Travelling on first child passport when child is 4

[childpassie]

My DD's passport doesn't expire until March next year. It's her first ever passport, she was born in January 2020 and the picture in her passport is her at 4 weeks old.

I travel regularly to an EU country with my DD and the guard in EU country has mentioned that she looks absolutely nothing like her picture anymore.

Does anyone have experience at actually being turned away for this reason ?

We still travel with our son’s first one ( photo from when he was 1 week old) and he is soon 4, I’ve not had any comments so far even though he doesn’t look anything like his photo.

It’s irrelevant aslong as it’s still valid, that’s why they’re only valid for 5 years.

It's a valid passport. You obviously won't be the only person who has ever travelled with a 4/5 year old with a baby's passport. It will be fine. I expect they are just making polite conversation. At most, they might ask her a few questions just to make sure she is the child in the passport, like when is her birthday? Where does she live? Where was she born? Who is this adult she's with? etc.

We travelled with all three of ours on their first passports (obtained at a couple of months old) until they expired when they were 5. No issues. They wouldn’t issue them for 5 years if it was a problem.

The guard said someone could deny us entry and now I'm always anxious when we travel.

No kids look the same at 5 as they did at 8 weeks old.

Not Germany is it? Happened to me with both my kids. They commented that they didn't look anything like their picture anymore and they could refuse to let them travel. I did point out that the passports are still valid and it's not my fault they were issued for 5 years. They've never actually stopped me travelling but do like to mention it.
They are also the only country that asks me for permission from their dad to travel with them alone.

This is why you have to update the photo earlier than you do on adult ones. It is still a valid passport - but do also check it has enough time left on it after you get back to be OK! That seems more of a worry than the picture tbh.

Yes ! Germany !

They also just mentioned it and didn't stop us, but I always have anxiety around it. I need to fly short notice now and won't have time to renew / change pic. Hate the anxiety !

It expires March 2025. More than enough time. We are only staying away for a couple of weeks

Happened to us, when my dd was the same age and her passport was due to expire at a similar time! She was a fresh looking bald baby in her passport photo and her eyes looked black in the photo and are now very light blue with long thick hair!

They did take a lot longer to look at it and that did make me really nervous! but then they gave it back to us and didn’t say anything.

I get what you mean about anxiety. I worry about it every time we go to Germany too. So far we've never been stopped from travelling but they do really like to mention the passport pictures and the permission to travel. Always on our way back out of the country too, never when we're coming in.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/holidays/3019919-Child-unrecognisable-from-passport-photo

Never. All my children have had their first passport photo taken within their first 8 weeks and we’ve always used them multiple times up to replacing them at age 5.
Most recently went away at Easter and DS 4 travelled no problems despite being a very tiny, black haired newborn on his passport photo and now being a very stocky, white blonde 4 year old.

when ours was checked recently, they had a conversation with DS. Asked him his name, where he was going/been etc. It was very relaxed but I assume it also could be a bit of a relaxed security check!

We got some funny looks when by big man of a young teenager got through passport control in France and Spain over the past year. Puberty has hit hard, he needs to shave, hair is darker and he's taller than his dad. Guards at both places were laughing, but let him through as can see it's a teeny version of him after studying the pics.
It's due for renewal next year