The kids' health and safety in China

By far the biggest challenge during our trip to China was ensuring that the kids (the two outside ones and the one inside, too) stayed healthy and safe. To be honest, I didn't even really research much about this topic ahead of time. In retrospect, this was probably a good thing, because it turns out there were a lot of considerations, and I might have gotten scared off from doing the trip at all :) I will say that I'm very glad that we went and would do it again in a heartbeat, even knowing what I know now. So keep that in mind as you read the rest of this post…

Water
Drinking tap water in China is not recommended. We used bottled water for drinking, cooking (the service apartment that we stayed in for most of our time in China had a small kitchen), and teeth brushing. We did use tap water for bathing, hand washing, and dish washing.

Bottled water is cheap to buy, and hotels also provide bottled water. In the service apartment, the room had a water dispenser (like a water cooler that you might see in an office in the USA). A big bottle of water for the dispenser cost about $2 and lasted for 3-4 days.

Littles is old enough now to get her own cup of water, so we had to make sure that she knew to always get water from the dispenser, not the sink like she does at home.

Food
I've never been so thankful for the FDA. Say what you will about it and its regulatory teeth (or lack thereof), but at least in the USA, I have some degree of confidence that 1) food is generally produced in a safe manner and 2) if there is a food safety problem, it will be publicized (in a language I can understand) and addressed appropriately.

I had no such reassurances in China. Milk has been tainted with chemicals, produce has been grown using human feces as fertilizer, etc. Since we were doing a lot of our own cooking, we did most of our food shopping at Western grocery stores, rather than Chinese markets. Much of the food there was imported, which meant that the prices were (significantly) higher, but we had more reassurance that the food had been produced under safe conditions. When eating out, we just used common sense, and stuck to restaurants that came recommended or otherwise seemed reputable.

As in most places where you can't drink the water, eating raw fruits/vegetables isn't recommended either, since they may have been washed in tap water. Even if you wash them yourself, they could have come into contact with bacteria that water won't get off. I was really careful about this, since I had Q to worry about -- some bacteria can have little/no effect on a healthy person, but can greatly affect a fetus. The others were slightly more lax, and were fine (for the most part). As much as possible, I did try to get fruits/vegetables with a peel for the kids to snack on (bananas, kiwi, oranges, even stuff like apples or carrots) so that I could take the peel, and hopefully any bacteria, off before eating it.

Unlike many places where you can't drink the water, ice in restaurants isn't a concern. For starters, it's rare to get water in restaurants (tea is offered as the drink of choice), and if you do, it's usually warm (apparently, the Chinese believe that cold water is not good for you). But restaurants that do offer ice usually make it out of boiled or filtered water.

Food allergies
Noob is allergic to peanuts, and Chinese dishes often have peanuts in them. We steered clear of restaurants that didn't have English translations for their menus, to avoid accidentally ordering a peanut-containing dish. Sometimes, this meant choosing a less-desirable restaurant option, like the time that we needed a quick meal and we chose McDonald's over a Chinese fast food place that had a Chinese-only menu. But I'd take a McDonald's meal any day over a trip to the hospital to treat anaphylactic shock.

Car safety
Things I learned about cars and driving in China:

• American driver licenses are not valid in China, so we needed to take a taxi or hire a car/driver whenever we needed to drive somewhere.
• LATCH (or ISOFIX) seems to be completely non-existent. This meant that Littles’ Go Hybrid Booster could only be used as a booster, not as a harnessed seat.
• The seat belts I saw did not have the auto lockoff capability that is common on cars sold in America. This meant that I had to use the built-in lockoffs on Noob’s convertible seat when installing it using the seatbelt (which was, of course, my only option, since LATCH wasn’t available).
• Many taxis have a cover over the back seat that prevents you from accessing the seatbelt entirely, making it impossible to secure a car seat.
• There are no car seat laws in China, so you won’t get arrested for not putting your child in a car seat. Of course, if you get in an accident, the laws of physics (specifically how they relate to unrestrained children in cars) still apply…
• And just FYI, emergency services are not as reliable in China as they are in the USA. We went out to dinner one night with some of my husband’s Chinese co-workers and passed an accident on the way. I asked the Chinese about how long an ambulance would take to arrive. They laughed. “Oh, maybe an hour? Maybe more?”

