It happened to us in Curacao! Our kid gets really bad croup if he gets a cold, and I was terrified of it happening while on vacation. Well, we wake up one morning to horrid stridor and barking cough, scooped him up, ran to hotel reception screaming for the closest hospital. They told us to walk rather than drive, grabbed wallet, walked to the main hospital for 15 min while having a panic attack. They saw us in 5 min even though we totally forgot passports, the kid got better by the time we saw a doctor, and they didn't charge us anything because apparently you don't pay for emergency care there.

Last year we did a 7 hour drive with frequent administration of pepto and an emergency set of ziploc bags. Our whole family had some sort of noro-type gastric bug from the day after Christmas through Jan 2.

I would not recommend this.

I personally have suffered through an illness to get home from a trip because I wanted to be back in my own bed.

If it was my kid I would weigh how much of a hassle travel would be. I would honestly prefer to get home if possible, but would consider extending the stay and going to an urgent care if needed.

related but not an answer: Wasn’t there that nightmare vacation post from someone last year who had left their I’ll nanny behind in a hotel, only to get sick along with her kids on the plane ride home?

This would be my consideration,

I was just about to take my child with a low fever on our trip for this week. We came very close - within 2 hours of leaving our house and all packed. His low temperature spiked to 103 while he was on ibuprofen and we called it off. Took him to urgent care and he had the flu. They have the test for it now. It was within the 24-48 hr time frame from when symptoms started so we were able to start him on tamiflu.

I can't imagine flying with a kid who I know has the flu. So I think if this happened while I was on vacation, we would have to extend our trip. There is no way we could have dealt with him on the plane in the throes of that.

Move to a hotel

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've never gone home early. We've gone to a local doctor and one parent stays at the condo/house with the sick kid while the other parent takes everyone else out.

Putting someone with an active flu on an airplane is not a good idea.

It doesn't sound like they're leaving early, but that it's time to go home/vacation is over and the kid is sick.

OP here and this is the hypothetical situation I'm curious about.

I know it's weird I'm posting about this, but I just got back from a trip with my kids and I found that I was more anxious than usual about them catching something while we were gone. Maybe it's because we were at our in-laws and I was paranoid we'd be stuck there forever?!

I get paranoid about my kids getting sick before vacation. Like one year, we had this huge trip to Asia planned (a big splurge for us) and guess what, one of my kids gets the stomach flu a few days before. He had never had it before (we've been lucky in that regard) and I'm thinking "of all the times this had to happen...." He was fine by the time the trip started, but I was super paranoid that my other kid would get sick either right before we left or maybe on our way there (hmmmm, 12 hour flight with puking kid...). Fortunately it didn't happen.

If sickness happened during the vacation, we'd just stay longer until they recovered -- nothing else to be done. I'd be more worried about seeking medical care in a place we weren't familiar with (or overseas). I buy trip insurance if it's a big trip.

We called the airline and paid a small fee to change our flights to a later date. Luckily we were with family and had a place to stay. I think we flew out within a day or two if I recall - it wasn't long before the fever subsided.

If the kid cannot travel home, then you stay longer.

I had a stretch where year after year I got sick on day one of our vacation … and this was before we had kids so I could not blame it on anyone but me. Flying sucks under the best of conditions but flying with fever is a horror.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've never gone home early. We've gone to a local doctor and one parent stays at the condo/house with the sick kid while the other parent takes everyone else out.

Putting someone with an active flu on an airplane is not a good idea.

It doesn't sound like they're leaving early, but that it's time to go home/vacation is over and the kid is sick.

OP here and this is the hypothetical situation I'm curious about.

I know it's weird I'm posting about this, but I just got back from a trip with my kids and I found that I was more anxious than usual about them catching something while we were gone. Maybe it's because we were at our in-laws and I was paranoid we'd be stuck there forever?!

Anonymous wrote:We've never gone home early. We've gone to a local doctor and one parent stays at the condo/house with the sick kid while the other parent takes everyone else out.

Putting someone with an active flu on an airplane is not a good idea.

It doesn't sound like they're leaving early, but that it's time to go home/vacation is over and the kid is sick.

We've never gone home early. We've gone to a local doctor and one parent stays at the condo/house with the sick kid while the other parent takes everyone else out.

Putting someone with an active flu on an airplane is not a good idea.

Take the kid to urgent care and see what the dr suggests about the return home. I’m sorry - I hope the kid feels better soon.

What do you do if you're on vacation and your kid is sick and it's time to go home?

I'm not talking about a mild cold. Let's say the flu, or norovirus or something.

If this has happened to you before, how did you handle?

TIA.