What shall I do about this holiday?

[1981m]

Not AIBU but need speedy reply with advice.

Ds (5) was sick on Monday in the night (now Wednesday here in Uk), lots of sick. Kept him off school yesterday and had a sofa day. He was fine in himself mostly. Up and down. Lying down sometimes but also jumping around. Saying his heart was hurting. No other symptoms except being sick.

Wasn't sure what to give him food wise. He had toast with butter for b fast and no lunch. Bacon sandwich for dinner with bread and butter. Dh thinks silly to give this. Was a bacon sandwich wrong?

Anyway, ds sick again last night, tiny amount of sick. Then a further three times with just water and bile. Again no other symptoms.

The problem is we are going on a long haul holiday tomorrow morning. We are meant to get up at 5 am, drive for two hours to the airport, then do 7 hour flight! We don't know if we should cancel holiday or still go. We would loose the total price of the holiday to cancel £6,500. Or £200 per person to try and change dates on it with hotel provider. The flights look like they are non- transferable and we would loose the cost automatically. We don't have travel insurance.

Dh wants to go and reckons its just a stomach bug. He reckons if we stave ds today and on the flight it will be ok. Reckons its a 24 hour bug.

I am reluctant as worried he will be sick again in the night. Worried about having strange food in a hot place will just make him sick again and he will just want to rest all holiday. Think the holiday will be ruined with moany ds. Don't want to risk taking him on long flight if he's ill, could be a nightmare. But we stand to loose £6,500 if we don't.

Bloody hell

I don't think there's many people who would just right off £6,500 for a holiday

I don't think there's many people who wouldn't bother with travel insurance in the first place!

I feel your pain OP.
We had this last year.
Son hadn’t been sick for 20 hours by time flight took off so we risked it. We had insurance but we’re meeting 20+ family in Orlando for a special event so really didn’t want to miss it.
Unfortunately flight was delayed. Son fine slept most of way, unfortunately DH and I got it mid flight (no symptoms before hand) Was horrendous. Worst flight of my life.
There’s no easy options. We did it. We survived. We had the holiday.
Hopefully fact u both haven’t got it yet means you won’t/ he’s not contagious?
Definitely get insurance NOW as you might need it there?
No easy answer- only you can make the call. Get lots of anti bac wipes and water and anti sickness meds and sick bags just incase!
Ps sure I’ll be crusified about risk of spreading to other passengers and yes I do have the guilt over that! But we honestly didn’t know was contagious till we were I’ll mid flight.

I would go if he isn´t sick again before you have to leave tomorrow morning.

If you booked with a credit card there is usually travel insurance with the cards. CALL YOUR BANK, read the fine prints.

And always always book with a CC or buy separate travel insurance.

Vomiting "water and bile" is absolutely definitely vomiting. In fact it is more convincingly vomiting than just bringing up partially digested food. You might have a child bring up partially digested food from excitement, or exercising too much after a meal, or being stupid enough to eat a bacon sandwich with a dodgy tummy. But vomiting "water and bile" shows that the you're still vomiting on an empty stomach. Which is a far more serious vomiting episode.

Cancel before you infect an entire planeload of people. Oh, and they're really cracking down on holiday insurance fraud at the moment. Did you not see the story earlier this month where a couple were lucky to not get jail time?

Also be prepared for the flight just in case. A little hand towel. Plenty of spare clothes, loads of baby wipes. And bags. Plain foods such as banana, crackers, bread.

My first concern would be the well being of other passengers on the flight if your son has a virus. You need to speak with the airline and ask if they would be wiling to allow him on the flight. The cost of your holiday is completely irrelevant versus the health of others, and the burden placed on the cabin crew if other passengers were to become sick on the flight.

Travelling without insurance is highly irresponsible. If you can't afford to lose £6500, you certainly can't afford the cost of medical care abroad or repatriation.

Wow, a lot of fusspots on this thread (and some a little green eyed about the exotic holiday, I expect). I bet the child will be completely fine by this evening.

You would be so selfish to go on the plane, your ds needs to be clear of any symptoms for a full 48hrs before he can be considered not infectious.
With the recycled air on the plane he will be spreading it around everyone there, potentially ruining all their holidays too. What about the people who are immune compromised? Unbelievably selfish.

Also, the notion of him infecting a a planeload of passengers is nonsense as long as everyone washes hands. Erm, and no one is going to be repatriated for a tummy bug. What utter bobbins.

Pp bollox re infection

And no one was talking about re pat due to this how ridiculous

But if course broken backs and serious illness abroad only happen to people with insurance

I would go if he isn’t sick again. Give him flat Sprite at room temperature and dry crackers or dry toast. Only sips and nibbles. If he hasn’t been sick again then I would risk it.

Ever heard of air borne viruses diffdaff?
I take it you would be happy to sit next to a pukey unhappy child in an enclosed space.

This happened to us once. DD threw up on the way to the airport then a couple of times on the plane.

She was fine-ish for most of the holiday. It wasn't our best break, put it that way.

But we had to decide within about 3 minutes really, whether to go or not, so we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.

BUT WE HAD INSURANCE [GRIN]

'Utter bobbins' infact

Not bollox

He's well in himself.

I don’t understand this (British, I assume) expression. What does it mean? How can you be ‘well in yourself’ if you’re vomiting?

Going against the grain but I'd still go. It's a massive amount of money to lose for something that might not be contagious. There will be loads of people incubating germs on the plane it's just one of the risks of traveling. We flew to the US last year and DH and DS came down with a vomiting bug halfway through the journey. We were on the plane so not much we could do - keep the vomit contained, lots of handwashing and alcohol hand sanitizer
Definitely get insurance from today onwards though!

Husky - it usually means that someone's alert, doesn't appear ill to look at, taking an interest in things. Not flopped on the sofa, pale and washed out.

Queenio24 - if I was sitting next to a child being sick on a plane, I would feel sorry for it and the parents. It wouldn’t be pleasant but I would write it off as one of those things. I have three small children myself, with whom I travel abroad quite regularly. It happens.

Good news op is getting insurance. Cancellation cost small worry.

Just two case studies of the uninsured - £300k from Thailand. Got crowd funded, would have been dead without.
£35k from Egypt,life changing injury. Also crowd funded, would also have probably died without.

Just go, they bounce bank quickly that age

Husky - he was last sick nearly 12 hours ago. Not pleasant, but hardly severe.

I think I would still go as planned, assuming your DS is not sick again before the flight.

If you don't feel he is well enough to go tomorrow morning, have you checked the cost of one-way flights over the next few days? Is it possible for your or your DH a to go on ahead with DC2 and you could follow in a day or so once DS1 is feeling better? Then all return on the booked return flight?

Gutting for you to lose the money, but the simple fact is you could cancel without losing the money if you’d have bought insurance so I think you need to suck it up, change flight dates and travel when he has been vomit free for 48hrs, any other option in unbelievably selfish in my opinion.

Think of all the other people who have spent the same £6k or more on their holiday, do they deserve to be ill? airplanes are rife for spreading airborne illness and people will inevitably get ill part way through travel sometimes, but to travel knowing your child was unwell to start with is selfish.