How to keep your kids healthy on vacation: Travel without getting sick!

Family travel isn’t always easy: You gotta keep track of the boarding passes and your kids’ lovey, pack all the snacks, head off public meltdowns and plenty more. You know what you don’t need on top of all that? A sick kid. That’s why I’m sharing my go-to tips to keep your kids healthy on vacation, especially during cold and flu season.

Yes, colds, coughs and other bugs happen—though preferably not on your family getaway. So it makes sense that you want to do everything in your power to keep your kids healthy on vacation.

Although you can’t spray down the entire plane with sanitizing spray or make your kids wear air-filtering gas masks, there’s plenty you can do to keep the bugs at bay.

So whether you’re traveling during cold and flu season or not, you’ll want to use each and every one of these tips to keep your whole family healthy while traveling. The result: healthier kids and more vacation fun!

What to do before a trip to keep your kids healthy on vacation

Get a flu shot

The one most important thing you can do to keep your kids healthy on vacation is to get the flu shot. A friend of mine once went on a week-long vacation with her entire family, only to find the entire crew had caught influenza. They were miserable in the hotel room for two days and then spent hundreds of dollars rescheduling their flights to come home early. And my mother-in-law caught influenza while we were visiting them one year; she ended up in the hospital for a week.

It’s a good thing that research repeatedly shows that flu shots are effective in preventing the flu, and if you do get the flu, the shot can reduce its severity and length.

So if you and your kids haven’t gotten your flu shots yet, make that a priority.

Get a good night’s sleep

My poor husband has so much nervous energy the night before we travel. He stays up until 1, 2 or 3am, puttering around the house, watching Netflix shows and generally being a ball of nervous energy. My first tip to keep your kids healthy on vacation: Don’t let your kids be like my husband.

Instead, keep the nighttime routine exactly the same as you would any other night. Bedtime routines act as triggers for that sleepy feeling to come over your kids, even if they’re trying to resist it. So stay the course, even if you’re busy prepping for the next day’s travels.

Having a well rested kid makes traveling more pleasant—and a well rested kid is less likely to get sick.

Prep healthy snacks the day before

When you don’t plan for snacks, you’ll probably end up reaching for what’s convenient. And what’s convenient usually comes in a crinkly package with tons of added salt and sugar.

Unfortunately, that’s not the kind of nutrition your kids need to keep their immune systems humming. So to ensure your whole family has immunity-boosting fuel, pack healthy snacks the day before you leave for your trip.

Healthy snacks for kids while traveling

• grapes
• cut fruit
• clementines
• crudites and little containers of dip
• a container with cut cheese, tofu dogs and deli turkey
• lunchmeat-and-cheese roll-ups
• string cheese
• squeezie pouches
• peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• fruit leather
• healthy granola bars
• baby tomatoes
• crackers, cheese, meat for a make-your-own Lunchable

Prepare all these healthy snacks and put them in a gallon ziplock bag in the fridge. Then right before you leave on your trip, grab the whole shebang.

I know we’ll all end up eating junk food, too—who can say no to those tiny bags of pretzels on the plane? not me—but I get peace of mind knowing we’ll all have some decent nutrition, too.

How to stay healthy with kids on a plane

Beware TSA security

The germiest place at the airport isn’t the bathroom, and it can’t be avoided: It’s the TSA security check.

Research has found that those plastic bins where you put your laptop and keys (and your child’s lovey!!!) harbor the most germs that can make you sick.

You can’t avoid going through security (unfortunately), so the first thing you should do after getting your shoes on after the checkpoint is take the whole family to the bathroom for hand-washing. I know many security checkpoints have hand sanitizer, but TBH that doesn’t feel like enough to me. I only feel comfortable after everyone has scrubbed with soap and water.

Use a sanitizing wipe on anything else that was in the tray, like the kids’ tablets.

Wipe down EVERYTHING on the plane

I’m not typically a super-germophobe, but my internal hypochondriac comes out on planes. So to keep my kids healthy on the plane, I don’t let them touch anything at our seats until I’ve given everything a good wipe-down.

