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Take These Along When Traveling With Kids
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Two new products aim to save kids from two nasty side effects of travel: Boredom and motion sickness.
Two new products—Nabi Compete and Queasy Pops—make traveling with kids easier. With Nabi Compete, a fitness tracker for kids, you can turn the journey into a game. With Queasy Pops, lollipops with natural ingredients to mitigate motion sickness, you can ease your child’s nausea.
Our kid reviewer, Daniel, along with the Nabi Compete.
In 2016 the International Data Corporation estimates that 111 million wearable devices—smartwatches and fitness trackers—will be shipped worldwide, up from 80 million in 2015. Fuhu, the producer of children’s tablets aimed at educating while entertaining, enters the lets-get-kids-moving market with its activity tracker, Nabi Compete.
Each band contains a round tracker that measures steps, syncing via Bluetooth to the Nabi Compete app for Android or iOS. The bands come with trackers in different colors so that children can change the look of their Compete.
Daniel, our 9-year-old reviewer, likes the Compete band. An active third-grader, Daniel would be playing basketball, soccer, and running around without the Compete strapped to his wrist, but he’s happy to know just how much he moves. One day at school he walked more than 16,000 steps, thus earning many points to “buy” food for the virtual pets the app assigns users.
To feed Tong, a lion cub, Daniel spends his points on watermelon, bananas, oranges, and other fruit. The king of the “jungle” grows with his “meals.” Lions don’t subsist on fruit. We’re all for reinforcing the idea of healthy citrus snacks for kids and we understand that an option of a side of baby zebra for Tong might upset children, but we still wish Compete handled the food options better. Maybe if the user were to “eat” the fruit, then Tong could grow. This is a small point, we know, but why confuse children at all?
When traveling with a child, especially a disinterested or cranky one, Compete can be handy tool to focus the child’s attention on the number of steps she will gain by walking through the airport terminal, the museum or the historic district. Compete does engage kids’ imaginations. Users can challenge friends to walk the distance of the Brooklyn Bridge or the National Mall or complete other goals. Daniel likes knowing that the 1.5 miles he walked equals a stroll on the Miami Beach boardwalk and the 6 miles he covered means he walked Central Park. Sometimes, Daniel reports, the Compete records steps even when he sleeps.
For parents, Compete is unnecessarily complicated. Since the bands come with no instructions, parents or tech savvy kids must search Nabi’s website, which lacks basic information about set-up. Eventually, adults and kids figure out there’s an app to be downloaded. Nabi should make getting started easier.
At $39.99 for two bands, Compete, much less expensive than adult trackers, is a good buy that just might, as Nabi says, get kids to “learn, burn and earn.” Targeted to ages 6+.
Check out Daniel’s video review of the Navi Compete below, then read on for our review of Queasy Pops.
Motion sickness happens. To combat nausea in children, a nurse developed Queasy Pops, lollipops formulated with “essential oils, vitamins, and natural ingredients.” The box fails to mention specifics and the claims haven’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. However, we know from personal experience that sucking on something sweet often lessens that seasick feeling. The pops taste good, containing cane and corn syrup plus natural flavors. If the special components work to stave off up-chucking, then so much the better. This might be a good item to give to an uncomfortable child, along with whatever medication, if necessary. Box of seven lollipops from $3.95.
Have you tried either product? What do you think? What other essentials help your kids tolerate holiday travel? Comment below or connect with me on Twitter, @familyitrips.
