Travelling with kids

My brother wants to take his baby to Delhi. At six weeks, Pepa wouldn't get a great deal out of the experience, but at least her parents would be able to regale her with embarrassing stories about her first long-haul trip later in life.

First, they'd tell her it was hit and miss whether she went or not. My brother swears that he's asked 50 people if they would take a near-newborn to India, and 49 have said, "No way." His GP admitted he was no specialist, but said that if it were his child, he wouldn't be so bold. Even the local pharmacist, who happened to be Indian, wasn't too keen. I was the only one who thought it at all possible.

Until, that is, my brother consulted the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (020-7388 8989, For just £15, he made an appointment to see a consultant, who said from a basis of very sound knowledge that, with care and protection, there was no reason why the baby shouldn't be thrown into her sling and sent packing.

It's always best to ask an expert. Dr Jane Wilson-Howarth, author of Bugs, Bites and Bowels (Cadogan £9.99), took her son Sebastian to Nepal aged three weeks. She says the main worry in India - diarrhoea (aka Delhi belly) - is greatly reduced if a baby is breastfed, as nothing contaminated should reach her mouth. (The mother, however, has to be keep well enough "to maintain her cow status".) And in Delhi, unlike other areas, the risk of malaria is low. But Dr Wilson-Howarth still recommends taking a cot net to use from dawn to dusk. "The great thing about small babies is that, unlike five year olds, you can curfew them," she says.

So would she advise taking a baby to Delhi? "It depends how sensible the parent is," she says. Oh dear, maybe that rules out Pepa going after all.

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