A few years ago, when our little grandson was just 4 we took him to London and Scotland with us. We prepared him by cutting out pictures from our InBritain magazines of things to look for and put them in a small photo book, we gave him his own map of London and the UK, and allowed him to write on it as much as he wanted. we took favorite toys, and coloring books (new ones), and his beloved Leapster game (with a brand new game cartrige). We went to the airport three times to watch the planes go up and land, and get familiar with the atmosphere. we took trips to the mall to learn to ride the escallators without falling or jumping on and off. We also made a big calendar with photos of what we would do the days leading up to the trip: laundry, packing clothes, packing favorite toys, saying goodbye to relatives and friends, and finally, putting our bags in the car and driving to the airport. This worked well, even though my husband thought i was "overdoing it". I know where several really nice "play parks" are in London, and you can't miss the Princess Diana memorial park (Peter Pan theme) in Regent Park. They have McDonald's in the UK too (glad to see familiar food)!! This trip was his first, and he was not on any medication (as we did not have the diagnosis yet - but we knew something was "different" about him). We have made the trip again, at age 6 (also before medication), and he is a great traveler. This fall we plan to go again, this time we have the benefit of Straterra, and we expect it to go even better. the hardest times for him are the "waiting times" at restaurants, walking slowly down the side walk with us, rather than racing ahead, waiting for the "tube" train, etc. Planning down time at play parks, every afternoon for at least an hour is a must. And keeping the "feeling of adventure and discovery" going is also a big help. We look forward to more travel, and may soon start cutting out pics of the Eiffel tower, and glass pyramid in the Louve as we may add on Paris next trip. BUT NO Chunnel, just in case of delays, we will take the P&O ferry across the channel. bye.
Thank you so much for this report and such great suggestions and tips!
And...may I say that you are a wonderful grandparent. Your grandson is very lucky to have you. Everything you have done just makes things so much easier as your grandson will know what to expect. I love the idea of using visuals and I have done the same thing to prepare my son for vacations...it helps so much.
I would love to hear more about your trips and I am especially interested to know what effect the medication has.
Thank you for your comment and I do hope we hear more from you on this site.
We are planning another trip, either fall or spring of this year. He is now 8 years old and is taking strattera 20mg. compounded into a chocolate flavor liquid by Hazel Drugs. This works wonderfully. (we did not have as much success with Adderal, as he had strange side effects including being very emotional, bad nightmares, and acting very scared (i think he had hallucinations) even during the daytime. ) We started over a year ago with the Straterra liquid on just 12mg, and have had to gradually increase as he as grown. with the liquid compound you can do more gradual adjustments to the dose. He can concentrate, he is able to read, he can sit still in church for an hour, and is a happy, healthy and energetic boy. FYI, he also has mosaic down syndrome, but with very mild speech and language problems, and no MR.
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Talk about your hard-earned lessons...wow.
You all had to be ready to leave on the first trip and it was courageous of you to go back again!
Your advice would be welcome for any parent, I think. Thinking and planning help so much to avoid the unexpected and you brought as much of your home activities along as possible. I would think that helped a great deal with lowering Max's stress at being taken into such a wonderful, but raucous, colorful place. That's a great idea about bringing along his babysitter, not only for him but his parents as well.
Thanks for the sharing these tips.
Thanks so much Paul!
yeah it was a triumph to go back and have things work out so well. It makes all the difference in the world to plan things out ahead of time. I am greatly looking forward to going back again...and we will remember what things helped my son the most.
I appreciate your comment. I hope parents with children who have special needs will feel hope after reading my post. I was honestly fearing that we would not have a good vacation ever again.