India travelers, lend me your wisdom
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Anonymous
| I'm flying solo with DS who will be 16 months. We are flying from east Asia (where we live) to India for a wedding. It is a direct flight, 9 hours duration. DS has a seat, and I will bring his Combi Corcorro. We will use a pack and play that belongs to a family member. It will be June and hot. I will dress him in Carters sets that have elastic at the bottom of the pants to help with mosquito protection, but he will have short sleeves. What do I need to bring? Mosquito net? What else? We will be staying with family for a week and then hotel for a week. We will be in different cars and cabs. Any advice please. Tia. |
Anonymous
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I found that the mosquitoes in India ignored the 30% DEET spray I used, so I think you need something pretty strong if you use spray. I'd be hesitant to use something too strong on a toddler, though. You may want to talk to your pediatrician.
A lot of 3-5 star hotels have AC, so you should be okay inside, although in 3 star hotels, you may need to watch out for open windows. You may want to order car cabs through your hotel. The standard cab you would hail on the street would be an auto rickshaw, which probably wouldn't be the best witha squirmy toddler. The traffic is very bad, and it can be hard to walk more than a few blocks, since crossing the street is a dicey proposition in a lot of places. I don't have the specifics on diaper/wipe availability. There are generally modern stores in the major cities that will have things you need. You just need to figure out where they are, since they would mostly be in wealthier neighborhoods, and your family should be able to direct you. |
Anonymous
| All I can say is kudos to you, OP! I have a hard enough time with my toddler in Italy. |
Anonymous
| The whole thing is giving me anxiety. If we were staying with family the whole time I would be ok. The 5 days in a hotel is really throwing me because I'm worried about the safety of the food/water. I'm thinking of canceling. I wish my family hailed from Italy. |
Anonymous
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There are plug in mosquito repellent things you can buy there to use in rooms where you will be staying. Where in India will you be and what time of year? I took my kids to Delhi in the fall and mosquitos were not a big problem. They were 3 and 15 months at the time.
I did not bother with car seats. Cars in India are smaller and a car seat takes up too much space, and some cars might not even have rear seat belts or latch. Make sure your kid just drinks bottled water and cooked food, no street food (delicious as it is). Staying mostly vegetarian might also reduce risk. |
Anonymous
Mumbai in June. Only reason for car seat is for the plane. I can't imagine there will be LATCH in the auto rickshaw haha |
Anonymous
Oh, I feel you, OP. But I don't think you need to feel so anxious about the hotel thing. The only times my (Indian) spouse and I have gotten sick during our travels in India have been when we've eaten street food. One of the wonderful things about traveling in India is that (cognitive dissonance aside when it comes to children in great poverty) they tend to adore children and be very, very welcoming of curiosity. Find a good hotel and then tell them of your concerns and ask where you can get freshly prepared, steaming hot food reputably for your toddler. I myself was invited into my hotel's restaurant kitchen to supervise preparation of our meal after asking a few questions about it (right down to which spices and how much I wanted used). Then we were invited to the hotel owner's own home to eat food prepared by his wife. The mosquitoes are the primary thing that concern me, but none of our friends or relatives' kids have gotten mosquito-borne viruses on their visits and neither have we. |
Anonymous
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No need to worry about these things.
Hotels usually provide a couple bottles of water each day, you can always buy more at a store or through room service. It's safe. Hotel restaurants are also very good. In Mumbai you will have no trouble finding stores with diapers,etc. Just ask the hotel reception where to go. They will have cars/taxis available at the door too. For going out and about, pick up a tube of Odomos mosquito repellent from the store you get the diapers from. |
Anonymous
| My kids were fine on the plane to India without a car seat. It's just one more thing to have to deal with and carry around. |
Anonymous
I would love to ditch the car seat! But I'm hoping he'll sleep on the plane, not sure that will happen without the car seat but rally I don't know. I have made many overseas flights w DS solo at this point but at each age he's, well, at a different age and this age is a little hard. |
Anonymous
| You're foreign service right? Fellow foreign service mom here. When we were in a country with bad mosquitos we used California baby repellent. Even though there likely are not mosquitos in your hotel room, it doesn't take any extra space to back a mosquito net you can drape above the pack and play, so I'd do that. |
Anonymous
Military but same wavelength. Thanks for the California baby tip. |
Anonymous
| India stands for "I'll Never Do It Again." |
Anonymous
Don't stress so much OP! My DH is from South India and we've gone to India with DD every year of her life starting from when she was six months old, and she's now 14. She's never had more than a cold there and we've traveled all over the country. Hotels in India that NRIs and western tourists stay at are fabulous. If you drink bottled water from the hotel, and eat at upscale hotels and restaurants, you'll be fine. we've also stayed many times at more "Indian" hotels that only Indian tourists stay at, and we've been fine. I think my DD has built up a tolerance and good immune system from all her travels - last December we did a road trip through Karnataka and she ate dosas at roadside dabas and never got sick. I'm not recommending this, just saying that she is now able to be more adventurous with her eating! Good luck - you'll be fine. Indian weddings in India are not to be missed!!! |
Anonymous
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Pick an upscale hotel and be really strict about the water and you'll be fine. Our ped said to go with the highest DEET % for repellent. Better to get some chemicals for a few weeks than to get some illness. Long sleeves, long pants.
Relatives made fun of us, but we were strict about the car seat once there. It worked out fine. We didn't use it on the plane. I was dreading the trip so much, but it ended up being so much fun. We traveled a ton in India, and the kids did great. |