Exotic trip with a child: food advice

‘What will he eat there?? What will you give him to eat??!!’. This must be the favourite question Maks’ grandmas and great-grandmas ask before we go for an exotic trip! Usually the questions are accompanied with a facepalm and fear in their eyes because there’s no way their favourite grandson who they feed with chicken soup, tomato soup, meatballs and wieners bought at Krakowski Kredens will make it in ‘wild’ Burma, Thailand, Mexico or Georgia!! Usually we give them one answer – there are children living there as well! And eating!

 

But don’t get me wrong here: it’s true that if you don’t have an omnivore little one, a trip with a child and alimentation on location may cause some problems. What will he eat there??!!?? Will he find his favourite flavours? What if there are none of his favourite meals available? We had these fears as well and they come back every time we go somewhere new. But we know how to make it work. An it’s not because Maks is a ‘super-eater’ who eats everything and never makes a fuss. Far from it! When it comes vegetables, he mainly eats tomatoes and hates the rest. He doesn’t like a lot of fruits which are the best in the world for me. He’s got his own favourite flavours and sticks to them. Despite that, he’s not starving during trips (even 6 week long ones) and does not get back scrawny 😉

 

Ok, he eats, but not everything… the doubts don’t stop here if we go to an exotic country though: What if he poisons himself? If something makes him ill? Give him fruits or not? Buy ice cream in scoops or not? There’s a lot of doubts – we’re not home anymore, nor by the Polish seaside but in a country with different bacteria cultures, often much lower hygiene standards, often stale food-oriented illnesses.

 

What can you do? How to feed your child so that it stays alive and does not get a week-long diarrhoea? Where to look for the favourite flavours, how to make trying new ones fun instead of a pain? Here are some ideas we tried on many occasions 🙂

 

 

1) travel with an infant!

 

 

Sounds funny, but it’s the best way of travelling with a child without having to care about food. Before the little one gets 4-6 months old he’ll be fine with mother’s milk or modified milk which was easily available in all the countries we’ve been to! Buying milk for a child in Thailand or Indonesia is currently easier than in Poland! You can find well-stocked little chain stores such as 7 eleven (Thailand) or Indomarket and Alfamart (Indoniesia) everywhere! I can’t imagine any little shop in Poland that had wider range of child products.

 

When the little one starts eating something more than milk, be sure to take jars, crisps and porridges from home if you’re going for a short trip. If it’s a long trip, be prepared for shopping at a local supermarket – such a trip is a great way to show the little one how does avocado, pineapple or papaya taste (you will find such jars in Asia or Mexico).

 

An infant is a perfect companion . With him, you don’t have to choose restaurants which are ‘good with the child’ and think about what will he like, what has the best nutrition value and does not cost too much (nobody wants to pay PLN 30 for a meal that may come out as a bummer.. I mean, it’s not easy to hit a bullseye with a 3-year-old ;)) We travelled 10 000 km through Europe with Maks in his infant stage (on ‘tit food’ only) and visited Mexico – tit food, jars and porridge.

 

2) teach him culinary diversity early on

 

 

If you want to go travelling with your child, start early with showing him that here’s more in the world than mother’s, grandma Zosia’s and grandma Krysia’s cuisine. If the little one eats only pork chops, potatoes and cucumber soup in his first 2-3 years he will have a hard time not only on trips but also in the kindergarten.

Show him diverse flavours, various spices, different cuisines. Don’t be afraid to feed your child in a restaurant since restaurants and eateries are places where you will ‘have’ to eat on your trips. If you’re dreaming about seeing the world, ‘eating out’ is a must – why not start in Poland? Let him discover new flavours: sushi, Chinese or Indian meals, hummus, seafood and exotic fruits. Let him get a bit accustomed to these flavours – he’ll find something for himself on a trip more easily.

 

 

3)give the child a bite and… prepare to be surprised

 

 

You don’t like shrimps and consider seafood awful? OK, it’s your opinion. But your child may have a slightly different idea about the subject! My child loves pate sandwiches (which I hate), eats salami for breakfast at the hotel and asks for meat for lunch! He loves bananas which I can’t even look at. He eats shrimps like mad even though his grandma won’t even touch them with a stick. A trip is the best occasion to try new things and maybe even find your favourites?

 

Forget about ‘I’m sure he won’t like it’! If he never had shrimps or tofu, then how do you know he won’t like it?

 

4) the younger the child, the less important the barriers

 

 

Maks has been travelling with us since he was 2 months old. When he was 9 months old, he tried soups and fish in Paris, when he was 11 months old, he enjoyed fish soup in Istanbul and loved crab cream soup in Tel Aviv. On our first trip to Thailand (he was 1.5 years old) he enjoyed fresh coconut water (very healthy!), chewed on spring rolls and wontons which he now avoids. He has his flavours he’s sure of and his own prejudices (‘I don’t like green peas!’), it’s also harder to convince him that something can actually be good. The faster you start, the better! 🙂

 

5) go deeper!

 

 

I know that the easiest way is to enter the restaurant and get a children’s menu along with the menu for us. In it, you’ll usually find all that the children love the most. There may be differences in various parts of the world, but some classics including chicken, pizza and pasta with sauce should pop up everywhere. Easy!

