How to prevent recursion with dependent observables

Question

I have an issue with my KnockoutJS code that is creating an infinite loop.

Say in my view model I have a value that represents the number of people going on a holiday. This value is bound to a select list, so that a customer can change the number of people.

var viewModel = {
    selectedTravellerCount:  ko.observable(),
    travellers: ko.observableArray([])       
}

When the value of the select list is changed (i.e. the quantity of travellers changes) I want to show an array of select lists to allow the customer to input the age of each traveller.

I assume that I need to create a observable dependent on the selectedTravellerCount that renders in the UI.

viewModel.travellerCount = ko.dependentObservable(function() {
    var tQ = this.selectedTravellerCount();
    alert("count:" + tQ);
        for (var i = 0; i < tQ; i++) {
        alert("adding");
        var t = new traveller();
        alert("a");
        t.Age = 18;
        alert("b");
        this.travellers.push(t);
        alert("added");
    }
}, viewModel);

This works OK when the page is first rendered. However, the first time the select list is changed, the dependentObservable function is repeatedly called and gets as far as the alert("b") line.

So, it looks to me that the traveller is being pushed to the travellers array, which is then causing function to run again, which then gets repeated ad infinitum.

However, I thought the function should only depend on the selectedTravellerCount value changing.

What am I missing?

I've also tried:

var viewModel = {
   selectedTravellerCount:  ko.observable(),
   travellers: ko.observableArray([])
   addTraveller: function (age) {
       alert(age);
       this.travellers.push({ age: age });
   }         
}

viewModel.travellerCount = ko.dependentObservable(function() {
    var tQ = this.selectedTravellerCount();
        for (var i = 0; i < tQ; i++) {
            this.addTraveller(18);
    }
}, viewModel);