Due to all of this, we took public transportation whenever possible. We found the subway systems in both Shanghai and Beijing to be very cheap, convenient, reliable, and safe. And no concerns about waiting an hour for an ambulance after my unrestrained child went flying through the windshield.

Pedestrian safety
As scary as driving was, sometimes walking around didn’t seem much better :)

• We had to be heads-up at all times while walking on the sidewalk. There were tons of little motorized scooters that drove at relatively high speeds on the sidewalks, and sometimes the random car decided to hop up on the sidewalk as well. We had to keep a close eye on Littles, in particular. (Noob was usually on my back in the Ergo, so he was less apt to wander into the path of an oncoming scooter.
• Red traffic lights seemed to be treated as a gentle suggestion to stop :) Even with pedestrians waiting to cross the street – or actually in the process of crossing the street. This was especially true of the motorized scooters, as well as bicycles. I usually tried to hide behind a couple of other pedestrians crossing the road, figuring the cars/scooters/bikes would hit them first!
• The subways could be very crowded at times, with lots of pushing, and people weren’t always aware of the kids. The Ergo really came in handy, as it prevented us from having to deal with a stroller, and put Noob more at adult eye level. But we had to make sure one of us always kept a firm grip on Littles’ hand when boarding/disembarking, to prevent her from getting lost in the crowds, and sometimes we had to keep her from getting totally squished.

Despite all that… we all survived! We just had to be a little more careful about things than we do back home.

Top kid travel gear: Ergo baby carrier

Over the years, we've found -- and continue to find! -- plenty of gear that makes traveling with kids infinitely easier. Top travel gear, for sure.

One item that tops this list is our Ergo baby carrier. Really, the Ergo isn't just travel gear; it is possibly our most-used piece of baby gear in our three and a half years as parents. Well, the crib has probably gotten more use, but the Ergo is a close second.

We purchased it when Littles was 3 months old. (If you want to use the Ergo with a newborn, you can purchase an optional infant insert, but I found it easier with both kids to use an alternative carrier, such as a Moby Wrap, until they were big enough for the Ergo on its own.) Here she is during her first trip with the Ergo, October 2007 (3.5 months old), in Playa del Carmen, outside of Cancun, Mexico:

We still use it with her today. This was taken on our trip to Colorado last October, 3 years almost to the day after the picture above:

Why are baby carriers so great for traveling? They allow you to safely contain your baby (or toddler, or preschooler...) while keeping your hands free. So you can tote luggage around the airport or grab a quick bite to eat without having to shuffle your baby from hip to hip, or chase after your toddler.

They're a lot smaller than a stroller, so you can travel light. They also go where strollers can't. Such as down -- and up! -- all 328 steps at Uncle Tom's Trail, on the south rim of the Yellowstone River (September 2008, 15 months old):

Or on the beach in Newport Beach, California (April 2008, 10 months old):

Or through the amazing Ancestral Pueblo ruins at Bandelier National Monument (January 2009, 19 months old):

We love to get out and be active during our travels, so the ability to go anywhere our feet can take us is really important.

A baby carrier can also work as a nice spot for a nap :) This was on the same visit to Bandelier National Monument:

I've even used it to "rock" Littles to sleep at night when we're on the road and don't have access to our usual glider!

