Taking small kids to africa?

[suwannee]

I may go to Africa for work ( northern Ghana) next summer. At the time I will have a 5-6 month old, a 3 yr old and a 5 yr old. At first I was very excited but now I am getting pretty nervous.

We took our then 2 yr old and 2 month old kids to India for 2 months with absolutely no problems at all. Almost everyone we met was so friendly and accomodating of the kids. However, medical care there was much more readily accessible.

I will still be EBFing the baby which cuts down so much on illness potential. There is a chance I might have to pump some though, not sure yet.

I might have the family with me the whole time, or DH might take them back with him. Not taking the baby is a dealbreaker for me bc I dont see how I could pump for 4 weeks and maintain a supply, plus have 4 weeks stored up for while I am gone.

Any moms with experience in Africa or very rural parts of the world want to weigh in?

[ShwarmaQueen]

Originally Posted by suwannee

I may go to Africa for work ( northern Ghana) next summer. At the time I will have a 5-6 month old, a 3 yr old and a 5 yr old. At first I was very excited but now I am getting pretty nervous.

We took our then 2 yr old and 2 month old kids to India for 2 months with absolutely no problems at all. Almost everyone we met was so friendly and accomodating of the kids. However, medical care there was much more readily accessible.

I will still be EBFing the baby which cuts down so much on illness potential. There is a chance I might have to pump some though, not sure yet.

I might have the family with me the whole time, or DH might take them back with him. Not taking the baby is a dealbreaker for me bc I dont see how I could pump for 4 weeks and maintain a supply, plus have 4 weeks stored up for while I am gone.

Any moms with experience in Africa or very rural parts of the world want to weigh in?

s That's a long way from home! DH is from Morocco and though it's not northern Ghana, it's still foreign for me. I would have a big problem with being away from my LOs for that long...I would rather them stay with me (even if in Ghana). There are many positive things they could take away from the experience- I'd get them a Ghana-ian (?) nanny and add another chapter to the family photo album, kwim?

It would just be too hard on me to be away for that long...way too hard.

[calpurnia]

I think you'll be fine! My main concern would also be medical access - whereabouts would you be? I'm taking my then 14 month old to Zambia next year, but I have been previously so can have more confidence than going blind, perhaps... Ask on the Thorntree forums for travelling with children, somebody there will probably have useful Ghana specific advice.

eta: I think rootsdawta (sp? something like that) is from Ghana or has spent some time there

[lechepatito]

I've never been to northern Ghana, but lived elsewhere in West Africa for a couple of years and have visited Accra. Based on my experience, I think your children will be welcomed culturally, and you'd all have a good experience, but like the pp said, I'd be concerned about medical care just in case. And you might research malaria in the area you'll be in and decide if/how you want to approach prophylaxis for that. Getting some info from someone on the ground about what medical care might look like there would be the best, if you can get that. Good luck!

[Liquesce]

My only major advice would be to keep on top of the bottled/boiled water thing, and/or to come prepared with a child-safe anti-protazoal prescription. I've never been to Ghana, but having had mixed results with drinking from other African water supplies I wouldn't want to risk a poor effect on my kids unnecessarily.

[crocus]

My DH is originally from Rwanda and we went back to visit his parents this past summer. My DDs were 10 months and six years. The most difficult decision before we went, was concerning vaccinations. You may want to research this, especially the Yellow Fever vax. In the end, the doctor at the travel clinic was great. He didn't push the vaccination and, in fact, said he would not give it to DD2. He also provided me with a medical exemption. (I had the vax over 10 years ago and had quite severe reactions.)

We made sure to take all kinds of pain and fever medications, antibacterial hand wash (which we never use here, but DID in Rwanda), thermometers... just be prepared. We didn't use even 1/10 of the things we brought, but we were prepared.

You might want to bring familiar foods (soup packages) and snacks (granola bars) for your older kids. These came in sooooo handy!

Water! This was a HUGE issue! We brought disinfecting drops for bathing DD1 with and for cooking food. We bathed DD2 in bottled water since she tended to drink her bath water at the time. We found we were constantly fetching bottled water or boiling other water. There was no running water, so we hired someone to bring water to us for our bathing purposes.

Breastfeeding made things so much simpler! My sister-in-law took her 8 month old formula-fed DD to Rwanda a few months before and found it incredibly difficult. She had a hard time sterilizing bottles, but found that a kettle (plug-in) helped. (She lives in Switzerland, so the electrical currency is the same.)

I taught my DD2 (10 month-old) to drink water from a straw (we brought these with us) before we went and it made such a difference!

Bring mosquito repellent!!!! Bring several kinds because the one you choose may not be effective for you.

Being prepared definitely helps! I thought I was being unnecessarily paranoid before I left but the preparation definitely helped me relax and enjoy myself while I was in Rwanda!

Have fun!

[valmich]

The first thing I would tell you is it's not as scary as it seems. My family just returned from Ghana in October. We were in Kumasi for 8 months, and my son was 18 months old when we left the States. I went through a huge bout of "holy-cow-what-have-we-gotten-ourselves-into-itis" before embarking on our journey, but we honestly had no problems. I second what PPs have said: you and your children will definitely be welcomed with open arms! And there are a LOT of Westerners in Ghana. We were probably ignorant, but were surprised at how many American and European families with young children we met while we were there.

For malaria, my son and I took Malarone. We were able to crush it up into papaya or mango and feed it to him. We did our best to make sure our house was well sealed and then were pretty vigilant about being inside by sunset and putting on bug repellent if we were out in the evenings. Mosquitoes were generally not a problem for us during the day.

DS only got sick to his stomach once, and we're not sure if it was something he ate or just carsickness (we were almost home from Accra when he threw up in his car seat). He BFed the whole time, so I do think that helped immensely. But we were also really careful, especially with his food, about following the "boil it, cook it, peel it or forget it" rule.

How far north will you be? My husband was in the Peace Corps in 1998-2000 in the Upper East Region and still has some contacts up there. We also have some friends there who could probably get you in touch with some good health care providers depending on your location.

That's all I can think of right now off the top of my head. PM me if you have any specific questions. Have a wonderful trip!

Veronica

[suwannee]

Thanks for the reassurance. We are locked in to going for fivish weeks this summer. I am going to send you a PM ValMich.

[nnaemeka]

thanks for the info. my dh is from accra and we'll be going with dd next year. she'll be one year in july. right now she's 4 mths and not vaxed. vacs and malaria are my biggest concerns in regards to going home to ghana. i dont take meds for malaria prevention usually but this time we'll see...

[tiffani]

what a great adventure for all of you!! We had been planning a trip to Zambia for adoption purposes a while ago (never happened, but I do forsee us living in Africa for a while at some point...) and I had all the same concerns, but ultimately realized that even if the kids did get sick, we had resources at our disposal that would make it all ok anyway. yes, there is always a sliver of a chance of something really bad happening, but there is that chance anywhere in the world...

my very good friend erica (beaner&tiegs) traveled to ghana with her kids a couple of years ago and would be happy to offer her perspective if you pm her... though it may take a while for her to reply, as they just set off in an RV for a year throughout north america...

have a great trip!!!

[mango*mama]

For health advice, I strongly recommend the book "Take Your Pediatrician With You." The author discusses issues both mundane and life-threatening related to life anywhere (broken arm, scratch, fever) and international travel. It is a GREAT resource.