{"id":23584,"date":"2017-11-27T06:00:07","date_gmt":"2017-11-26T19:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/?p=23584"},"modified":"2025-02-22T01:43:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T14:43:44","slug":"6-tips-travelling-medical-condition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/6-tips-travelling-medical-condition\/","title":{"rendered":"6 tips for travelling with a medical condition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travelling with your children always takes a bit of planning. Add in a medical condition and it can be tempting to decide that a weekend close to home will suffice. <\/strong><\/p>\n

But far-flung travel doesn\u2019t have to be off the cards when you\u2019re dealing with health issues \u2013 it just takes a little more preparation. Our daughter, Maddie, is 13-years-old and has Type 1 diabetes, but that didn\u2019t stop us taking her on Intrepid\u2019s 8-day Cambodia Family Holiday<\/a> this summer!<\/p>\n

1. Plan to be spontaneous<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This has been my motto ever since Maddie (below) was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of nine. Type 1 is the autoimmune version that often starts in childhood, and is controlled with regular insulin injections. It\u2019s a tricky condition, especially in a child, but we\u2019ve always said that having diabetes shouldn\u2019t stop Maddie from doing anything at all, and it certainly didn\u2019t on our travels in Cambodia<\/a>. The trick is to be an optimistic pessimist. Assume the best will happen, but plan for the worst. That way, whatever your trip throws at you, you know you\u2019ll be able to cope.<\/p>\n

\"Helen's<\/a>

Image by Helen Wills<\/p><\/div>\n

2. Think ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Before travelling, I read up on everything we might experience, from food to airport security issues. I also made a list of where the main hospitals were in relation to our itinerary, and called our medication manufacturers to find out if our usual brand would be available in the local pharmacies, should we need it.<\/p>\n

Plan for your time zone and weather too. For us, a change in time zone is a big deal, because the body\u2019s need for insulin varies at different times throughout the day. We change the time settings on my daughter\u2019s insulin pump as soon as we board the plane, so we have plenty of awake time to adjust things as we go. Heat and cold can affect blood sugar levels, and insulin must be kept cool, so we travel with insulating bags and use a flask of iced water to store vials whilst we\u2019re in hot countries.<\/p>\n

Always pack more medical supplies than you need to, and split it across two or three bags. That way if anything goes missing or breaks, you\u2019re still covered, and you don\u2019t need to interrupt your holiday.<\/p>\n

3. Take vaccinations seriously<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Visit your GP a good 6 months before you plan to travel, and get all the jabs they recommend for your destination. Sometimes vaccines may not be in stock, and you might need to wait for them to be ordered in. Discuss with your specialist whether you should have anything beyond the standard recommendations.<\/p>\n

Cambodia is mostly additional risk<\/em> for malaria, so you can get away with using 50% DEET, but our diabetes consultant recommended malaria tablets for Maddie, to really cover all risks.<\/p>\n

We also paid for Hepatitis B vaccines for her. With diabetes, any standard illness is more likely to land you in hospital, and it\u2019s good to know she\u2019s protected for future travels too. We took a small sterile hospital kit of needles and cannulas; we didn’t use them, and Cambodia’s hospitals seem to be excellent, but it gave me peace of mind that we’d have sterile equipment if we ever needed it.<\/p>\n

\"Helen<\/a>

Image by Helen Wills<\/p><\/div>\n

4. Book a guided trip<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Doing this took a lot of the stress out of our itinerary. Having booked a family tour<\/a>, we knew the planned visits would be appropriate for children, the hotels would be of a certain standard and we wouldn\u2019t be taking any real <\/em>risks.<\/p>\n

Plus, our guide was with us every day, which meant there was always someone close by who spoke the local language. We also really got to know him, and learned about his country as a result. Great for the kids, who aren\u2019t up for reading the guide books!<\/p>\n

5. Get super organised for airports<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Getting some medications and medical devices through airport security can be stressful, but we\u2019ve found being over-prepared for every possibility usually helps things go more smoothly. Maddie\u2019s insulin pump can\u2019t go through x-ray machines or full body scanners, which often makes security staff wary. Equally, the current recommendation on insulin is that it shouldn\u2019t go through either.<\/p>\n

We pack everything in clear bags with copies of our hospital letters stating what\u2019s needed and why. In most cases this works, and we\u2019re on our way fairly quickly. We also set off really, really<\/em> early for the airport, because on the odd occasion when you do have a problem, the last thing you need is panic that you’re going to miss your flight!<\/p>\n

Staying calm, and compromising where you can is a good rule of thumb. We had one flight out of Thailand where the ground staff insisted our insulin should go in the hold; that kind of temperature exposure would damage it beyond use, so not surprisingly we held firm until they brought a manager. But when cabin crew asked us to let them know if we needed to inject, and use a special disposal bag that they provided, it really wasn’t worth an argument, so we went with it.<\/p>\n

\"Helen's<\/a>

Image by Helen Wills<\/p><\/div>\n

6. Research your food options<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Type 1 diabetes isn’t caused by lifestyle factors at all, but once you start injecting insulin, food management becomes a round the clock issue. On a long-haul holiday, it’s natural for most parents to be concerned about food, especially if their children aren’t used to spices, or unusual dishes.<\/p>\n

With diabetes in the mix, we needed to know that there would be access to carbohydrates to prevent hypos, as well as foods that we knew how to carb count. We spent some time reading up on what might be readily available in restaurants, and practising eyeballing<\/em> food plates to estimate the carbohydrate content. We also carried cereal bars and biscuits with us just in case we needed something quickly.<\/p>\n

In reality, we found culinary Cambodia<\/a> easy to navigate \u2013 there was usually bread, always rice, and the rest was meat and vegetables. Check out what the typical foods are at your destination, and think ahead to what you might order, and what you might need to take with you.<\/p>\n

Just do it!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

And that’s it! It can feel like a huge chore preparing to travel with a medical condition, but it’s so worth it, and the time invested before you go really pays off once you get there. If it’s at all possible, don’t let your medical condition put you off travelling. Good luck with your next adventure!<\/p>\n

Ready to take your family away on the trip of a lifetime? Check out our range of<\/strong> Intrepid family tours<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Feature image by Talal Ahmad<\/a> via Unsplash<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Actually Mummy blogger, Helen Wills, shares her best advice for travelling with Type I diabetes, a condition her 13-year old daughter has. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16011,"featured_media":23587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1870,286],"tags":[684,180,43,1275,641,1351,417,253,257,557],"class_list":["post-23584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-stories","tag-advice","tag-asia","tag-cambodia","tag-family-travel","tag-guide","tag-local-leaders","tag-tips","tag-travel","tag-travel-tips-2","tag-traveller-stories","ipf_theme-family","ipf_region-cambodia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n6 tips for travelling with a medical condition | Intrepid Travel Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Actually Mummy blogger, Helen Wills, shares her best advice for travelling with Type I diabetes, a condition her 13-year old daughter has.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/6-tips-travelling-medical-condition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"6 tips for travelling with a medical condition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Travelling with your children always takes a bit of planning. 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