Camping, baby (6mo), water abroad/formula - help!??

[smilesattheweekend]

Hi. We have always camped in france for holidays since DS was 2. We now have DD who will be 6mo when we go to Berny Riviere, Paris in May. Have never camped or been abroad with a 6mo before and need advice. We wont have a microwave so I have bought a bottlewarmer (which is fabulous by the way, it also sterilises a bottle and has a lead which means I can use it in the car as well as plug it into the mains in the tent), so no problem there. Can someone let me know if the water is OK to use (obviously will boil it up first as one should) if not ok to use water, can I use bottled water or is it best to buy cartons of ready made formula? Also, will it be warm enough for DD to sleep in travel cot in a sleeping bag or should I add blankets? Any other tips/advice will be grateully received.

Cheers. X

Smiles

Not sure about water in france,

But I'd opt for ready made formula over using bottle water for feeds.

when we camped in france with 9mo twins we used cooled boiled water, but also took a few cartons for emergencies. I woudl take blankets as nights in May can be cool. We also too some (very norty!) disposable pre-sterilised bottles with us which were pretty handy. Have fun!

bottled water usually too salty, but the bottled 'eau de source' which is cheaper is less minerally - you will have to check the label if you do use it

We used both boiled and bottled ( just made sure it was a low salt one)

Thanks everyone, will get a supply of the cartons to be on the safe side I think, she easily gets a dicky tummy. Duckyfuzz - I hadn't thought of the disposable pre-steri bottles - can you recommend any as I haven't looked at them before - are the expensive??

X

Smiles

My friend lives in France and was told to make up formula with Evian water. Apparently it has less salt and minerals than other bottled waters.

I've just been looking at the Evian website and there is a whole section about giving Evian to babies which seems to back up what my friend was told.

Thanks Lubyloo. Will get Evian, I think we can buy the same over here so I could try it out and see if it suits her, would be better than carting loads of cartons over there. Thanks again, you are a star!

We went camping to Brittany when dd was 8 months. I used evian to make bottles. Brought my electric steriiliser as the tents had electric.
Used disposable bottles (from Boots) and ready made cartons for the journey there and back.
I also had a little container with 3 compartments which held pre measured amounts of powdered milk. Tip into the sterilised bottle, add evian and ready to go. Great for days out. I think it was made by avent and bought in mothercare or boots.

Hi we went to France when DS about 7 months old. HV advised to buy mineral water with low salt, from lubyloos advice looks like Evian is suitable. I also used the premeasured compartment for the powder, you can get them in Mothercare.

Have a nice trip.

Thanks so much for your help. Looks like Evian will be used and maybe take a few cartons. When my DS was born there was no problem with making up bottles but now we have to make them "fresh". I have lots of the compartment things (they are cheaper at tesco and I often measure out the feeds for the day as the formula isn't sterlie anyway). I usually make the bottles up with boiled water and pop them in the fridge, when I need a bottle I warm the water and then pop in the measured amount. I have just bought a great thing on amazon (I saw it online at boots first but they had sold out), it is a warmer but it warms in 3 mins using steam, it also sterilises a bottle and has a car adaptor as well as plug, so great for holidays and days out. The tents we use have a plug so I will use this for warming and will take my coldwater sterliser (I use this for microwave sterilising at home, I had a plug in sterliser with DS). Can you recommend any disposable bottles - what are the teats on them like - DD is on 6mth teats already as she is on hungry baby formula which is thicker???