Travel – Eat – Sleep

Your summer holiday with your family should be an event you remember for all the right reasons. All too often though people’s holidays are ruined by illnesses or problems that could have been avoided, or by not knowing how to treat problems if they arrise.

Preventable Diseases:

Before heading off on holiday you should find out if you will need any vaccinations. Many people come back from holiday with diseases that could have been avoided if they had been vaccinated or had an anti-malaria treatment before setting off. The kind of vaccination that you should have will vary depending on which country you are going to. You should do your research well in advance of your trip because some vaccinations need to be administered a few weeks before you go away. This is also true for anti malaria medications. Vaccines to protect against hepatitis, diphtheria, polia and tetanus are the most common.

Food Poisoning:

This unpleasant sickness is very common. It is caused by food that has become infected with bacteria, for example salmonela or a virus such as norovirus. Some foods are more susceptible contamination when they are not handled or stored properly, such as meat, pre-packed sandwiches and dairy products – especially milk and eggs. Barbecues are also notorious causes of food poisoning so it is really importnat to make sure that food is thoroughly cooked.

How do you know if you have food poisoning?

Symtoms of food poisoning don’t usually develop until one to three days after eating the contaminated food. If you have food poisoning you may experience:

• nausea,
• vomiting,
• diarrhoea
• and stomach cramps.

If you are really unlucky you could have more serious symptoms. If vomiting carries on for more than two days so, you can’t manage to keep liquids down for more than a day or you have diarrhoea that goes on for over three days then it’s important to make get medical attention. On the majority of cases of food poisoning people will get better on their own without having to have any treatment.

Tips for relieving symptoms

If you have got food poisoning you can help to relieve the symptoms by:

• drinking lots of fluids,
• eating plain food that is easy to digest – such as toast
• having a lot of rest

Prickly Heat:

Prickly heat, which is an intense, itchy rash, is one of the most common skin problems that people experience over summer. The rash happens because your sweat glands get blocked. There are a few things that you can do to treat prickly heat and alleviate some of the symptoms:

• apply calamine lotion to the area (this will help to cool it down),
• speak to your pharmacist about antihistamine tablets
• keep cool,
• take cool showers
• wear loose fitting clothing

Sunburn:

While most people are familiar with the risks of too much exposure to the sun, many don’t know that the sun can cause additional problems for people with sensitive skin. If you have sensitive skin as well as sunburn, exposure to very strong sunshine can cause you to have a skin allergies. There are a few things that you can do to help reduce the risk of allergies and sunburn that could ruin your holiday:

• avoid being in direct sunlight in the hottest part of the day. This is usually between 11:00 and 16:00
• protect your skin using a sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30. As well as helping to reduce the risk of sunburn and allergies it will also help to reduce signs of premature ageing such as wrinkles and brown spots
• if you have already got sunburn stay out of direct sunlight. The easiest way to do this is covering up the sunburn skin by wearing loose clothing and staying in shaded areas until it is better.
• soak a flannel in cold water and then apply to the sunburn to cool down the skin.

In some cases where the sunburn is really bad you may need to use special cream for burns and burn dressings and you might need to have your sunburn dressed by a nurse. If the sunburn is really severe you may need to have it treated at the local hospital emergency department.

Carol has written this article on behalf of Anara Toys where you can compare prices and find where to buy the cheapest Sylvanian Families sets as well as all of this years must have toys. You can follow Anara Toys on twitter at@anaratoyz.