How much time needed for Colombia to Fiji?

[Fore and Aft]

You could spend your whole life stressing about getting sick while offshore sailing. Mum and dad may as well stay at home to since there's a chance of drowning getting whacked by the boom, sunstroke etc. The baby's well-being will come down to a bit of luck and what type of parents Schilke are. By the time they go through the canal they will know if they are helicopter or dolphin parents and if they want to continue the voyage with a baby. Plenty of people do have kids on the water and thrive on the water. We have raised two children on land, and I can't even tell you the last time they went to a doctor. Even as babies it was just the regular check-ups and vaccinations. I look at our group of friends who are all pretty relaxed parents and none of them have had medical emergencies. Some of the places we have been camping in Australia I imagine if our kids had of got sick it would have to be the flying doctors or a rescue helicopter to come help us. But to be honest that sort of stuff never crosses our mind. You would have to be pretty unlucky for a healthy baby to get seriously sick while on a voyage.
Cheers

[Jim Cate]

Some of the places we have been camping in Australia I imagine if our kids had of got sick it would have to be the flying doctors or a rescue helicopter to come help us.

But the point is that when out at sea, there ain't no flying doctors or rescue helicopters.

Yes, you would have to be unlucky... but sometimes folks are indeed unlucky, and the consequences can be pretty severe.

Jim

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

You better listen to the doctor. I was in Galapagos one year and a French couple with a 6 month old baby had the baby and mother rescued by a ship halfway to the Marquesas. The baby became ill about a week out of the Galapagos and got severely dehydrated. The ship stopped about 10 miles out of Wreck Bay because they had no detailed charts of the Galapagos, and a local boat came out and took the baby and mother off.

And?


As I said it is a very very rare occurrence.


Currently the leading cause of child death in the UK is cancer. All things need perspective.

[donradcliffe]

The baby and mother flew back to Paris, and to the best of my knowledge their sailing days were over. If you want to play statistics, plan on creating another infant when you lose one. That used to be no big deal, but now it really upsets the mothers.

It is not a rare occurrence in places where there are no doctors and emergency rooms. Some islands in the world, a baby is not named until its first birthday. Personally, I remember staying up all night with a 6 month old with Pneumonia and a humidifier.

[JPA Cate]

@Don, I think you're mistaken, even when most children didn't make it to five, I bet those mothers were mostly VERY upset to lose those babies and young children. And, I bet they were discouraged from talking about it to the men. Reliable birth control was a relatively modern development.

Yes, parents do take on risks for their children, but if you leave where you're going with no illness present, chances are good you'll all arrive safe and sound. When we had to go back to NZ, we were healthy when we left, but incubating the Victoria A flu. Two whole days with no one on watch out at sea, and then Jim got enough better to head us back. And the baby is more fragile than we were at that time--especially if the parents didn't know how to bring down a fever, or keep the child hydrated.

If the ship is well found, and the parents are responsible, probably okay. But no guarantees, even for breast fed babies. In the end, these people are already out cruising. I'm not sure it's a good idea to crowd source out one's own decision-making. If a child dies during a voyage, then the parents have to cope with that, and probably better understood in the island nations than entering the US minus that wee one. It would be a sadness that would haunt, now as in the past.

Ann