Instead of bringing a big package of sanitizing wipes in your carry-on, put a handful of them in a small zippered baggie. (I use lavender-scented wipes, and my seatmates have even stopped to ask me what I did to make the plane smell so good!)

Then wipe everything—arm rests, seat belt buckles, chair seats, reclining buttons. Focus especially on tray tables, which research shows to be the germiest place on a plane (with nearly 10x the germs as the toilet flusher!).

Encourage naps on the flight

If your kids still nap, or if you all had to get up extra-early to catch your flight, do what you can to encourage your kids to nap. Resting helps your body’s defenses spend more energy on defending itself from viruses and bacteria so you’re more likely to stay healthy on vacation.

Now I know that it’s really hard to make a kid nap, but do what’s in your control. When Max and Edie were babies and toddlers, I’d strap them into the carrier, stand in the plane aisle and bounce them to get them to sleep.

Now that my kids are older, I limit screen time (a bit) on the plane if they need a nap. Neither of them will nod off when they could be watching Elsa or Moana instead, so I make them turn off electronics when they need a break for some shut-eye.

One time when we were flying to Mexico, Edie insisted she wasn’t tired the entire time so I made the mistake of letting her watch more movies. Then when she had to turn off her tablet when the plane was landing, she zonked out about 15 seconds later. Clearly, she had needed the rest earlier but hadn’t wanted to stop binge-watching Disney movies!

I won’t make that mistake again. I know my kids need plenty of rest to stay healthy while traveling.

Drink only water en route

I know some people get excited at the options of the in-flight beverage cart, but I have a rule: Only water when we’re traveling.

Flying on a plane is dehydrating, in part because they keep the air with very low humidity to decrease the risk of rusting the plane. That’s good news for the longevity of the aircraft—and bad news for your body, which loses more than usual moisture in the dry air. (That’s why you feel so thirsty after a flight and why your skin and nostrils feel so dry!)

To combat the dehydrating effect of air travel, we drink lots and lots of water. Staying hydrated helps your body stay efficient so it can be vigilant against germs. What’s more, water makes lymph, the fluid that flushes toxins and other baddies from your body.

So when we travel, we bring water bottles and skip the juice, soda and chocolate milk.

Level 10 travel tip: When your kids get antsy on the flight, get up with them and walk to the back of the plane. They can ask the flight attendant for a glass of water. This gets their body moving (so they’re less stiff), burns a little energy (so they’re less bonkers) and keeps them hydrated. Plus, they think it’s *so cool* to talk to the flight attendants!

Stay healthy when you arrive at your vacation destination

Wash hands—and then wash ’em again!

Sometimes when I ask my kids to wash their hands, they furrow their brow in my direction. “But Mom, we already washed our hands!” My response: “Yeah, like an hour ago, and it’s time to wash ’em again!”

Washing hands frequently is the absolute best way to stay healthy on vacation (or anytime). Good ol’ soap and water doesn’t kill germs but actually removes them from your skin. In fact, 15 seconds of washing with soap removes 90% of the bacteria from your hands. Doubling that time (to about the time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice) removes nearly 100% of germs.

Also encourage kids to properly dry their hands after washing. Wet hands are more likely to pick up and transmit germs. And when they’re done with the paper towel, make sure they use it to open the bathroom door.

With good hand washing habits—especially before eating food, after using the bathroom and after spending time in germy places (like the grocery store or the playground)—you’re much more likely to keep kids healthy on vacation!

Get outside as much as possible

Even if the weather isn’t ideal when you arrive at your destination, get outside as much as possible. That’s because it’s harder to catch a bug when you’re out in the fresh air.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go to the children’s museum, but work in outdoor activities, too. Head to the zoo, take a hike or simply go to a playground. The fresh air will do you all good.

Move your body

Most kids don’t need a lot of encouragement to run around and play, but traveling can disrupt their usual routine of soccer practice and zipping around the monkey bars. So to keep the whole family healthy on vacation, make sure to build in opportunities for exercise.

