Concerned, even cynical friends deemed us crazy to accompany our eldest daughter, her Tamil-born Hindu husband, and their 10-month-old twin daughters on a trip to introduce the girls to their Indian roots and relatives in Bangalore and Mumbai.  What about germs?  What if they got sick?  Had we considered the myriad problems with not one, but two, squirmy, teething, sweaty bodies intent upon little else than their own immediate needs gratification?   Fortuitously, with little time for rational thought, the trip became reality.  Last April we all took off for a month in India, and one essential key to success for this incredible, multigenerational journey was tea.

With advice from her Brooklyn pediatrician, himself the father of twins, our daughter decided to bring along tea bags to create drinks for the babies.  She mixed a diluted Yogi Stomach Ease tea solution to accompany us wherever we went in India.  Several times a day, she added bottled water to brewed herbal tea contained in plastic baby bottles. The twins enjoyed the soothing weak tea in cars, in planes, on boats, and even in bajajs, those three-wheeled motorized rickshaws common in many Asian cities.  Although she was still nursing, the tea solution provided extra water and may well have enhanced the babies’ immune systems.  Not only did they seem to enjoy the tea rituals, but they also maintained a healthy water balance and never had even a hint of any kind of digestive problem during the entire trip.

Most hotels, even the mid-to-low-price-range ones we visited, provided bottled drinking water, electric pots, and even tea bags, so it was not difficult to make the twins’ tea ritual part of our daily routine.  And since temperatures in India are generally very hot, it is vital to drink plenty of liquids.  There is dry heat in some places, with heavy, wet, tropical humid heat in other areas, so travelers of all ages need to avoid dehydration, which can set in quite suddenly.   But, none of us had any problems.  We could enjoy morning or afternoon tea ourselves, without wondering what we would give the babies while we relaxed.  Our daughter chose the Yogi tea because it didn’t contain caffeine and had a pleasant taste, and the doctor suggested it would settle still immature digestive systems. It worked, and our introduction to new smells, tastes, and people was wonderful.

While traveling, diluted herb tea provides an excellent, inexpensive, readily accessible salve for babies and children, and full strength, it does the same for adults.  Check with your pediatrician or health professional before deciding which light weight, easily packed tea bags will accompany you on your international trips.   We, grandparents of twins, now include them even on short-distance domestic flights to less exotic destinations.