To ask how you travel with a baby?????

[massagegirl]

Just booked our first family holiday. Baby will be 1. I am clueless and looking for any tips or advice? It's with Thomson, 3 hour flight, all inc hotel.

• What do you do about formula and bottles? And food for her?
• Do we pay to take buggy with us?
• How do you keep to luggage limit when the infant doesn't get an allowance?
• Anything else I'm missing - want to be prepared as poss! Thanks wise mumsnetters.

Check with your airline, but most allow a luggage allowance for babies. Pushchair take with and they will take off you and put in the hold just before you board the plane, it's also free. Food, if it's all inclusive there will be food that your baby can eat, formula take with and bottles, ask for a kettle in your room and you can wash and place them in boiling water for a few mins which should sterilise them if not buy some bottled water once there and use Milton sterilising tablets for cold water. Take a few select toys and nappies they will sell them in supermarkets :) but do take swim nappies, I have not found those yet! Hope this helps.

I'd advise a sling for getting off the plane as sometimes you have to go through passport control etc before getting your buggy back.

Whilst your on holiday accept that any routine (food, sleep) will go out the window but that your dc will settle back in fine when they get home.

You should be able to take your buggy to the gate/plane door, and may get it back at the gate though it might be at luggage pickup (often on a different belt to your suitcases). A sling/baby carrier is a good idea for airport and for sitting on plane if 1 year old isnt too wriggly.

Re food for the plane, lots and lots of snacks - cherrios, breadsticks, raisons, anything they like or is a "treat". Just keep feeding them! (See above re routine....). If breastfeeding do it for take off and landing as the sucking helps their ears, alternatively a dummy works too. At 1 they probably will be off formula and on milk but I used to take a couple of cartons of the ready mixed stuff on the plane if it covered milk time, as it didnt need to be kept chilled like cows milk. If you need lunch/dinner cheese, yogurts are good. Or revert to an Ella pouch. If you have a couple of jars/pouches of baby food airline security will often ask you to pick one to try. If you need to keep stuff cold, dont use the freezer packs as I dont think they are allowed through security but use a small pack of frozen peas in the lunch boxas it will warm up slowly.

Check with you hotel if they offer sterlizers, microwaves, most family places are pretty good at this.

Take a packet of weetabix/whatever they like for breakfast in your suitcase so you know they will have a good start to the day (and if they only eat fruit for the rest of the day then its less stressful!)
If you are going to be using a travel cot from the hotel take one of your own sheets so it smells like home.

And have a lovely time!

If she will be 1 when you go, could you not ditch the bottles beforehand? And surely there is no need to be sterilising at this age?

She may also be walking by then.

I always travelled very light with mine: his own cup, bowl and spoon and a few nappies to tide us over. The rest you can buy wherever you are going.

Ive travelled loads with dc from when they were tiny babies.

Buggy at airport is easy.
If baby is 1. Just take a sippy cup and give local milk or other drinks

Food - help yourself from all inclusive for baby too. He/she will enjoy all finger food. Take a small tupperware container you can use for nicking healthy snacks from the buffet that will not perish.

Have a lovely time!

Buy nappies locally. They will be more expensive but less hassle that lugging them out there

You shouldn't have to pay for the buggy. I never have done with easy jet. You can take it right up to boarding but you don't get it back again till baggage reclaim so a sling is very useful.
If she is 1 she doesn't need formula. Full fat cows milk twice a day is Fine.However if you are in a hotel room with no fridge just take cartons. There is no need to sterilise, just use washing up liquid and hot water. I had got DS onto cups by our holiday this year which was much easier. If you prefer you could take those sma disposable bottles. Cow milk is easier if you are self catering. As for food, a one year old should mostly be able to eat ordinary table food. I packed a few squeezy pouches too and some Ella's kitchen finger snacks. Mostly he was very happy with pasta!
We have never had a problem with the luggage allowance. Normally you get 20kg per adult which is a huge amount of stuff. You just have to pack sensibly.
Milton wipes are very useful when eating out and one of those travel highchairs could be handy too when eating out in places that aren't set up for babies, but since you are all inclusive that shouldn't be a problem. A hotel like that will have highchairs and food suitable for children.

Thank you all this is really helpful. she happily takes a sippy cup, and I'd forgotten that she'd be on cows milk by then. Good point about routine going out of the window!

Do you know what time the food is served? On our inclusive it was half six which was way too late, we ended up making up a bowl at lunchtime every day and the baby having that at five.

Little first aid kit with sachets of calpol, teething powder etc. Dont forget sunscreen.

I think Thomson allow 10kg for infants. Remember swim nappies!

If you look at your hotel online, it will have mealtimes etc.

Check if you have to book a cot.

We recently did a four hour flight with a 15 month old and what we found helped was a tablet with episodes of tellytubbies and baby games, and a bag of 'new' toys never seen before ( I went to the £ shop with a tenner - mini play dough tubs, crayons and a pad of paper, and a mini shopping basket with pretend food were the biggest hits! £ shop currently has Annabel Karmel biscotti too which I doled out at regular intervals). We bought water on the plane and DD drank it our of the cups provided no problem.

We had 10kg luggage allowance for DD and could take a pushchair and travel cot free. Second the sling advice. As we did blw she ate what we ate, and we let routines go out the window a bit, this was 3 weeks ago and all back to normal now!

I found that I had to change my expectations a lot - I like to sightsee, museums etc but this holiday we spent much more time on the beach and it was no worse for it. Still found time for cocktails on the sea front, most importantly!

You don't need to sterilise bottles for a one year old also they can drink cows milk ( or formula if easier)

If you make formula with bottled water be careful to make sure that you get one which is either not mineral water or if mineral water has a low magnesium level.

If you give them one with high magnesium it gives them the shits which is not good somewhere hot.