Exercise might help increase your immune system in several ways. Researchers suspect that breathing hard—like after running away from the waves at the beach—might actually expel germs from the lungs, keeping you cold-free.

Getting your blood moving also reduces the stress hormone cortisol (that your whole crew might have build up after, say, rushing to the terminal where your plane was about to take off). Since consistently higher levels of cortisol is linked to greater susceptibility to illness, it pays to exercise!

Finally, research shows that exercise changes the activity of white blood cells, the body’s illness-fighting powerhouses. In those who exercise, white blood cells circulate throughout the body more quickly—perhaps finding those germs before they can wreak too much havoc.

So no matter what you do on your next family vacation, make sure there’s plenty of time for you and your kids to move your body.

Stick to a sleep routine

You already know how important sleep is to staying healthy on vacation. So once you arrive, help your kids get enough sleep by staying as close as possible to their sleep schedule.

They might want to stay up extra-late, and time changes might make them wake up earlier than usual. But staying with a nighttime routine, avoiding sugar after dinner, and doing relaxing activities (like a bath, massage or reading stories) in the evening will help your kids get enough rest—and stay healthy on vacation.

If you want more ways to keep your kids on a sleep routine, you’ll want to read these pediatric sleep expert-approved tips to help kids sleep on vacation!

Eat lots of fiber

Typical vacation foods—think french fries and sweets—don’t have a ton of nutrition. They don’t have much fiber, either. That’s why we focus on eating high-fiber foods when we travel.

Your (and your kids’) digestive system can already be thrown out of whack when you travel. It’s not uncommon for your digestion to slow down when you’re in a new environment. You can help counteract that, and feel much better, by eating fiber-rich foods.

That’s why I work high-fiber fruits and vegetables into every one of my kids’ meals on vacation. So if they order a hamburger, I ask for extra tomato slices.

And in the mornings, oatmeal at a continental breakfast can add a good dose of fiber to the meal.

Your kids will feel much healthier, and have more fun, if they’re not stopped up!

Limit sugar—seriously

I really enjoy the occasional “special treat,” which is what we call sweets in my family. And vacations are a special occasion for us, so we typically go out to ice cream or have some other sweet treat.

That said, we do not use a family vacation as a reason for an all-out sugar binge. It’s a good thing, too, since eating refined sugar can impair the cells your immune system sends to attack invaders. (The effect lasts up to 5 hours after eating or drinking lots of sugar.)

So go ahead and enjoy sweet treats—in moderation. Just don’t go overboard on the sugar!

Practice gratitude to boost your immune system

You already get your kids to say please and thank you—that’s just good manners! But did you also know that gratitude can boost your immune system?

Research finds that people who regularly practice gratitude and an optimistic outlook have less chronic inflammation, which is a sign of poorer immune system functioning and puts you more at risk for catching an illness.

What’s more, other studies show that people who regularly practice gratitude have more illness-fighting cells in their body, so it’s likely they’re more able to fend off the cold and flu.

Want your kids to be more grateful? First of all, practice it in a way your kids can learn from your example. I often say out loud how grateful I am for something, especially when we’re on vacation. “I’m so thankful for the farmer who picked the vegetables in my salad,” I’ll say, or “I’m so grateful I get to go to the art museum with you kiddos today!” Max and Edie nearly always follow suit, saying something they’re grateful for, too.

You can also make gratitude a part of your dinner routine. You can give thanks at the start of the meal. Or simply go around the table and say something you’re thankful for.

You might want to keep a pen and notebook handy—kids’ reasons to be thankful are sometimes hilarious!

Finally, read books about gratitude. We love The Thank You Dish and The Thank You Letter.

Keeping your kids healthy in cold and flu season—and anytime

No matter where you’re traveling, or when, I know you want to keep your kids healthy on vacation. After all, it’s way more fun to explore your destination than to call housekeeping for yet another box of tissues because your little has a wicked runny nose.