Traveling Safely In 2020

“With four pairs of shoes i can travel the world”

— Coco Chanel

We’re off to DISNEY WORLD to experience all the magic! That is after we had to wake up Coco who fell asleep on our way to the airport. Ooops! Thank our lucky stars, once she saw my nieces she perked right up and it was a smooth, cry free flight from there!!

We made all the necessary precautions to ensure we traveled responsibility during this time. Being thoughtful, compassionate and understanding of others.

Traveling during a pandemic is complicated enough but with a toddler (check out my tips on what has worked for us here), it’s next level so I’ve broke down this post into the following sections:

SAFETY: includes sanitation, prevention and immunity.
CHILDREN TRAVEL: all the good goods that we brought for making travel a little easier and the must haves.

PREVENT & SUPPORT

When it comes to infectious diseases there are 2 main ways to protect yo self. Prevention includes different ways to prevent exposure where when I talk about support I mean ways to help support your body when it comes in contact with any opportunistic bugs or viruses.

PREVENT

Self Sanitization: We used better-for-you hand sanitizer and also this spray which is for killing off the bad guys in cuts and wounds but we sprayed it on our faces & nostrils before putting on masks for prevention.
Surface Sanitization: Packing the Honest Sanitizing Wipes was great for Coco’s binky, toys, airplane seats and anything else we needed clean. We also brought a little bottle filled with our Force of Nature to quickly sanitize anything we needed to.
Masks: I know masks are annoying, with some side effects like MASKNE so I was on the hunt for the perfect ones that also did well in humidity. Putting the mask guard under the mask helped me to not breathe in my mask or have it stick to my humidity ridden face! Glasses chains make for great mask chains! Plus they make you look EXTRA CUTE. ;-)

MASK + MASK GUARD + SANITIZING SPRAY + CHAIN = WINNING COMBO

“I WANT TO BE WHERE THE PEOPLE AREN’T”: We stayed away from others as best we could. Disney World only filled the park to 30% capacity, put in social distancing precautions with lines, we’d order on their app and pickup so we didn’t stand in lines and sanitized EXCESSIVELY. I had to bring hand lotion.

Universal Studios squirted hand sanitizer one EVERY SINGLE PERSON on EVERY SINGLE RIDE. It was pretty crazy.
POST PARK QUARANTINED: Now that we’re home we’ll be quarantined for 14 days or 7 days and then taking a test just in case. Since symptoms usually show up around 7 days after exposure and that’s when you can get testing. We want to make sure we are infection free for Thanksgiving (with the same family members we went to Disney) I’m just sharing what we’re doing. You do you boo.

This chart shows the progression timeline of Covid-19. Say someone is infected on Thanksgiving. If hospitalized it would usually show up around Christmas. If they pass from it, according to our averages it would be around New Years. If anything this pandemic has shown me it is that we HAVE to support our immune systems by proper nutrition, supplementation, adequate sleep, exercise and stress management.

IMMUNE & DIGESTIVE SUPPORT

It’s so important to support your immune systems.

Children Immune Supporting Supplements:
- Toddler Formula: Balanced, nutrient rich food that was kid friendly (not incredibly messy) is not easy to find while traveling so we relied on ELSE to give Coco what she needs. I wrote a blog post on what makes it a superior product. You could also do an organic multi vitamin gummy.
- Vitamin C: It was a lot harder to get vitamin C while traveling, except for the clementines in Disney World so we used these drops. Coco loves taking it!
- Omega: This is something that is a regular part of our routine. I love cod liver oil because it has naturally occurring vitamin A as well as the EPA & DHA that babies need for brain development, heart health and immunity.
- Vitamin D: One of the reasons we are more susceptible to infectious diseases in the winter is we are indoors more with people increases our contact but also less time getting those UVB rays that are needed to produce the hormone vitamin D! This is a KEY NUTRIENT during these times. Supplementing it can be a big support to your immune system.
- Pre+Probiotics: 70% of your immune system is located in your gut, making it the first place I focus on when it comes to immune support. Re-enforcing your good gut army can help crowd out pathogenic microbes.

