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Before we went to India, when I chatted with several people
about our upcoming trip, invariably they said, "You’ll get sick."
We spent five weeks in India, and none of us got sick (except the night
my eldest son ate too much lamb and threw up all over the place …).
It may have been luck, but we certainly did several things to improve our
chances. |
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We filtered all our water for drinking or tooth brushing,
and drank bottled water only. The kids quickly got accustomed to never using
the water out of the tap to brush their teeth. They each had a water bottle
and plastic cup for teeth brushing (retainers included in this process.)
We used a water filter, one that filters out bacteria and viruses. Another
option is to use tablets to treat the water, but these have a heavy iodine
taste which kids usually dislike. |
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As far as food goes, we never ate raw vegetables in restaurants
and we rarely ate meat. There are so many cooked vegetable dishes with good
fresh vegetables, reducing the hazard of amoebic dysentery or hepatitis
A. Although we aren’t vegetarians, meat in India was nothing to write
home about, so generally we just left it out of our diet. We ate bananas
and other fruit that could be peeled, as well as carrots and cucumbers that
we washed and peeled ourselves. In general, we had a really healthy diet,
with lots of vegetable dishes, rice and breads, and fresh fruit. |
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A last travel tip is "Sporlac," the Indian version
of Acidophilus. Even being careful about food and water, sometimes your
stomach feels a little off kilter. To set your stomach back on track, stop
at a local chemist (drug store) anywhere in town, and buy sealed packages
of "Sporlac" which is lactic acid bacilis. Sporlac, like Acidophilus,
puts "good" bacteria into your intestines, and is appropriate
for kids, even toddlers and infants. Now whenever I travel, I take along
Acidophilus, which you can purchase at any health food store. |
