When did you first take your baby abroad on holiday?

[crazycatlady82]

Hi,

Being all of 7+5 pregnant... I LOVE going away on holiday. So, because I overthink things I was wondering the following:

When did you first take your baby abroad?

How did you travel?

How long was the journey?

How did the baby cope?

Any tips to make trips easy?

Also, husband says trips abroad are a thing of the past until the child is 2 years! Please tell me that's not true!

Thanks ladies

5 week premie baby here, did her first UK holiday at 9 weeks (about 3 hours' drive away). We had to smother her in nappy rash cream part way through the journey down because we left her sleeping in her carseat thinking how peaceful it was.

She was a good eater and sleeper/generally chilled baby so 2 nights at 6 months in an hotel in London for a wedding went smoothly too.

Having taken leave of my senses, I took her down to Oz aged 15 months for a month (she did planes/helicopters/speedboats/ferries without significant incident ...now she gets travel-sick aged 7).

I think the thing to observe is that, looking back and comparing to friends, I had a fairly happy placid baby. Some friends' babies were just plain miserable.

None of the travel we did was in really hot temperatures; I'd be constantly worried about travelling with a young baby in the 30's and high/low humidity if I'd not acclimatised them. The flight is the least of your worries (just give them a bottle or breast on take off/landing).

Took 6 month old DS back to the UK from Canada on my own.

6 hour flight, red eye, so he slept pretty much the entire time. Staff were awesome with him on the plane, he had a pull-down bassinet thing to sleep in. Took loads of pre-made formula, not a problem at security.

He loved being on 'holiday', sleeping in a different cot, different formula etc wasn't a problem. Jet lag wasn't a problem for him.

I definitely found the flight home the most stressful thing - he had the biggest poo I 've ever seen and changing him in the miniscule toilet on board was a challenge!

Want to go back to the UK again, but now he is a non-stop 14 month old who walks everywhere and who will literally not sit still so don't think it will happen. Maybe when he is a bit older, when he will be interested
in the plane/ airport etc and might be more easily entertained for 6 hours!

Spain at 6 months
France at nearly 9 months
Mauritius at 18 months

All worked well. The first two trips worked because DD was sitting up but not mobile - a great time to travel. The last one because she was mobile enough to walk reasonably well and potter around amusing herself (a bit at least!) and old enough to feed herself a bit so we could eat together.

The ages in between would have been much more difficult I think.

for each we chose very family oriented places with all baby kit and catering provided - and baby tolerant guests and staff. V important!

I feel really old . My DDs were 12 and 8 (years) respectively before they went abroad (we couldn't afford it ) We had self catering holidays in Cornwall until they were late teens -in fact I drove alone to Cornwall once with my 5m old(in a Mini) while DH took his DF and our DD1 who was 4 (neither of our cars was big enough for all the clobber- we bought one bigger one after that) . It was fine. I was bf and we just stopped every now and then. The bonus was the children absolutely loved flying for the first time and weren't at all blase about it (we went to Paris). They still remember the excitement . But they also remember our holidays in Cornwall with great affection-familiarity is quite important to small children and foreign beaches dont have the same sort of sand/rock pools.They are grown and flown but we are all going down in May(primarily to scatter MIL ashes) and DD1 is very excited about introducing her partner to her beloved, familiar places . Having said that they love foreign travel now and are both ,interestingly, much more adventurous than many of their (more priveleged) contemporaies .
I'm assuming the foreign holidays are for your benefit , not any perecieved benefit for the children? Apart from maybe some sunshine . I admit to having worn a cagoule on Cornish beaches in August . ( I appreciate some people visit far flung family). And you werent asking should you but could you...
But I too used to love foreign travel (our pre -children last big trip was to China, quite adventurous in 1985) , but dont regret not doing it for a while . As our finances improved, DH and I had a series of long weekend breaks in European capitals while PsIL held the fort. And since retirement we have been to USA,Australia/New Zealand/ Thailand, India , Norway (planning Africa for the autumn) as well as continuing our shorter breaks in Europe. Dont think all is lost if you find flying/acclimatising with little ones daunting , and put it on hold for a while .

DD1 we went to Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia when she was 18mo. She also went to Barcelona before that but I can't remember what age.

DD2 went to centre parcs at 2mo. We are heading to australia when she is 6mo.

DS 5yrs DD was 3yrs. We went to Duinrell in Holland on a ferry from Harwich. They were so excited.
Mainly we waited because DS had some health issues and by the time they were on an even keel DD arrived and we didn't feel like taking a baby and toddler abroad, so waited and went on some lovely UK holidays.
We had already been travelling/on loads of holidays pre DC and we have taken them all over the world since.

9 weeks.

We drove non stop to Zermatt, took about 12 hours after Calais I think.

Dd slept. We camped without electricity. I was breastfeeding thankfully.

From 5 and 7 months mine have flown regularly to the Uk - 2 flights, at 18 months DD1 to Gran canaria and DD2 at 3 to tenerife. Have done long haul , short haul , driving holidays .

