're older or they're just not breastfeeding, have something with you that they can drink. Now takeoff and landing can be a little bit upsetting for kids. Some children don't like that feeling in their ears. Some pilots are just a little bit more rough with the takeoff and landing, so it's a little bit more abrupt on the earth. Pressure in our heads and in our ear canals especially. So have something with you moms and dads have something special that your child would ordinarily never get for them to be able to swallow, right. So that they need to drink either chewing gum for your older children, sucking on a lollipop or drinking a juice for your school aged kids or a bottle of something or breastfeeding for your little ones. Have something with you because that will definitely help them adjust the pressure until you're all the way up in the air. So that's for takeoff and landing. And when we're up in the air there, you know, kind of every, every plane now has tv. So technically once we're up in the air with our kids, we usually do pretty well for the most part. If you have on a crier, I feel for you, I have been there. Sometimes there's nothing we can do, but hopefully with adjusting the pressure in their ears, you can assist them with that. Now the other piece of staying healthy when we travel is once you get to your destination, do the best you can to keep your children's bedtime schedule the same and their diets as well. Very often when we travel we're indulging, right? We're indulging in foods. We're indulging with our time. We're going to stay up later than normal, Special treats for our kids, staying up into the evening. These are all amazing experiences for our kids. But try not to overdo it. You know, it's going to bed way too late on top of a special treat and a suite from here and maybe stress from the airport and stress going through security and all that sort of builds up in our system as like a toxic overload and then we get sick. So, you know, if we have too much stress going on from one direction or another, we tend to get sick. So support your children and yourself when you, by being mindful of the events that you have planned while you're on vacation, that it's not too far out of range of their normal bedtime routine and their normal diets, and that will help you along a bit. Bring some supplements with you as well. I find giving my children extra probiotics when they were little, when I traveled, was really helpful. I wasn't about to try. I mean, if you have the ability to eat all organic foods when you travel, amazing and good for you, but many families don't have that ability. You know, you're going to end up eating foods that are not organic when you travel, for the most part, and a probiotic will kind of offset that a bit. You know, the meats that we eat and the produce that we find are exposed to pesticides and antibiotics. And the probiotic will help to kind of level that off a bit for your children. It's also helpful moms and dads to bring with you your own little natural medicine cabinet, whatever that looks like for you, whether you use herbals, homeopathy, essential oils, vitamins, especially if you're traveling abroad, bring some of those products with you. They're not always readily available outside of the United States. And in certain parts of the United States, you might have trouble finding some of the natural supplements that you like to use. So bring those along with you. That's very helpful for you. All right, congratulations to all of you that are going to be traveling. I hope this information was helpful to keep you healthy during your traveling experience. Remember, parenting is a journey. You're doing an amazing job. Stay curious and keep learning, and I'll see you next time.
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Thank you for joining Jenny on the Simply Pediatrics podcast. We hope that the valuable information she shared in this episode will inspire and empower you on your holistic parenting journey. If you would like to learn more about Jenny, her simplypediatrics practice or anything that she spoke about today. Please check the show notes that accompany this podcast and you'll find all the links and resources you need. You can also sign up for the SimplyPediatrics mailing list so that you receive Jenny's weekly newsletters packed with vital information and holistic parent ems. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please consider giving this page a like and subscribe. Subscribe to the channel so you don't miss any episodes. Don't forget to connect with us by sharing your thoughts in the comments section below. Follow Simply Pediatrics on any and all of the social media platforms. And if you're interested in an in person or a virtual appointment with Jenny, please see the contact details in the show Notes. Stay tuned for more episodes packed with a wealth of powerful information to support you on your holistic parenting path. See you next time. It.