What to do if your kids get sick on vacation: 16 tested tips

Getting sick is the worst. No, seeing your kids sick is the worst. NO—seeing your kids get sick on vacation is the absolute worst.

Unfortunately, we’ve definitely battled our fair share of bugs while traveling. As a result, I’ve learned what to do if your kids get sick on vacation. What’s more, I figured out the things you should do before you ever leave town just in case they come down with a bug. And finally, I learned what to do if your kids need a doctor while on vacation—and I’m sharing all of that advice here.

Of course you want to keep your kids healthy so you don’t have to even ask the question of what to do if your kids get sick on vacation. My post on keeping germs at bay when you’re traveling will help there—it details what to do before you leave, what to do in the dirtiest place in the airport and research-backed tips to stay healthy.

I hope you never need the advice on what to do if your kids get sick on vacation. Just in case though, pin this post for later. If you need it, you’ll be glad you have these tips handy.

I am not a medical professional. I am sharing these tips as a fellow parent and write only what has worked for me and my family. If you need medical advice, contact your provider.

Prepare before you leave home

An ounce of preparation is worth a pound of a cure, in the case of family travel. So make sure to take these steps before you ever leave home—just in case your kids get sick on vacation.

Know your child’s weight (in local measurement)

Before you go on vacation, make sure you know how much your child weighs. This is so you can give them the correct dosage of medication. And just in case, if you had to go to urgent care while out of town, you’d be able to give accurate information to the doctor.

What’s more, know your child’s weight in the local measurement system. So if you’re going someplace on the metric system, convert your child’s weight to kilograms ahead of time. Ditto if you’re going from kg to lb!

Level 10 travel tip: If you forget to check your child’s weight before you leave home, ask them to step onto the baggage scale at the airport. My kids love to see how much they weigh—and if we’d have to pay for a heavy baggage fee if we checked them!

Locate a doctor and hospital ahead of time

You never know if your child is going to get sick on vacation, in spite of doing all the anti-germ things to keep them healthy. And if they become seriously ill, you don’t want to waste time researching doctors or calling your insurance back home to figure out where you should go.

Our health insurance, for example, has hospitals only on the West Coast. So I keep details of what we should do written down in case we need an urgent care or emergency room visit on vacation.

If you’re going someplace where you don’t speak the local language, ask on travel forums or search for a doctor who speaks your language in your destination. Then keep that information noted somewhere safe—in the notes of your phone or written on your itinerary—so you can access it even if you don’t have wifi or don’t want to waste time re-googling.

Keep a medicine bag ready to go

If I had a dollar for every time we forgot something important on vacation, we’d be halfway to our next Disneyland vacation by now. But want to know what we never forget anymore? Basic medical supplies just in case.

That’s because I keep a small medicine bag packed at all times. I keep it in our medicine cabinet until it’s time to get ready for our next getaway, then into the suitcase it goes—no repacking Tylenol or bandages.

Here’s what we always keep in our travel medicine bag for kids:

• children’s pain reliever
• thermometer
• bandages
• first aid ointment
• kid-safe Vick’s chest rub for colds

In addition, we bring prescription medication in case Edie gets a croup attack.

**How do I know which medication to bring for the kids?**

Parents often ask me how to decide what medications and just-in-case medical stuff to bring on a family vacation. It varies from family to family. For example, not everyone would bring chest rub for colds on a routine trip, but Edie in particular gets wicked coughs if she catches even a simple cold. One To & Fro Fam reader has two kids prone to ear infections, so she never leaves home without homeopathic ear drops.

As a rule of thumb, I recommend bringing anything you wouldn’t want to waste 20 minutes running to the drug store to buy. So if something is urgent enough that you would need it immediately—like a scraped knee—bring it. If it can wait 20 minutes while you zip out to the drug store, then skip it.

What to do if your kids get sick on vacation

In spite of your best intentions—and all the prevention—your kids might get sick on vacation. If that’s the case, I’m so sorry. Being sick is no fun, but being sick on vacation is worse.

Here’s what to do if your children fall ill when you’re traveling.

Scale way back on your vacation plans

If your kids get sick on vacation, you’ll need to adjust your itinerary or vacation plans. You definitely won’t want to be as ambitious in exploring if you have one or more sickies in your crew.

How much to scale back depends on your kids and the severity of their illness. We sometimes continue the majority of our plans if Maxine catches a cold. (She’s a bit of a locomotive: Once she works up steam, she’s hard to stop!) On the other hand, Edie is miserable in the first two days of a cold, so we scale way back if she catches one.

So err on the conservative side with your plans, and always be ready for flexibility. For example, one time I had taken my kids to an art museum while we were out of town. About 45 minutes in, Edie hit a wall—I hadn’t realized how sick she was! So we immediately left, no bribing her to see just one more gallery. When your kids are sick, sometimes you have to cut your losses and just head back to the hotel.

Divide and conquer with your kids

If you have a mix of healthy and sick kids, and you’re traveling with a partner, then consider taking turns exploring with your well kiddos.

One parent can take the healthy kids out to do fun things while the other parent stays with the sickie. Just make sure to take turns so one parent isn’t stuck for days watching a Dora the Explorer marathon while the other parent has a full-on vacation.

Look at down time as quality time

That said, staying back with a sick kiddo isn’t the worst punishment ever. In fact, with a little perspective shift, you can see snuggling with a sick child as quality time together.

Sure, everyone would rather feel healthy enough to visit a water park or check out the children’s museum. But if that’s not in the cards, embrace your quiet time together.

Consider what you can do to actually enjoy hanging out without any of the stresses of home. Will you watch all three of the How to Train Your Dragon movies—in a row? Read Harry Potter out loud? Write an illustrate a book together?