My mum tells me that they first took me abroad at just over 9 months, and I decided to make their lives a little more interesting by learning to walk on day 2 of the holiday :o

DD was 5 months when we took her to Spain. It was fine & we had a pod holiday. Not that restful but good to have family time & we still ate out every night.

DS was 4 months & again no problems that I recall.

When DD was 4 & DS was 5 months I took them both away to Spain on my own for 3 weeks. That was surprisingly easy too - the hardest bit was getting the luggage to the car with a buggy too!!

We tried to wash the babygrow in the sink but it was extremely humid and literally nothing dried.

I went to Spain with DD when she was 10 weeks. It was easy. The younger they are the less they wriggle so the travel part was easy.

She went to Spain 4 times before her first birthday plus an additional trip to Menorca. The next year she did 3 more trips to spain (my parents live there) plus family holidays to corfu and Egypt. Before she was 4 we took her to the Maldives, so 10 hr flight plus a seaplane transfer - she loved it and was good as gold. We have done the same since her baby brother arrived and he is now a season traveller at 3 yr old (we came back from Egypt 2 weeks ago).

Life (and holidays) doesn't have to end when you have children, unless you let it.

Our first born DS1-9 months old to South of France-he was a good easy baby so it was enjoyable and really wasn't that difficult.

DD1- was 5 months and we went to Mallorca -was very easy she drank milk and slept a lot and again didn't really impact too much on our holiday.

DD2- Featherdown farm at 6 weeks old (don't ask! Was a freebie and was lovely as it happened) and then she was 8 months when we went to france.

We really enjoyed all these holidays when they were tiny...HOWEVER...avoid from around age 13-20months!!! A little baby in a car seat/pram is no bother whatsoever and you still have pretty much the same type of holiday-an active toddler who doesn't want to sit on your knee for take off and landing , doesn't want to sit still for 3 hours on a flight , doesn't want to nap during the day and wants to go to bed as you want to go out for something to eat and have a relaxing glass of wine is more of an interesting holiday! (Also most of your luggage is swim nappies, nappies, little toys, beakers etc etc )
Still enjoyable but yes a lot less relaxing. My tip is go when they are teeny it is easy-skip the early toddler years then go again when they hit 2/2.5 !

Ah yes maybe make it 9mths-20mths black out period off-crawling babies and stone tiled floors aren't a great mix either!

It's also almost impossible to assess the crawling/toddling-baby-safety of a holiday let from the photos. You want them to be old enough to obey "don't do that" rules I think, otherwise you spend the whole holiday looming over them trying to stop them from causing themselves damage.

9wks long haul to san fransisco, easy easy. then loads of hols since. there are some really really fab places now that have all the baby gear you need and jsut as gorgeous as places you went to pre kids. babyboltholes and mumsnet travel pages are full of them. go without him!!

both our youngest kids were 6 weeks to 2 months when we took them. easy at that age, agree with the lady above who says toddlers are the worst

Mallorca at 6 months, moved to Asia at 9 months. Holidays with baby 1 then two every 3 months. Babies are portable

First holiday to Portugal at 9 weeks, Croatia at 14 months. Both great holidays, I don't understand people thinking it's a hassle or not a proper holiday.

7 weeks. Then next time he was 3 months, then 6 months etc.

Your husband is very wrong. Travelling with small babies is a doddle, especially if they're BF. They sleep everywhere, don't tantrum and don't try to run away - and don't usually cost extra either. Toddlers, on the other hand..

Took DD1 camping in France when she was around 9 months old. We drove and the things I remember from that holiday are DD1 toddling using her pushchair and an amazing thunderstorm in Laon.

On the next holiday we discovered that DD1 suffered terribly with travel sickness. Break out the joy-rides!

Since then we have holidayed regularly with DCs who are now 15, 16 & 19 and no longer want to come with us!

8 weeks, to Spain. We drove/got the ferry, I remember customs stopping us BEFORE we got on the ferry before we'd even left England and opening the boot and it was just crammed full of stuff because we were going for 3 weeks (moses basket, breast pump, steriliser, toys, etc etc) and DS was screaming his head off in his car seat! Thankfully they just let us get on and it was fine from then onwards.

Dc1 - Caribbean at 8 months, Maldives at 16, America at 2.5yrs. She slept through the first two flights and watched disney films to America.

Dc2 6 months - 5 hour plane journey without bassinet but she just sat on our laps happily the whole way, more bother for us than her.

I prefer the longer haul when they're younger for the bassinet seats at the front of the plane.

We took DD to visit family in the UK from Australia, with stops in Asia and Middle East for a holiday, when she was 5 months. In retrospect, it was super easy. She was breastfed so fed when ever/where ever, and all she needed was clothes and nappies.

Short haul is fine since she's been walking, but we haven't worked up to another long haul...haha

9 months. Jersey. 45 minute flight. Wonderful.