 

Unfortunately in most places it’s not going to be that easy. You’ll have to get creative. You can order one meal to share for you and your child so you won’t lose your money if the meal turns out to be a bummer / the child won’t feel like eating. You can also go for the cheapest positions on the menu that aren’t too risky. In Asia, chicken with rice served various ways is such a meal for us. We usually get fried rice with chicken which is available pretty much everywhere! In Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore. In Indonesia it’s one of the national meals – nasi goreng is what they call it there. You can always get plain boiled rice too and add something from parents’ plate – chicken, duck, pork, vegetables.

 

Read the menu from cover to cover – maybe something from the starter/dessert section will make for a dinner for your child? In Asia, the DESSERT section often includes pancakes! Not healthy? Whatever! Nobody ever died from eating Nutella pancakes for dinner! It’s holidays!

 

6) stick to tourist resorts and bi cities if your child is a die-hard fan of Western cuisine!

 

If you know that your child won’t make it without pancakes or pasta, be sure to stick to large cities and places popular among tourists – chances of finding European dishes are always better in such locations! Be prepared that you will probably pay more for it than for local food – in Burma fried rice or noodles cost 1.5 dollars, chicken in spicy sauce 3 dollars while a tiny pizza or pasta with tomato sauce will cost you 6.

 

Ordering European dishes in a different culture circle may sometimes be a bit risky… Tomato sauce may be kind of spicy and not suitable for a child while pizza with ham turns out to be covered with sliced wieners and sliced processed cheese (yuck!)These are real ideas straight from Burma. Is it worth the risk? Yes, if it’s a good restaurant. If it’s a random eatery, the reality may have not that much to do with your expectations. It’s a matter of choice depending on mom’s and child’s desperation 😉

 

 

7) take food from home and … from the hotel!

 

 

If you’re going for a week-long trip with a child, you should think about taking some of the products from home: favourite crisps, healthy snacks, cookies, dried fruits and nuts, favourite milk drinks (if they don’t have to be stored in a fridge), cornflakes and even dry smoked pork sausages! It gets worse if you’re leaving for longer and there’s no room for pantry in your suitcase. In that case, you’ll have to come up with something on the spot.

 

If the hotel serves breakfasts smorgasbord-style, take something for later. I know that you shouldn’t! Just don’t make yourself 5 sandwiches or pack a bag of fruits. Choose a tiny snack for the child – a croissant, a banana, a sweet bun, bread, yoghurt or even a pancake. It all may be a lifesaver if there’s no shop around. Nobody is going to make a wry face if they see you take something for the child – especially in Asia where they love children!

 

8) give the child fruits!

 

 

 

Exotic countries are the best place to feed your child with some fresh fruits when it’s cold, grim and grey at home. Bananas, watermelons, and other fruits less popular in Poland such as papayas and rambutans are available in many places. Just remember not to buy your child diced sliced fruits from a dirty stand just because street food is trendy. Try to choose a reliable source or buy in whole and clean it yourself.

 

9) take appropriate gear with you

 

 

Don’t forget about some handy equipment for your toddler. When Maks was 1.5 years old and younger, we always took a bottle, a non-dripping cup and later a water bottle, often a bib – preferably a silicone one that was easy to clean and dry.

Right now Maks doesn’t need any special ‘equipment’ to eat but 2 or 3 sealable containers still come in handy – you can put crisps, cornflakes, cookies or diced fruits in it. We also carry a spoon and a fork just in case.

 

10) Give the child a break!!

 

You’re travelling. Usually it’s not a few months, more like a few days to a dozen. If you want to make your child go super-duper-eco-organic during your trip, you will most probably end up exhausted and so will your child. Remember that less healthy food for just a few days, never killed anybody… a lollipop does not bite and can be helpful on a plane. Your child will discover sweets eventually anyway – in the kindergarten or at school if you’re lucky; )

 

11) Don’t take risks!

 

If you’re travelling around Asia or Mexico, you will encounter lots of street food on your way. In Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Burma you can feed yourself for pennies in the streets. Sometimes it’s very tasty, sometimes it’s not. But I won’t lie to you: many places look quite disgusting due to the lack of hygiene, homeless dogs running around and the dirt in general. Meat lies in 40 degrees heat for a few hours with flies flying around it. In Thailand street food usually looks very tasty and we love it. But we never tried anything in Burma.

 

When we’re travelling with a child, we usually give up on hardcore tasting of everything we can lay our hands on. We don’t give just anything to our child either. We stick to clean places with running water and meals that aren’t too risky – boiled or fried rice, fried noodles, often freshly prepared meals so that we are sure that we won’t get poisoned with stale food. We choose places that are crowded, where the food does not lie waiting for the customer for a few days. We don’t give Maks water with ice cubes in it, we don’t by ice cream by scoops in shady establishments – we prefer to buy sealed ones and ask for water in a sealed bottle. We take it easier on us, but not too much – a diarrhoea on the road is nothing cool… especially when you have a child that demands attention at least several hours a day 🙂

 

So far, our system worked… I don’t know how many days Maks have spent on the road, but I’m guessing a lot. He only got diarrhoea once – 3 days in Cambodia… We cured it with Smecta, coke and dark chocolate 😉 (see no. 10) Right now we’re after Bangkok, a trip around Burma, Singapore and Indonesia and no stomach adventures so far. Let’s hope it stays this way!