travel to South America

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

My husband will be traveling to Brazil and Chile for school at the end of March, and I am considering joining him once he gets to Chile and possibly bringing our daughter, who will be 15 months old.

I know there have been some fairly recent posts about international flights, so I feel like I have some info about the flying part of it; I'm curious if anyone has taken small kids to South America specifically and if there were health/safety concerns (outside of immunizations) specific to that region that would be good to know about ahead of such a trip.

Thanks in advance!
Sara

[Anonymous]

I don't know much about Brazil but my family is from Chile (Santiago specifically). Haven't been in a few years but I would say Chile is one of the most developed latin american countries. I would have no concerns traveling with my small children there (I haven't b/c we're saving up the money now!) and know that there would be no point where we'd be "roughing it". I would definitely pack antiseptic wipes to keep little exploring hands clean but other than that, enjoy yourself!

[Anonymous]

We took our daughter to Santiago at 9 months and it was very easy with no special health concerns or issues. It is a developed big city and I don't think there are any diseases that are of special concern there.

[Anonymous]

Husband is from South America and we have traveled with our infant several times to visit his family since DC was 2 months old. DH is from a region that is not as developed as other parts (and by some DCUM standards, we are probably "roughing it" when we visit) and we have had no problems. Make sure imminuzations are up to date, ask your pediatricion about it, and carry wipes to clean hands. We've also found that using a carrier to keep DC closer to us rather than a stroller has prevented people from touching him as much -- where we travel, culturally people have a much smaller bubble of personal space and even strangers would try to touch him to play and interact. (Stranger grabs his hands -- baby immediately puts hands in mouth -- not a good scenario anywere, especially in a foreign country...).

[Anonymous]

A Travel Clinic will tell you all you need to know about safety concerns. I highly doubt that there is anything to worry about in Chili, it is very developed and safe.

I took my under 2 yr old to a malaria zone (amongst other things, but malaria being the most imminent danger) and he was too young for the pills, so I had to watch him like a hawk for bug bites and any signs of symptoms.

Even though we traveled to a part of the world with malaria, cholera, and various parasites in the grand scheme of things "thank god we are Americans" most afflictions are very treatable by excellent doctors if you have dollars. The people who suffer the most are those that can't get help for very treatable diseases.

When we traveled to Africa, I was shocked to learn that 3xs more people die of Malaria in Africa than AIDS. The worst part is that malaria is very treatable, but yet AIDS who kills far less people has over 15x's more global funding than malaria. AIDS is devestaing as well, but I just cannot understand why a disease that kills almost 3xs more people and even has a cure is only given a fraction of the funding. I guess AIDS has a better marketing team.

Today 3,000 children in Africa died of Malaria. Tomorrow 3,000 more children will die from Malaria. At the current rate over 1 million children will die of Malaria in 2009. There is treatment and what is really unfair, is that I was able to take my son to a Malaria zone and know that if he showed the slightest fever, he would immediatly see the best doctors Africa had to offer, get some meds and be on the next flight home and in a US hospital all withing 24hrs.

[Anonymous]

I'd check the State Department's travel warnings for the countries/regions you want to visit. I don't think there are any worries with Chile, but Brazil has a high crime rate, with occasional kidnappings for ransom. I wanted to take my daughter to Venezuela a few years ago and decided against it for this reason, but Venezuela is a whole different ball game.

[Anonymous]

We took our 5 month old to Argentina and Uruguay with no issues. Second the poster who mentioned that everyone will want to touch your child. We found we attracted so much attention with our daughter. Just about every woman on the street stopped us to talk to her. She loved it.