If you’re like most parents, you want more quality time with your kids—when you and your littles are undistracted and in the moment, together. Sure, it’d be nicer to spend that QT when your kid isn’t running a fever. But I bet you’ll take snuggles any way you can get them.

Address kid FOMO, too

If you have to scale back on your vacation plans because your kids got sick on vacation, your child is probably pretty disappointed. After all, they’ve likely been looking forward to your family vacation just as much as you were.

So if they’re having FOMO—especially if their siblings get to go out and enjoy your destination—recognize the feeling of being left out. Simply validating their disappointment is important.

Then see if you can find a silver lining. For example, my kids get super excited when they get extra screen time.

Make a supplies run

If your kids get sick on vacation, you’ll probably need to make a trip to the grocery store or drug store. You’ll want to get any over the counter medication you didn’t have in your medicine bag, along with other supplies.

For example, we always splurge on the nice tissues when our kids get a bad cold. The rough, thin tissues stocked in hotels just don’t cut it when you’re blowing your nose every few seconds.

You might also want to buy some broth or cough drops, sanitizing wipes, plus things to keep your kids entertained like a new coloring book or stickers.

Find comfort

Being sick is no fun for anyone, and kids especially rely on things that give them comfort to get them through a bug.

My kids, for example, ask for “noodies” every time they get sick. They’re just egg noodles with a little butter and salt, but there’s something about the ritual of eating noodies when you feel like crap that makes you feel a tad bit better.

Whatever your family’s noodies, try to incorporate that into your kids’ comfort—even if you’re out of town.

Be a germophobe to prevent spreading the bug

A sick kid on vacation is rotten. Do you know what’s worse? An entire family sick on vacation. So if one kiddo comes down with the crud, step up your prevention measures to keep the rest of the fam from falling ill, too.

That means:

• wash your hands even more often than you would usually
• keep a trash can next to your sick kid to collect used tissues
• wipe down surfaces with sanitizing wipes
• ask housekeeping for changes of pillowcases
• if possible, get healthy members of the family to keep their distance
• if possible, have healthy members of the family get outside—they’re less likely to catch a bug if they’re in the fresh air, not breathing in your sick kiddo’s germs
• enforce a strict bedtime—sleep is crucial to a powerful immune system

If your kids need medical care on vacation

If your kids get sick on vacation, I truly hope it’s a routine bug that passes quickly. Sometimes, though, the illness is more serious and requires medical care.

Here’s what to do in case you need medical care on vacation.

Call the nurse advice line

If you’re not sure if your child needs to see a doctor, call the advice line through your insurance, or call your child’s pediatrician. They’ll be able to offer tips—as well as a professional opinion on seeking medical attention or riding out the bug.

Get help from the concierge

If you’re staying at a hotel, then chances are the concierge will be able to help. Other visitors coming through the hotel have surely needed a doctor, so the concierge will likely know where to point you.

Hotel staff may have a list of medical providers, nearby urgent care offices and the like. They may also know doctors who speak your preferred language.

The concierge is there to help—so don’t hesitate to ask.

Ask for a translator

If you’re on vacation in a place where you don’t speak the local language, ask for a translator. Most hospitals have someone on staff who can be your go-between—especially with medical terms and explanations.

Cut the trip short

One To & Fro Fam reader went on a week-long vacation last year—only to find she, her husband and her two kids came down with influenza on the first day. They all stuck out the trip for a few days but decided they’d rather be super-sick at home. So they ended up leaving halfway through their vacation so they could recover in their own beds.

Sometimes, it’s best to cut your losses and come home early. This is especially true if your whole family is sick on vacation. Yes, it’s a total bummer. But sometimes disappointment is your best option.

File a travel insurance claim

If you do reschedule your trip home—which inevitably costs extra money in flight changes or hotel cancelations—file a claim with travel insurance, if you bought any.

To be transparent, I haven’t had terrific luck with getting reimbursed through travel insurance. They require quite a bit of paperwork (in several cases, written explanations and signatures from doctors explaining the doctor recommended returning home).

That said, a bit of hassle and paperwork is worth it if you get hundreds of dollars in reimbursements from travel insurance.

Be aware of coronavirus

2020 update: The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus COVID-19 to be a global pandemic in March 2020. That means this virus is spreading across the world.

Recommendations to avoid catching coronavirus are the same for avoiding other germs, for the most part. The Centers for Disease Control in the U.S. recommends washing hands, not touching your face and avoiding sick people. Pretty straightforward stuff.

That said, in the age of coronavirus, instructions on what to do if you show cold or flu-like symptoms have changed. If you or your child has a cough, fever, or shortness of breath, you should:

• stay indoors and avoid contact with others
• call your doctor, insurance company or another medical provider for advice. They will ask about your symptoms and recent travel and, if needed, send you to a health care facility equipped to handle possible COVID-19 cases.
• do not go directly to the hospital. The facility may not be set up to test or treat cases of coronavirus, and if you are positive, you risk spreading the virus to vulnerable groups.

Information about the novel coronavirus is changing daily, so keep up to date on general news about the virus. In addition, keep an eye on information specific to the location where you’re traveling.

Feel better on vacation—soon!

If you or your kids get sick on vacation, I’m so sorry. It’s such a disappointment to feel crummy when you want to be enjoying yourself and making memories together.

That said, you now have the tools and knowledge to make the most out of the situation. You just read tips on how to find a doctor when you’re on vacation, how to make your kids comfortable if they’re sick, and what to do if your kids show symptoms of coronavirus on vacation.

Do you have any other suggestions? Have you ever gotten sick on vacation? How about your kids? Please share below in the comments!