Thailand with 6mth old - tips/advice

[fourmi]

Hello, we are planning a trip to Thailand, although we have both been before this will be the first time with a baby (who will be 6mths.) I am most concerned about traveling about - everything I have read advises against bringing a pram due to poor pavements - but what about car seats ? Not planning in traveling much in Thailand but airport to destinations etc. does anyone have any tips or advice about this and or other things to be aware of?
Thank you

Hi Fourmi! I live in Bangkok... It's true that prams won't be much help in this city, pavements are terrible or have people selling stuff/streetfood carts everywhere so not a lot of space. I don't have kids yet but lots of my neighbours and friends here do!

The other thing to note is that taxis here in Bangkok/airports don't usually have any seatbelts in the back. Thais just put kids on laps... And the westerners living here tend to start to do that too after the initial reluctance... unless they have their own car. You might want to pre book an airport pick up car through a company that you can ask about seatbelts or car seats...

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Hi there,
We recently went to Thailand with two DDs (2.5 and 9 months).
We didn't take a pushchair, we put DD2 in a woven wrap. I kept her in the wrap when we went in taxis.
We found hygiene levels to be good and neither DD was ill. Both coped well with the heat too.
We had a fantastic holiday, hope you do too!

Thank you so much for your advice - I love Thailand but been feeling a bit guilty - my pleasure over baby's saftey (just about car seats) but maybe a sling wd work. Pram seems to be defo no. Have either of you used the Johnson's baby mosquito protector? Or did you use something else?

We cosleep so no mssie net. We used repellant that you plug in to the plug socket (worked really well, we put it on an hour or so before bed time).
I also used a cream with citronella in for the evenings. Neither DD got bitten.
Don't feel guilty, it's a very small risk with the taxis. Your baby will love Thailand. Allow extra time to do anything though as you will have queues of people wanting to adore your baby!

We've been to Malaysia and Thailand with a slightly older child. We managed OK with a MacLaren but I certainly wouldn't have wanted a bulkier or heavier pushchair. I would actually take a stroller if I were you - if nothing else it means you won't have to carry the baby and luggage all round the airport. It is also useful when you go out for dinner. We stayed at a beach hotel with big grounds and pushing her round the hotel for a bit helped get her to sleep a few imes.

In Thailand we booked airport transfers with a company online and they did have baby seats and seat belts. As above, for other taxis and tuk-tuks in Bangkok there are no seatbelts. I find it a bit difficult sometimes as several years ago I was in a nasty car crash abroad with no seatbelts. We used the skytrain and boats as much as we could in Bangkok.

One thing to be aware of is that our blond haired blue eyed toddler was constantly fussed over. People did take her photo but no-where near as much as when we have taken her to India.

If you have started weaning we found restaurants were always very accommodating and happy to make different meals. I can't imagaine asking for some rice and veg to mush up would be a problem. Although I would take some pouches and fruit pots too. We had an inflatable booster seat (from Argos I think) which was really useful as a lot of the small family run restaurants we went to didn't have high chairs. I'm not sure how good they are for a smaller baby though.