Our family spends more than a month each year at Disneyland, and about the same amount of time on roadtrips all over California and Arizona. Thanks to (mostly) clean eating and (almost) perfect handwashing at home, our bodies can withstand a few days of nonstop churros, nachos, and Cokes. But, when you visit The Germiest Place On Earth as often as we do, someone is bound to catch something somewhere along the way.

I keep a quart size ziploc bag in my travel bag filled with all of the items detailed here. While we hardly ever get sick on vacation, it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Plus, while it’s easy to find a drugstore no matter where we are, it’s not easy (or cheap) to find natural medicines at Walgreens or CVS.

Read on for my list of the 12 items I always pack for our Disney vacations and road trips!

This post includes affiliate links. Always check prices at your local stores to make sure you’re getting the best deal; Amazon almost always has better prices than our Phoenix Sprouts, Vitamin Shoppe, etc. but you may luck out in your area.

Here is Mom’s Travel Bag: Natural Remedies I Always Pack on our Disneyland Vacations—in order of importance!

1. Food Grade Calcium Bentonite Clay – Tierra Buena brand

I pack a small container with a few tablespoons of clay, and plastic spoons and Dixie cups so I can mix the clay with water.
Anyone who gets a stomach ache drinks a teaspoon of clay mixed into about 3 oz of water.
We have a 100% success rate with not puking after taking this clay!
One time (and only one time, thank goodness!) I didn’t listen seriously to Jameson’s complaints of a stomach ache after she ate 3 Disneyland chimichangas in one day. She threw up. I gave her clay, she threw up once more. I gave her more clay every few hours for the rest of the night and once more in the morning, and she never vomited again. She swore off Disneyland chimichangas, but her resolve only lasted a couple trips before she had to have one again! Never three in one day again, though!
I understand that it is entirely possible that my kids might never have vomited after all even if they had not drunk clay water, but the clay makes their stomach aches go away within 20 minutes, so it definitely works on some level! Better safe than cleaning up puke.

[Tweet “Better safe than cleaning up puke. Natural remedies I pack on every family vacation! #familytravel”]

I also use clay mixed with water to instantly calm and quickly heal zits brought on by junk food and little sleep, bug bites, and rashes.
Clay water prevents hangovers as well; if you don’t want to feel the after effects of alcohol, take the clay water before you go to bed.

2. Chewable Probiotics – Nature’s Bounty Chewable Acidophilus

I pack 4 of these chewable probiotic tablets in a mini Advil tube—they fit perfectly and I still have room for a few doses of Advil. I find the tubes of ibuprofen at Dollar Tree but this is what I’m talking about: That tube goes in my purse. I pack the rest of the bottle of chewable probiotics in the small ice chest the kids keep in their seat on the road, and put the bottle in the hotel fridge once we arrive. (I don’t think it’s super sensitive to heat since the ones I keep in my purse always work fine, but we keep them in the fridge at home so I put them in the fridge in our hotel room too.)
The Nature’s Bounty chewable acidophilus tastes, looks, and works exactly the same the American Health brand, but Nature’s Bounty is MUCH cheaper and you can usually find it at Walgreens (it’s cheaper on Amazon even when Walgreens has a sale).
We swallow a regular probiotic daily, but these chewable probiotics work really well for minor tummy aches and gas pains. My kids take these on their own as needed, and if they don’t feel better within a few minutes, they ask for the clay.

3. Nexcare Waterproof Bandaids (Bandages, I guess, but we all call all brands Bandaids, right?)

My kids have sensitive skin—most bandaids cause a bigger problem than they protect! The Nexcare waterproof bandaids do not give my kids a rash, even though they stay on for days!
These are the only bandaids I’ve found that stick to feet all day, which is very important when we walk 17 miles a day at Disneyland! Blisters are not an option.
These are much cheaper at Walmart/Target—about $2.50 for a box of 20 assorted sizes; I’m just including the link so you know which box you’re looking for.

4. Mom’s Magic Cream (sorry, you’ll have to make due with semi-magic salve)

My mom makes amazing, magical salve with her own recipe that heals sunburns, cuts, burns, chapped lips—I don’t leave home without it!
You can check out the link above for something similar, but there’s no substitute for my mom’s magic cream!
She makes hers with beeswax, iodine, vitamin E, shea butter, castor oil, and almond oil.
Thanks to the beeswax it doesn’t melt, even in the car – in Phoenix – in summer! I keep some in a baby food jar in my travel bag.

