Kids end up eating a lot of unhealthy food during travel – oily greasy food, white sugar, packaged foods like biscuits and chips that have artificial ingredients, refined white flour – to name a few. A few mindful choices can help you add health to travelling with kids, without fretting too much about it. Read on to know more.

We often feel that we have limited control on our food choices when we travel. So, travel food is equal to unhealthy food.

With kids, it becomes worrisome. Either they fall sick during vacation or we parents keep our fingers crossed hoping they don’t fall sick. We carry a pill for every possible ill!!

Do you know it doesn’t need to be this way? A few mindful choices and your travel with kids can be tension-free. We have compiled a list of travel tips for you which are practical, simple to do, but really effective.

Let’s begin with a few tips related to your kids’ food. Do remember two things:

• It’s you parents who set an example for your kids. So, eat healthily and your child will follow.
• The focus of your travel should be on enjoyment. Don’t fuss too much about what your kids eat. Focus on inclusions from our list below and keep a balanced approach for the rest.

1)Start kids’ day with fruits

Fruits are easily available wherever you go. All hotels have fruits, fruit juices and smoothies in breakfast. Let your kids start with a generous serving of fruits as the first meal of the day. Give it a short break of 10-15 minutes, use this time for family bonding at the breakfast table. After that, if they are still hungry, let them eat something else.

Or you can stock fruits in your room. Give fruits to your kids when they wake up or before heading out of the room for breakfast.

Few days of the vacation, if not all, you can all eat a fruits-only breakfast.

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2) Add veggies in kids’ meals

When you order lunch or dinner at a restaurant, make sure that there is a serving of raw veggie salad with it. A salad need not be an elaborate affair with a variety of veggies and dips and dressings. It can be a simple salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, raddish and any other easily available raw veggies. You can add some salt and lemon juice as dressing, if your kids like it that way.

You can also include a dish with lightly steamed veggies in your order.

3)Keep your kids well hydrated

Travel is likely to entail a lot of physical activity, change in set routine and excitement for kids. Make sure your kids stay well hydrated at all times by having water rich foods like fruits and vegetables as we mentioned above. Quench your child’s thirst not just by these or plain water, but also through nimboo paani, coconut water, sugarcane juice, etc whenever they are easily available. Keeping your child well hydrated will also help her avoid travel lag, symptoms of overexposure to the heat or sun, and junk-food cravings.

4)Enjoy local, seasonal fresh produce

Every place has its own food specialities. If you are travelling in South India, there are lots of coconut water stalls everywhere. Everyone knows of Mahabaleshwar and strawberries, sugarcane juice stalls on the way to hill stations in Himahal & Uttarakhand, apple and plum orchards in Kashmir. Keep an eye for these local delights and feed them fresh to your kids. They will make your kids feel refreshed and healthily satiated.

5) Help your kids stay energetic

To enjoy the vacation, you and your kids have to feel energetic. There is so much to do, so much to explore!! To keep your energy levels up, keep eating fruits and raw veggies. The ideal scenario is to eat only fruit for breakfast, keep the dinner light and stick to only two cooked meals a day.

6) Pack healthful snacks for the trip

Pack a goodie bag containing healthy snacks like:

• Fruits
• Dry fruits like raisins, dates and figs
• Nuts like almonds, cashews and walnuts
• Laddoos made from jaggery
• Roasted peanuts
• Roasted makhana
• Roasted murmure (puffed rice)
• Roasted chana

You can carry these along for your kids’ healthy snacking. Pack the items they like.

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If you are fond of cooking, book a place where you can cook or where the chef can customize your meals, like homestays.

But do remember that good health is not just about what you feed your kids. There is so much more you can do when traveling with them.

7)Keep the kids well rested

• Try to keep a balance between activity and rest. If one day becomes very long and hectic, keep the next day’s schedule light so that your kids can rest better.
• Let the kids’ body get good rejuvenating sleep every night so that they can enjoy the next day of vacation too.
• If they want to sleep till late in the morning, let them relax.

Sleep, rest and health are closely related. Your kids will stay happy and healthy if they are well rested. So, let them relax on holidays.

8)Spend time outdoors, connect with nature

Depending on your travel destination, do make a point to help your kids connect with nature.

• If you are at a hill station, watch the sun rise or set. Go for a trek.
• Near a lake? Go for boating.
• Near a river? Sit by the river side and hear the sounds of water.
• In a city? Visit a popular park.
• At a beach? Play water games and sand games.

Image credit: Vee via Pexels.com

The more your kids connects with nature, the more likely they are to stay aligned to its laws for good health.

Post travel care for kids

On coming back home post travel, give your kids more raw foods - raw veggie salads, fruits and vegetable juices. This will help their body to de-toxify from any unhealthy travel food they ate. They may also experience a bout of mild tummy upset or vomiting or fever. But don’t worry as this is just a way for their body to eliminate what it doesn’t want. Just let them rest and sleep more post travel and within a day or two they will be good to go!

Conclusion

Vacations are for enjoyment and this should not be forgotten. So have lots of fun with your kids, make few eating choices mindfully and let them relax well.

Do try out our small, little suggestions that you can easily follow while travelling and please also share your experiences with us in the comments section below.