COVID-19 Essentials for Travelling with Kids
It’s always important to have your list of essentials when travelling with young kids – in these strange times what we need is a compilation of COVID-19 essentials for kids. In an unfamiliar post-COVID world, this list might look a little different than usual. From providing entertainment for our children to keeping them comfortable and safe in their travels, diligent and considered planning is crucial in the light of a truly unexpected global pandemic that has changed everything as we knew it.
Covid-19 is the new reality we are living with, a new way of life, a new urge for safety and cleanliness, a new way of travelling with or without kids, simply a new way of going about our daily life trying to instil some sense of a new normality.
15min Mom brings you a list of essentials for children, a list of products fully reviewed and approved by the 15min Mom clan aged 9, 7 & 3. Therefore there’s something for every age and products that truly are must-haves!
How do we prepare and plan for the unexpected?
Some time has passed since the nationwide lockdown was implemented in the UK in March 2020. We’ve slowly begun to understand this new way of living, adapting to a strange new lifestyle. But what does this mean for our children and for travelling?
All over the world, government guidelines have been set in place to help international and domestic travellers make their journeys and visits safely and in accordance with national jurisdictions and regulations. It’s important to read these carefully, not only for your children, but for yourselves and the people around you – we are all in this together, after all.
Before you embark on your travels, make sure you have read your home country’s foreign travel advice (click here for the UK’s foreign travel advice page) and the guidelines provided by the country of destination.
What can we do beyond following government advice?
Reading up on official foreign travel advice is extremely important in aiding your preparation for travel, particularly in offering practical advice on keeping safe in these post-COVID times. But there are some things that even government advice can’t account for.
Like how do we keep our children entertained in their travels? How do we keep them safe and comfortable at the same time? How do we make sure they know the importance of washing their hands, keeping their distance, wearing their masks without overwhelming them or scaring them? These are some things that we, as parents, need to think about when we travel with our kids.
So, what should we consider when packing for travels with our kids?
To help guide me through my selection of travel essentials for kids, I always consider a set of factors that are crucial for ensuring responsible and enjoyable travel:
- Safety
- Comfort
- Enjoyment
With COVID-19, travelling safely has taken on an entirely new meaning. We need to make sure our children are wearing their masks, maintaining social distance where needed and washing their hands properly.
At the same time, we need to make sure our children are comfortable and enjoying their travels. To help keep your kids safe, comfortable and happy for a smooth and hassle-free journey, take a look at these COVID-19 travel essentials…
1. Dinoski Reusable Face Mask & Matching Hoody
Especially for the younger ones that struggle with masks, it might be time to ditch the plain black or blue masks for something a little more colourful and exciting.
These super fun mask and matching hoody sets by Dinoski are a great way to get your kids into their masks. Available in a range of different animal themes, from tigers to bunnies to unicorns, suddenly wearing a mask becomes less of a struggle and more of a fun activity as your children dress up as their favourite animals.
My 3 year old loves his tiger mask so much he wears it all day long because he finds it cool! So when we travel on public transport, taxis or flights, it doesn’t take much convincing for him to put on his mask.
2. CarGoSeat Child Booster Seat
We absolutely love this neat little lightweight, carry along car seat, it’s ingenious! Travel couldn’t be safer when using your own car seat, be it on the tube, in the bus, in a taxi, on an aeroplane or on a rented car when you’re travelling abroad.
Gary’s lightbulb moment led to him creating the genius product we now know as CarGoSeat. He combined a lightweight, safe booster seat for a child weighing 22kg to 36kg and a height of 125cm or taller, with a spacious, funky, wheeled case, giving parents peace of mind about travelling safely and simply wherever they go next.
3. The Three Maskateers
Masks designed for kids by kids. These colourful fun masks are the perfect size for children of any age. With proceeds going entirely to Great Ormond Street Hospital these masks are a must have for any type of travel with kids.
The Three Maskateers was founded by Alif (age 7), Ayat (age 7) and Aria (age 6) while they been staying in Hong Kong during the Covid 19 pandemic. As a result of living in Hong Kong, they have seen that everyone wears masks and have experienced the benefits of wearing face masks. It helps them from touching their face, and it helps prevent the spread of germs when they talk. So they wanted to design some fun face masks for kids their age. Therefore, they have researched and have chosen the designs of the face masks that are part of the first collection. In fact the name The Three Maskateers was Alif’s idea as well.
4. A Hand Gel Safe For Babies & Travel
I love this product firstly for babies that have very sensitive skin and may find alcohol based hand sanitisers aggressive to the skin. Also, when those little sanitised hands end up in the mouth, they can leave a rather unpleasant taste.
The most important reason for me is that during air travel, cabin pressure builds pressure within bottles and containers and hand sanitisers are no exception. I have seen the alcohol based sanitiser explode into my child’s face straight after landing, due to pressure build up. Fortunately this didn’t go into their eyes but if this were the case, it could have seriously stung and caused pain and discomfort to my child’s eyes. In an unfortunate situation like this here’s how to clean hand sanitiser from your little one’s eyes.
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5. Gadgets, Phones, Tablets & Consoles
We all know that entertaining little ones with a little help from a Gadget does more good than harm. They are however a perfect surface for breeding germs and bacteria. Here’s how to keep your gadgets clean.
These wipes are handy to keep in your bag especially when phones or gadgets are laid on unclean surfaces or dropped on the floor.
6. Travel Packs to Keep Little Ones Entertained
With most shops closed at the airports due to Covid-19, we can no longer depend on buying toys or entertainment for the flight. These neat little entertainment packs are just the thing you need for a surprise travel gift. With options for up to 10 year old children, taking these with you on any type of travel is a life saviour.
These are a perfect alternative to tablets and phones allowing you to save your battery life and have some quiet time on the flight (or that’s just wishful thinking)!
Hope you found our short list useful. We welcome any suggestions you may have so do leave us a comment with your thoughts.
