China Adoption Travel: The Medicine Kit

Our China Adoption Travel: The Medicine Kit page was up to date until August, 2006.

Unfortunately the recent terror threats in England have caused the TSA to greatly reduce the amount and types of over-the-counter medications/preparations that can be taken on board your China adoption travel flights.

Please check the US Transportation Security Administration website for specifics.

Also, check with your China adoption agency to find out if any of the items listed on this page can be purchased in China.

We wish you safe and speedy travel to you new child.

Preparing for our China adoption travel included packing a medicine kit. We read about what should be included. Since I am a pharmacist I already had a good idea so I just made our own medicine kit.

We took at least one each of the following items with us on our China adoption travel:

Bismuth product such as Pepto-Bismol (for prophylaxis/prevention of diarrhea). This is for adults not children. Children should not receive medication for diarrhea. In severe cases diarrhea is treated supportively. This means rehydration and bland diet.

Children also should not be given this product because it is similar to aspirin which has been known to cause Reyes Syndrome in children with previous viral infections.

Pedialyte powder packets for electrolyte replacement if the baby has diarrhea. These can be diffucult to find but can be ordered through a local pharmacy. Just ask your pharmacist if he/she can get them from the store's supplier. I ordered them directly from our supplier's warehouse and had them the next day.

Hydrocortisone cream 1/2% to 1%. This is good for bug bites (which our daughter had on her face and arms) and rashes.

Elimite cream for scabies. Follow package directions carefully. Apply the cream from head to toe and leave it on for 8 to 12 hours. Then bathe the baby. Be sure to have the bedding changed.

During your China adoption travel you can put the clothing from the orphanage in a plastic bag. Wash in hot water when you get home. Wash your clothing that contacted the infected area.

Nystatin cream or an over the counter antifungal cream such as Lotrimin AF. Diaper rash can also be a yeast infection.

A lice treament kit. Follow directions carefully.

Infant or Children's Tylenol and/or Infant or Children's Advil--depends on the age of your child. Tylenol is generally considered safer for babies/children because of less stomach irritation. Also if the child is allergic to asprin (which would be difficult to determine during the time of your China adoption travel), Advil can also cause an allergic reaction.

Benadryl for allergies and runny nose.

Infant or children's decongestant for congestion.

Glycerin suppositories for constipation. Cut them lengthwise if you need to make them smaller.

Saline nasal drops and a bulb for nasal congestion.

Box of bandages.

Triple antibiotic ceam.

Teething gel.

Phenergan for nausea for the adults. This has a generic so it is fairly inexpensive. However, if I travel abroad again I am going to take Zofran or Anzemet (other anti-nausea medications) depending on which one is covered by my insurance.

Phenergan is great for nausea, but it is very sedating. Although it was part of our adoption medicine kit, we never had to used it.

I can't imagine keeping up with the grinding schedule required for our China adoption travel feeling like I was going to fall asleep on the bus or plane.

Zofran and Anzemet do not cause as much drowsiness.

As a pharmacist and a mom, I recommend taking an antibiotic for yourselves and the baby.

Cipro is a great antibiotic to take along in your medicine kit for your adoption China adoption travel. It is typically used for adults and takes care of most cases of traveler’s diarrhea as well as sinus/upper respiratory infections.

Cipro and other quinolones (name of this family of antibiotics) are not recommended for children due to concerns about bone and joint disease. The exceptions are complicated infections that require intensive therapy. Hopefully, these will not present themselves during your adoption China adoption travel.

Bactrim and Zithromax are also good antibiotics to take for adults.

My husband and I, along other group members, got sinus infections. We suspect they were initiated by the pollution and, in general, by being in a different country. So the antibiotic in our medicine kit came in handy.

For babies/children I recommend Zithromax because it comes as a powder and does not need to be refrigerated once it is reconstituted. It will travel well in your adoption travel medicine kit.

Zithromax is what we gave to our daughter in China. She had a fever for more than three days along with nasal congestion/discharge. Another advantage of Zithromax is its shorter course of treatment. We only had to give it to for five days as opposed to the normal 7 to 10 day antibiotic treatment.

Additionally, Zithromax is not in the penicillin family. So we did not worry too much about an allergic reaction. This, however, is always a concern with any antibiotic. We felt given the circumstances we needed to do something to try to help her. We were glad this was in our China adoption medicine kit.

Dr. Borchers' open letter to pediatricians does a very good job explaining the reasons behind including antibiotic for the baby in your China adoption travel medicine kit.

If you feel uncomfortable asking your pediatrician for an antibiotic, show him/her this letter. I knew more than likely our daughter would be sick when we got her. I just felt better knowing I was at least trying to make her better.

One obvious problem presented itself when I asked for the prescriptions. Whose name was going to be on the prescription since we didn’t have our daughter yet?

Fortunately, as a pharmacist, I had a good relationship with a local doctor at our urgent care facility. He wrote prescriptions for my husband and me for Cipro and Phenergan.

He also wrote prescriptions for our daughter's antibiotic and Elimite (for scabies) cream and put our names on them. So, we filled the prescriptions in our names. Contact your insurance company for advice about this as well as how to add your child to your health insurance plan.

During our China adoption travel our medicine kit was indispensible. Traveling with so much medication may have seemed like overkill to some. However, we found that if we didn't use the over the counter items, some one else could. We didn't regret taking any of the items in our medicine kit.

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