We love our Ergo, but there are tons of other great baby carriers out there. Here's Noob on our trip to Colorado last October (8 months old) in a mei tai from Wallypop:

I have friends who have used various Beco carriers, Babyhawks, etc. and swear by them as much as we swear by the Ergo. They all share a variety of features that make for a good baby carrier (for traveling or for around town!):

• The ability to wear your child on both your front and your back. I like having my kids on the front when they are small, but around 15-20 lbs, they start getting pretty heavy to wear on the front. That's when it's handy to be able to pop them onto your back.
• A high weight limit. Even at age 3, it's still very handy being able to carry Littles. The Ergo has been tested up to 90 lbs! I think our backs will give out before the Ergo does :)
• Straps that distribute the weight across your hips as well as your shoulders/back. If you're going to be wearing your baby for hours while wandering the airport, hiking, etc., you want even weight distribution! (Many popular carriers, such as the original Baby Bjorn, put all the weight on your shoulders/back.)
• No bulky metal frame. We (gasp!) forgot the Ergo on a trip to Banff National Park just before Littles' second birthday and ended up renting a metal-framed backpack for hiking. We found that it was no more comfortable than the Ergo, and a whole lot bulkier. When traveling with kids, we look to cut down on bulk whenever possible!
• Something that Hubby won't mind using, either. I actually have a couple of different baby carriers that I use in addition to the Ergo, such as the mei tai pictured above, but Hubby says they're too "girly" :). He doesn't mind the Ergo, though, so it's nice being able to switch off!
• Easy to adjust for different shapes/sizes, if you do plan to switch off kid-toting duties with a spouse or other traveling partner.
• Something that is comfortable for sleeping in. You can see in the picture above of Littles sleeping in the Ergo that it comes with a "sleeping hood," which keeps the baby's head from flopping around as she sleeps. This is especially important when your baby is on your back, since you can't just hold his/her head steady yourself!

Baby carriers seem expensive at first -- I paid over $100 for our Ergo -- but a good one is well worth it, especially for frequent travelers!

Updated pictures!

July 2011: Noob (almost 18 months old) in the Wallypop mei tai on the beach in Panama.

January 2012: Noob (just shy of 2 years old) in the Ergo at the Forbidden City in Beijing. Noob was in the Ergo a lot on this trip. We took public transportation just about everywhere, and the Ergo was way more convenient than a stroller on a crowded subway. Noob is a mama's boy and insisted that I be the one to carry him most of the time, and it was still quite comfortable, even though he was approaching 30 lbs and I was 3 months pregnant!

January 2012: Littles (4.5 years old) in the Ergo on the Great Wall of China. Hey, she got tired, and carrying her in the Ergo was way more comfortable than carrying her in our arms! This is another place where strollers simply cannot go...

Strolling

Closely related to the car seat decision point is the decision about whether or not to bring a stroller when flying.

For some families, I'm sure, the answer to "Should we bring a stroller?" is as emphatic of a yes as our answer to "Should we bring a car seat?" But we really aren't a stroller family in general, preferring to babywear instead. With both kids, I've used a Moby Wrap in the early months. Around 4 months of age, they've both transitioned into an Ergo carrier, which is nice because Hubby will wear it as well as me. (He says the Moby Wrap is too "girly." :)

That means we don't really need a stroller at our destination.

Now, strollers can make it easier to navigate the airport, since they're a convenient place to put the car seat -- which we always bring, as I mentioned in my previous post. When Littles was in the infant seat, we brought a Snap-n-Go stroller frame. The infant seat hooks into the stroller frame. The frame itself is lightweight and easy to deal with, so we didn't mind bringing it along, even if we only used it in the airport.

We brought our travel system stroller (Graco Metrolite) along on the first few trips after Littles moved out of the infant seat, but we quickly discovered that it was more trouble than it was worth. As I mentioned in the car seat post, we stuck the car seat in the stroller to wheel it around the airport, but this meant we had to do a lot of unfolding/folding of the stroller -- when getting on the parking shuttle, when going through security, at the plane itself, when getting on the rental car shuttle at our destination...

