The worst thing when your child gets sick, right. You may both work, need to arrange differennt plans to take a day off work or find someone to watch your child while you go and make your living. But,,, what about when you child gets sick on your vacation..... uggg..
Most people, in fact every traveller needs travel insurance,,,, if you don't have it in place when you are travelling,,,, you are just asking for your financial well being to be destroyed possibly if some of your travelling party gets sick,,,, or has a major injury,,, be it mum, dad, sister, or brother.
We recently encountered a bug both me and my son acquired thanks to a sick many on our BA flight to London this summer. This guys was so sick he was in the bathroom for three quarters of the flight. And,,,, yep,,, within 24 hours of landing we got it.... However my son was later than me and he timed things perfectly... Picture this,,, 10pm on the train platform getting ready for a 10 hour sleeper train.. Both kids tired,,, and neither showing signs of potentially becoming sick yet..
Then ,,, when loading on the train,,, our oldest times it without missing a beat... Throws up all over the train car.... luggage,,, himself,,, bed,, floor.... and the smell....
Oh boy,,, now what,,, We cleaned up and got ready for bed. Thankfully,,, that was it.. nothing else,,, no fever, no signs of something that was concerning.... But,,,, could you imaging if it was????? What would we as parents have done? Get off a night train in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night ?? Not an option...
This is a tough one though... I don't think with what happened to us,,, there is really anything you could have done more.. It would have been an emergency issue... I mean, no doctors, or places open or not knowing where to go or what to do.. In that case,,, suggestions welcome here.
As regular precautions though...
1) Take any regular medicine if you have a history of something with your children. This is a no brainer. You as a parent have all their medical history so when planning for a trip overseas, you need to have that all in order.
2) Get iron clad Travel Insurance. We were away for many months recently traveling to 7 different European countries and a few Middle Eastern countries.... Cost was almost $900 !!! Yep,,,,, expensive.... Those that have never travelled for that length of time may say I overpaid,,, or that you have and have gotten it cheaper... Well,, those that got it cheaper,,,, you should really look at your policy as I am positive it is not as Iron Clad as you may think it is.... Also,,, the reason for it being so expensive is simple.. The insurance companies look at it this way. The longer you are on vacation,,, the higher chance of a claim happening on the policy.. If you are out of the country for more than 90 days,,, the cost per extra day is going to really start accumulating..... as the actuaries at said Insurance company have calculated that the chances of an accident happening after that 90 day period is increasing at a much higher rate than in the time period before the 90 days.
3) Be prepared to have Travel Insurance,,,,, and still not have stuff covered... SERIOUSLY !!!!
We have been to a country in Europe where Iron Supplements for our kids you could not buy over the counter,,,, they had to be prescribed.... And,,, to be prescribed you needed to get to a doctor...... So how do you get to a doctor when you don't have a referral or anything. Well in our case,,, we went to the hospital and found a on call Dr, that spoke English. He told us to go to the equivalent of a walk in clinic, one where he knew the clinic had English speakers. Once there, we told them what the issue was and that we had insurance..... wait for it... wait for it.... The Dr. says,,, well,,, I can't help you out with anything to do with the fact you have travel insurance. He stated,,,, it was a huge inconvience for him and process that would hold up him actually even being able to prescribe the Iron Supplements for my son,,,,, however if we needed pay him direct right then,,,, he could prescribe what we needed right then to solve the problem. So,,, what do we do..... argue ??? decline ??? go elsewhere ??? Nope,,, you have to pay to get the issue resolved.... People reading this might say,,, oh I would not have paid.... or gone elsewhere.... Yeah right.... I don't think so. Why ? Because chances are if that was your first experience,,,, it would likely happen at the next place...
WORST PART:::: after getting our prescription filled and dealing with this..... even afterwards,,,, your insurance company will not re-imburse you for the transaction happening in this manner....
So,,, bottom line when dealing with kids... when sick on long staying vacation... is you'll need to go with the flow and seriously hope that when away you don't have a major health issue with your children....
Share you stories,,,,
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