Leaving in 3 days!!!! - With a toddler!!!

Lorina, I have three kids, and travelled a fair amount with them from 6 months on,, ( they are older now13, 17, 19) ,, but never did Europe. One thing I never regretting bringing was all the over the counter meds I was used to using for them at home. Yes, they have similar stuff in Europe, but, I way prefered using the brands I knew , and the doses I knew.

I always brought, decongestant( kids get colds in like an hour) , pain and fever reducer( I used child tylenol, but whatever you usaully use), antiseptic cream and bandages( polysporin), tweezers, pepto bismal( for mild diarehha) and cough med. I know it sounds like a lot, and you may never use it, but trust me if your kid wakes up crying at 2 am with an earache,, its great to have some pain reliever and a decongestant to give him to get him through to the morning( when if you like you can find a clinic,, try finding one at 2 am, LOL ) .

Good luck.

Ps Zip lock baggies are great too, you can buy packages of crackers etc and bag individule snack sizes etc. or take left overs, etc. I almost took my kids sippy cups,, they just liked them.

Lorena: That's good advice from Pat about bringing the over the counter medicines. You don't want to just to assume that you can conveniently and easily find the same stuff there--they have them but the names are almost all different from the names we use here, and some that are available here on the shelves of Walgreens or Riteaid are available only from the pharmacy, sometimes even the pharmacists in Europe aren't familiar with our brand names, blah blah blah.

Bottom line: Bring 'em and bring a sufficient quantity to last you for the trip--you'll have enough challenges without adding one that's easily avoidable.

thanks for all your advise. I have some medicine and snacks already packed !!!!

I agree with bringing some over-the-counter meds, but just enough for a day or 2. My son got sick on our trip this summer, we had to buy him something for his fever in Ireland AND Germany, and it wasn't a problem to find something in the pharmacy there. Just tell the pharmacist what's going on and they'll find you something, and know the generic name of what you're wanting. They had ibuprofen in Germany. Benedryl is good to have on the plane, too, if your child isn't much of a sleeper, but make sure you ask your pediatrician and try it out first, some kids just speed off of that stuff.

Are you taking a car seat on the plane? It's something to consider, although it may be a hassle on the trains. I've always liked having a place to strap my guys in, so I don't have a squirmy kid for 9 hours.

My daughter LOVES sticker books and can play with one of those for hours. You can find some at WalMart or Borders. And snacks. Lots of snacks. And buy a new toy over there as a "souvenir."

We were lucky on our last trip, we had new planes with touch-screens in the back of the headrests. We loosened up our TV rules and the kids watched Disney cartoons most of the way over and back.

Germany and Austria have lots of playgrounds, one in every town that we've gone to. Schedule in a playground stop each day. And ice cream.

Good luck! Hope you guys have a great time!

People give Benadryl to 2 year olds??

Anyway, just thought I would mention that if your child does need a pain reliever for fever, etc. it will most often come in the form of a suppository. This is the preferred method of giving kids meds like this. Surprises some folks, so thought I would give you a heads up. Tasty cough syrup for kids seems fairly non-existent here too. Heck I can't even find good tasting stuff for adults, it is all quite disgusting. So bring your DimaTapp.

My kids loved the earphones on the plane that had the childrens channel on them. They knew all the songs by heart. As for activity on the plane or dining out, you probably know your child the best, but books or a little car, or drawing materials were faves of my 2.

There are playgrounds everywhere, but also swimming pools, both indoors or out. This can be a fun activity for the whole family to relax. Many cities have children's museums too, but 2 is a tad young for something like that

Jo ist right, medicine in bubble gum or grape flavour is a no-no in Germany. One of the safety measures to discourage kids from (accidently) overdosing on meds that look and taste like candy ...

Antihistamines are often recommended as sleeping aids and you can get the stuff in kids doses as well. Gravol can function as a light sedative as well. BUT definitely talk to your doctor AND try before you go. More than a few kids will get the opposite effect and become hyper! We never used anything like that. But we always made sure we had something to chew on for the kids. I started them on chewing gum as soon as they stopped nursing (which really is the best thing ever to deal with pressure changes). The swallow a lot of that stuff but that's not really an issue. The flights were really long for me as a parent and I didn't get much sleep - mostly because if one kid was sleeping for sure the other one was awake. But the kids did fine.

Flights to Europe were the one exeption where candy was allowed. I got candy blox that look like lego. They play with it for a while and eat it along the way - two birds with one stone ;-)

Remember that delays and wait times are highly likely. So have snacks and drinks with you. Even in the plane. Murphy's law will tell you that the kids don't want to eat a thing during meal service and are hungry just when there's nothing else available. Drinks usually mean an empty waterbottle you can empty before and refill after every security check.

Have fun!

Ditto what Beatrix said about snacks and water bottles.