Instead, we purchased a GoGo Kidz Travelmate, which is a set of wheels that hooks onto a convertible car seat. This was perfect for us. It allowed us to wheel the car seat easily around the airport, but it was much easier to deal with than a stroller. Then, at our destination, we simply used the Ergo when we needed to transport Littles. On our vacations, we tend to go a lot of places that aren't stroller-friendly (crowded aquariums, hiking trails, etc.) so we really don't miss the stroller.

We went back to using the Snap-n-Go with Noob's infant seat after his arrival, but now that he's out of the infant seat, I fully expect that we'll go back to flying stroller-less. It's certainly not for everyone, but I find it much easier to travel without a stroller!

No stroller? No problem! Noob in a mei tai wrap (Littles was in the Ergo) on a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park (8 months old)

To car seat or not to car seat

Littles snoozing in her infant seat + Snap-n-Go during a layover in Atlanta (3 months old)

Another key decision point that we make on each of our trips is around car seats. Specifically, should we bring a car seat with us? If yes, should we check it with our bags, gate check it, or bring it onboard?

The answer to the first question has always been straightforward for us: Yes! We have brought a car seat on every single one of our trips. Most of the time, we rent a car on the other end and do a significant amount of driving. Rental car companies do rent car seats, but it's usually expensive (around $10/day), they are not guaranteed to have an appropriate seat when you arrive, and the seat may be in very poor condition. It's much less stressful for us to bring our own.

Once we're at the airport, we do different things with the car seats depending on the situation. Our general rule is that car seats do not get checked with luggage. Reason being, if the car seat gets lost or damaged, we would be stuck in a strange airport with no way to transport our kid. And that would suck. (We do sometimes check it on the way home, since this is less of a concern.)

This means that we've needed an easy way to get the seat to the gate. Car seats are fairly bulky and heavy, so wheels are the way to go:

• Littles was in her infant seat until 10 months of age. In this phase, we traveled with a Snap-n-Go stroller frame. This made it easy to navigate the airport with the car seat.
  


• When she moved out of the infant seat, we initially brought our travel system stroller (Graco Metrolite) and simply stuck her convertible seat in the main part of the stroller. This was much easier than attempting to carry the car seat around the airport. It was not sturdy enough to place Littles in the car seat while we wheeled it around, but we usually had her in a baby carrier anyway. (We use an Ergo.)
  


• After a few trips with this setup, we realized that we were almost never using the stroller anywhere besides the airport. So we started leaving the stroller at home, and purchased a GoGo Kidz Travelmate to attach to the car seat.

Once at the gate, we gate-checked the seat if Littles did not have a seat. But as I explained in a previous post, we opted to purchase a seat for her on every trip past 10 months of age. So when she did have a seat, we brought the car seat onboard. We found that she did really well sitting in it, probably because she was used to it from the car.

Around her second birthday, she discovered the joy of kicking the seat in front of her. Unfortunately, the car seat put her in the perfect position to do just that. She was also starting to do activities that required the use of the tray table, like color, play with Playdoh, and watch DVDs, and her car seat did not allow the tray table to fold out fully. So her last trip in the car seat was at 27 months. These days, she sits directly in the airline seat, which gives her full use of the tray table and prevents seat-kicking.

When Noob came along, he was also in the infant seat until about 10 months of age, so we pulled out the Snap-n-Go again for use with his seat. We continued to use the Travelmate for Littles' seat.

We haven't traveled yet with Noob in a convertible seat, but we plan to put him in Littles' old convertible seat, using the Travelmate. For Littles, we recently purchased a Safety First Go Hybrid Booster seat. It is super lightweight (less than 10 lbs) and folds into a small bag for travel. I think it will be a lot easier to deal with than a second convertible seat on a Travelmate! I'll be sure to post a review of it after we do travel with it for the first time.

Updated July 2011: We now travel with Noob in a convertible seat (Britax Roundabout) on the Travelmate, and Littles in a Go Hybrid booster seat. That combination is very easy to transport! Here is a link to my review of the Go Hybrid Booster.