Urgent advice needed, please

[cuckoo2004]

I am taking my 2 month old baby to Portugal. Does anyone know whether it is okay to use the local water to make up bottles or do I need to use bottled water (& if so which one should I look for)?

I suppose that I could always take cartons of ready made formula but I would need a lot for 2 weeks, or can you buy them there?

if you are boiling the water anyway, wouldn't see any problems. if you do use bottled water, use evian. what formula do you use?

cukoo I took the ready made cartons on a 2 wk hol when dd was 5 months old. Made things a lot easier. If not I think I would use bottled water over there.

Gosh, how brave of you to make that journey with such a wee babe!

When we took DS2 at 6 months to Spain we used bottle water but you have to be very careful to make sure it's low sodium because usually bottled water is not suitable for babies. Are you going with a tour company who may have a rep who could help.

Otherwise I'd go for taking cartons - I know it's a lot but worth it for peace of mind. Don't know about Portugal but we couldn't get any cartons where we were.

We also sterilised just by boiling the bottles in a big pan of water - this is fine but if you are going to do this, I'll just warn you that it leaves a white 'film' on the bottle but it didn't do DS any harm.

HTH. Have fun

Took ds (then 3 months) to Portugal. Used cold water sterilising tablets (get a plastic container mark the 4 pint - or whatever it is - line on it so you know how much cold water to put in.) Use bottled water - low sodium is the key. Evian and Volvic I think are the ones - some HVs have a list they can give you.

I know for certain evian is OK, so just another voice to add! Or consult a local pharmacist. I'd consider taking a few cartons at least - we had problems with a particular French formula that seemed really hard to dissolve - in the end we gave up and used cartons.

have to say I took the powdered formula with me as I wasn't sure what would be available...

Thank you all for your messages. I think that I'll probably just take ready made cartons, I feel worried enough about taking a small baby away without adding this. Expensive, I know, but I think that I'll just accept it as part of the cost of taking an overseas holiday.

PS mummytosteven, I use Aptamil First and have found it to be really good.

just asking about the formula in case anyone knew if you get cartons over there in Portugal to save you some carrying.