Baby in Cave?

[AliCatWalk]

Would you bring a "babe-in-arms" (probably about 2mo) on a 1hr guided, mile-long cave tour?

YABU - Yes
YANBU - No

I expect many clarifying questions so will try to keep up, I am curious about initial impressions 😇

Thank you!

I can't see why on earth not, they weren't pot holing were they? From what you describe its no different to all sorts of historic or outdoor sites. Good on that Mum who I suspect knows what her own capabilities are!

One perk of breastfeeding. Even if the baby does one of those ones that comes out everywhere, it will be contained in their clothes and not smell. Not fun for the parent wearing the baby though, as they're just going to have to continue on and deal with it when they get out. A baby in a carrier will only spit up on the wearer.

In general, I think we know by two months how our baby is likely to be. I have older kids too so did manage to do things like take babies that age to movies. You just time it for their sleep schedule, nurse them to sleep, they're practically not there for the movie. If I'd had a more restless baby, I wouldn't have done it. I suppose a movie is easy to exit if you need to though.

The tour was ONE HOUR! Most likely scenario: no one even notices baby is there, other moderately likely scenarios: baby grizzles a bit and needs feeding, baby fills a nappy/sicks up a bit of milk on its own parent and again, no one notices

Our local caves are something like £12/person. It's not like they took their baby to the royal opera house.

Anyway, OP is pretending that their main concern here was for the welfare of the fragile baby

Well, in this case, the baby DID cry. One can plan out every single thing with no guarantee that your plans won't be foiled. In this case, the parent's choice made it miserable for others who paid to hear the guide, not the baby.

I EBF two babies. BOTH spit up and got the shits. It ALWAYS stunk and was foul.

In a movie theater, if your little darling starts to fuss, you can remove them, though not that many who bring their darlings think that thoughtful. They just figure we are all as enraptured with their crying child as they are. These same people think it's fine for a restaurant full of people to watch and listen to their angel run amok, scream, cry and cause disruption. Luckily, it is a minority that do this and the majority have a common sense IQ over 50.

A baby is more likely to be harmed every single time you take it out in a car than it is on an hour’s walk through a cave.

Maybe these weren't the kind of parents to think about whether their baby was one of the ones that could be taken in and be fine? Maybe they are the type that didn't care? If in doubt I do agree not to take the baby in. You can do that later when the kids are older. It's not fair to those who paid for tickets and for who this might be their one chance at this experience to have that spoiled by a crying baby.

I do care and have never (luckily) made a bad call about where my baby will be okay.

No, but because of the high likelihood of constant screaming from any of mine and then feeling trapped with the screaming in a cave! Made the mistake of going up the monument with one of mine and the screaming on the way down those tiny cylindrical steps was horrendous for everyone present.

So can grown adults.

I went to wookey hole and one lady had what I think was a panic attack and vomited and the tour was definitely interrupted.

I did another tour somewhere else and a man had a medical episode and the tour had to be stopped so he could get medical attention and then get taken away in an ambulance.

You can’t guarantee that a tour won’t be interrupted and an 8 week old baby isn’t going to cause more interruptions anymore than a grown adult would.

I would and did do something like this when my first was about 3 months. We went to the Isle of Wight and did the shanklin chine and loads of other museums and things. And my baby was a fussy one too, but that’s what a pacifier/boob is for.
Baby securely in a baby carrier or stretchy wrap. Fed. Maybe a spare feed or boob ready for a sling feed if required.
Even if they have a giant poo at that age it’s no where near as offensive as a weaning poo.
I can’t imagine a baby that age screams and screams for over an hour and isn’t hungry or poorly and can’t be soothed. Their needs are so basic at that stage.
If the parents don’t do things like that at that age when it’s easy I think they’ll regret it when the baby is older. The wake windows get longer, the naps more unpredictable, the baby is more mobile and gets heavier and heavier making baby wearing more challenging. Then you have a toddler and that’s a whole other kettle of fish.
And it’s only an hour tour anyway.

Please link to the research that has evaluated the relative risk of driving with a baby as opposed to walking with a baby in a cave for one hour. 😀

I took my babies on a cave tour. It was a cave people had lived in for thousands of years so they definitely weren’t the first babies down there.

With my first DS, absolutely. With the devil reincarnate I just produced, NOPE! Colic colic colic colic colic colic. No one is having a good time around him 🤣

It’s not a glow worm cave

No only because I’m so clumsy I would injure us both!

No I wouldn't but I'm very atypical on mumsnet about baby stuff.

Wouldn't bother me particularly unless it was the type of cave where everyone had to wear safety helmets.

Probably not for an hour unless I was confident they'd sleep
We took my 5 month old on a boat cave tour and she was fine but it was only 20 minutes max

I’d be annoyed by consistent crying, but that wouldn’t really be any different from, say, a stately home tour. So that’s a me problem rather than a reason any mum shouldn’t take a baby on a perfectly normal tourist thing.

I can’t be arsed to do the googling, but I recon I could come up with evidence for that statement. The ONS has statistics for a surprising number of things!

Agreed & sadly it is statistically quite dangerous! I actually often use that as a Risk Assessment measure to talk myself down when I get silly worries in fact 😅🫣

I can’t believe people are so uptight, both my children loved a sling, my second in particular spent most of his first year in a carrier, being breastfed and he was a really settled baby. I would not have given it a second thought.

Not only that there is absolutely nothing a 2 month old could do in my presence that would completely spoil my day. Poonami, crying, spitting up, me and my DH would just coo over the baby because there’s nothing to criticise about a baby!