taking a 9 month old baby to america - good idea?

[Charlie111]

Hi there

We are planning a holiday in June, our first since our son was born, and currently undecided as to the best option.

We would love to go to New England, spend a few days in Boston and then do 2 self catering stops - Cape Cod and Marthas Vineyard.

But not sure that would be too much with a 9 month old baby and could be horrific with the time differences and long flight.

DOes anyone have similar experience/advice?

Thanks,

Charlie111

I think it would be absolutely fine! I think 9m is a great age, especially if he is not mobile yet. He'll be incredibly adaptable, you'll see. Friends of mine have flown to see family in Oz every 6 months since their DD was 2 months old and that first year they found easiest of all. The baby slept in the bassinet on the plane, and caught up on naps in the pushchair quite happily

We are going to Florida in April with an 18m old (among others!), and I think that is probably the worst age imaginable...all he is going to want to do is stomp around and climb onto everyone else's seats. But we'll cope. As we did when we went to LA with a 4 yr old DD and then 16m old DS1...that's an 11 hour flight and an 8 hour time difference, but the kids adapted within 48hrs. I had worried about it so much beforehand, all for nowt!

My sister lives in LA and has returned home 3 times since she had her baby (now 11ms)...he's now a seasoned and v happy traveller!

Go and have a lovely time!

I found it v. hard to find decent babyfood out there. Nothing organic and virtually everything with sugar or corn syrup in it.

Flights might be hard, depends on your luck but it's not that long
Jet lag should be okay too, they adapt pretty quickly
I haven't ever had trouble finding babyfood, organic etc

I think it would be quite easy really.

The flight time to the East Coast isn't that bad, and jet lag doesn't really seem to affect babies IME as they just sleep when they're tired!

No travel vaccines needed for USA, no worries re water and food hygiene (beyond the normal) and 9 month olds don't really need baby food as they can have what you have chopped up (well maybe not the 24 oz steaks and fries!)

At that age they are so portable so it should be quite straightforward really. Have fun!

Tell me how it goes!
I'm planning to take nearly 4 year old and a baby who will be 10 months in February to Florida in February.
I'm thinking that the 10 month old will be less trouble than the 4 year old!
The US is geared up for babies and having taken a 10 month already to Spain and who slept all the way there, I'm hoping that Florida will go well!

I will be fine. The time difference is okay - not really big enought to give you serious jetlag ( I find the west coast a killer). I used to live in Boston and shuttled to and fro to the UK and on every flight the babies slept fine. It is good he will fit in the baby cots.

It is worth noting that BA do a daytime flight out of Logan (Boston)leaves in the morning and gets back to the UK at dinner time - well they used to anyway. That way you are back home at bed time. I often think that the jeg lag on the way home is actually mainly caused by losing a nights good sleep. You might find it easier to look after him if you fly home on the day time flight and you are both not sleep deprived!

I found Cape Cod a bit overated. I preferred Cape Anne north of Boston (Glouster, Rockport area). A bit more wild. There are lots of places where you can sit and eat lobster rolls on picnic tables beside the ocean. The clam chowder is to die for too.

Have fun!

Sleepless, despite your misspelled name I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. But no organic/decent baby food in the States? I find that hard to believe. Go to Trader Joes or Whole Foods if you're desperate. If you're worried bring some Ella's pouches with you. I didn't do purees so wasn't an issue for me.

We took our DS to the States at 9 months. It was fine, apart from hideous travel delays due to snowstorms. We've travelled there with him since (and I did Boston with him on my own when he was 15 months). Travel time to BOS is quite good and we tend to just wake up a few hours earlier than normal and don't suffer jet lag too badly on the East Coast.

The Cape is nice but very crowded in the summer so be prepared for that. Also, to get to Martha's Vineyard and Nantuckett can cost a few hundred dollars in ferry fees (and are mostly pre-booked), so factor that in, too. We went to the Cape last time for that reason. Wellfleet is charming and very small. Chatham is what I expected of a "typical" Cape Cod village and a bit more refined. Provincetown is vibrant but crowded and more touristy.

More than you asked for, sorry!

9 months old? Easy peesy. We did the US at 13 months and it was a breeze, it was when he hit 2 that it was a pain to fly. We're considering going in the fall this year with a 10 month old and a 6 year old. We found that 2/3 years old to be the hardest. The east coast like others have said isn't that far and the jetlag is not too bad.

We did the dayflight out of JFK, it's an early start but when we got back to Heathrow and the Shuttle home it was about 11pm so we all went to bed and no jetlag! Brilliant!

As for the bit about baby food?! Are you joking Sleepless?