5. D-Mannose and Pyridium Tablets for Bladder Infections

I need to write a big post on how I healed Jameson’s bladder infection naturally, but to make a long story short, I now take D-Mannose and Pyridium (phenazopyridine) tablets [the pills that make your pee orange] in my travel bag because you won’t find potent D-Mannose in a drugstore!
If you are on the road and in a pinch with a bladder infection, you can find Azo labeled “with D-Mannose” and urinary tract pain reliever (active ingredient phenazopyridine) at a drugstore. The generic pyridium works fine but the D-Mannose is pretty low potency.
Even though we’ve never again needed to treat a bladder infection on vacation, it was so difficult to manage and find products on the road (that would at least keep the infection low level until we got home) that I always take the good stuff with me, just in case.
D-Mannose Pure Powder (NOW Foods) – I pack the whole bottle, because it takes a lot of D-Mannose to knock out a bladder infection!
D-Mannose Capsules (Solaray) – I pack about 20 of these in a snack size ziploc in my travel bag so I can put them in my purse if needed; the capsules are easier to deal with than mixing the powder in water for each dose when we’re on the go.
Orange pee pills – you can find Azo Urinary Pain Relief at any drugstore, and it is exactly the same phenazopyridine you get with a prescription. (I do get the prescription because it costs me $2 instead of $7 to get the Azo at the drugstore!)

6. Vitamin C – The Good Stuff! Non-GMO L-Ascorbic Acid!

This is the powdered vitamin C we use. I pack it in a 4 oz tupperware container for travel.
I have healed many oncoming colds within a few hours by dosing my kids, my husband, and myself with it. At the first sign of a cold, I dose 5000 mg mixed into a big glass of water, then 1000 mg every hour or so until symptoms have been gone for a full day. Note that a big dose of vitamin C can cause diarrhea, which could cause a whole other problem on vacation! We’ve never had an issue but you’ve been warned!
We’ve also used these non-GMO vitamin C capsules. They’re easier to take (easier to ingest, and easier to pack!) but they are a lot more expensive than the powder.
I mix the powder with water and rub it onto my face at night; it helps my skin look fresher in the morning, even with little sleep and a lot of churros!

The rest of the items I pack in my travel first aid kit are easy to find at any drugstore, but I hate getting stuck paying for a huge box or bottle of an item I only need one or two doses of—especially when I had some at home!

7. Generic Advil (ibuprofen): I take some in my purse and more in the travel bag, because I hate spending $1 per pill at Disneyland if someone gets a headache.

8. Benadryl: Jefferson got a rash from the hotel soap when he was a baby and I’ve carried Benadryl in my travel bag ever since. I packed a bottle of Benadryl liquid with me until both kids learned to swallow pills; now I just keep a few Benadryl tablets in my travel bag.

I do not get the non-drowsy Benadryl because it has a different active ingredient that I don’t think it works as well as original Benadryl.

9. Activated charcoal: I dump one of these charcoal capsules into a Dixie cup and brush it into my teeth before bed. The charcoal whitens my teeth, which helps since I drink a lot of tea, Coke, and coffee on trips.

I also take activated charcoal before bed if I’ve had a couple cocktails. It works almost as well as the clay but I don’t have to take the time to mix it up, I just pop two charcoal pills and feel great in the morning.

10. Generic Claritin (loratadine): I buy it at Costco and one bottle lasts us years. I keep a dozen or so pills in my travel bag in case the Santa Ana Winds kick up or someone feels a bit congested. Maybe it’s just allergies, maybe it’s a cold…in our family, you get Claritin and vitamin C so that either way, we can keep having fun!

11. Dramamine: Jefferson gets vertigo and if he takes Dramamine he can ride rides like Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Universal Studios without feeling sick.

I don’t buy non-drowsy Dramamine because it has a different active ingredient; Dramamine for Kids has the same active ingredient as regular Dramamine with slightly lower dose.
I pack regular Dramamine pills (swallow 1 hour before riding) and keep a packet of chewable Dramamine in my purse because the chewables kick in faster—it works for Jefferson after 30 minutes.

12. Vitamins: We take a lot of vitamins and supplements, and I pack them for vacations. Since I switch up my vitamin regimen often, I just keep a vitamin case in my travel bag and fill it before each trip based on the number of days we’ll be gone.

Now that I’ve written it out, this seems like a long packing list! It all fits in that quart sized ziploc bag, though, and I keep that bag with my luggage so it’s always ready to go; all I have to do before a trip is fill up the vitamin dispenser!

Even though we usually get through our vacations without having to use any of it (except the bandaids!), as a mom I enjoy my vacations a lot more knowing I’m ready for anything!