IMMUNE SUPPORT & TRAVELING DIGESTIVE SUPPORT

Adult Immune Supporting Supplements:
- Prenatal or Multivitamin: Traveling can make it hard to get in all those necessary vitamins and minerals. Taking a quality prenatal or multivitamin can help fill in those traveling nutritional gaps.
- Omega: This is something that is a regular part of our routine. I love cod liver oil because it has naturally occurring vitamin A as well as the EPA & DHA that we need for brain function, heart health and immunity.
- ImmuniTEA Drink: This specific drink mix has ECGC, lots of Vitamin C and bromelain. It’s a great all-in-one type of product. I did a whole post on my ImmuniTEA breakdown!
- Pre+Probiotics: 70% of your immune system is located in your gut, making it the first place I focus on when it comes to immune support. Re-enforcing your good gut army can help crowd out pathogenic microbes.
- Gut Repair & Digestive Enzymes: If you want to keep bloating at bay, stay regular and improve your gut health for immunity then check out my BLOG POST on just that.
- Zinc: First off I linked a zinc that includes copper because zinc depleates copper so it’s best to have both together!
  
  According to an NIH fact sheet, severe zinc deficiency "depresses immune function"—and "[e]ven mild to moderate degrees of zinc deficiency can impair macrophage and neutrophil functions, natural killer cell activity, and complement activity." That's because "[t]he body requires zinc to develop and activate T-lymphocytes," NIH explains. However, NIH states that many of the issues associated with zinc deficiency "can be corrected by zinc supplementation."
- Melatonin: This may seem like a weird supplement to recommend but the research has been promising on its impact of Covid-19. Plus traveling can make it hard to get in the sleep we need for a healthy immune system! I do not recommend it as a long-term supplement.
  
  One study that analyzed data from 26,779 individuals found that people who were taking melatonin were 28% less likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2, after adjusting for factors such as age, sex and underlying diseases, according to results published in the journal PLOS Biology.
  
  The melatonin effect was more pronounced in African Americans, with a reduction of 52%.
  
  Consult your doctor if you have any questions.

TODDLER TRAVELING CONVENIENCE TIPS

Have a fully packed diaper bag with an air filter, noise canceling machine, sanitizing wipes, diapers, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, snacks, formula, extra binky, interactive toys, change of clothes, baby carrier and first aid kit. It’s kind of like preparing for war and expecting baby blow outs, tantrums and accidents. Coco fell, cut open her knee and thank goodness we had everything we needed.
I purchased this plane seat organizer and put in tissues, hand lotion, lip balm, sanitizing spray, tampons, fruit snacks, airpods, my phone and ipad. This helps me not have to reach into my bag constantly plus it keeps me organized which makes traveling way less frazzled.
I use this diaper bag because it has a slot to connect it to my roll-on luggage. It easily holds a drink in the insulated pocket, my laptop, all the fixings plus the organizer inside is removable and is what we used as a diaper bag in Disney World. It clips to the stroller handle bar and snaps open, extending the bag a lot where we could stuff anything we bough inside.
Packing up Coco’s outfits in clear pouches saves us so much time. Each outfit (park themed of course) included the entire outfit including shoes, bows, jacket and a change of shirt just in case.
The stroller we have is the PERFECT traveling stroller. It folds up tiny, is super light but still has a pocket in the bag where we store the rain cover (definitely needed while we were in Disney World) it has storage underneath where everyone put their ponchos, bottles, umbrellas and refillable popcorn bucket.

I recommend getting attachments for your car seat if they’re still in a baby car seat. That helped us carry less but you need a carseat for car traveling.
Baby sling was amazing. Coco slept for almost the entire time on all our flights and always cuddled to my chest in a sling. This was AMAZING! I was able to board our connecting flight, get on the trolley and all that jazz with her being a little sleeping beauty.

I had LOADS of questions on Disney during Covid so if you didn’t get yours asked, ask below and I will include it in my next blog post!

Stay safe, be excellent to each other and love your gut!

“The purpose of life is to live it,
to taste experience to the utmost,
to reach out eagerly and
without fear for newer and
richer experience.”

— Eleanor Roosevelt

As always thanks for visiting my little space online

I just love your guts!!

Chanelle Cozette Doyle

#TheGutGirl

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Thank you for your support! Xo