Help with a list please

[Tillysmummy]

I am about to start making a list for our holiday and am looking for you wise mums for advice. We haven't taken her abroad before, we're going to Portugal.

I am going to take a bit of jar food and some packets but basically hope I can buy food when Im out there for her, she loves pasta and omelettes so hopefully it will be ok. She will be 9 months by the time we go.

I am also counting on buying nappies out there for her but one thing occurred to me last night - what about waterproof nappies for the pool ! I can't take enough for 3 or so a day when we're going for 2 weeks ! Does anyone know if they sell them there ? What does everyone else do ?

Also have obviously got towels, clothes, food, toys on the list but what about things for insect bites or stings ?

Also any other handy tips will be really welcome.

Gone are the days of travelling light and doing it all the night before

Tillysmummy, why not take one of the re-usable swim nappies - eg kooshies, they're about £7 and you can get the nappy shaped ones as well as ones which look more like swimming trunks. my swimming instructor said to put a tight-fitting cozzie over the top of them so if there are any 'solid' accidents, it doesn't get liquidised when you move them around in the pool, making the removal tricky!

LOL Bundle ! Good idea, where do I get them from ? So what do you think, one a day ?

Wished we were going to Devon now instead !!

I always recommend taking a small blow up paddling pool and keeping it by the pool or on the beach to stop her straying too far.

As far as no 2's in the water go, hopefully you'll notice very quickly if she's done/going to do one!

If she's crawling take some long trousers so she doesn't get hot and sore knees from the ground. A couple of legionnaires hats (one wet one dry). Calpol in sachets. A hooded towelling dressing gown for straight out of the pool. Favourite blanket. HTH. R

Thanks Rhiannon. I must get Calpol sachets. Haven't got those yet.

Tillysmummy, the aquanappies or kooshies ones are in John Lewis - you just use & use them, wash them through so don't throw them away. The 6-18 mths size lasted us for that long, easily. some of the baby catalogues do them too.
I'd also take some diaoralyte (on prescription from gp, they're expensive otherwise) in case of bugs, they're a lifesaver, stopping dehydration. thank god we're going on a ferry to Brittany, can just sling everything in the car otherwise wouldn't know how to limit our list!

Have a look at a brilliant travel website called babygoes2.com They have super checklists and advice on things to take. ALso lots of ideas on how to keep the rugrats amused.

Know what you mean Bundle, we have an estate car and tend to take everything plus the kitchen sink when we go away. However, this time last year we spent a week cycle camping with our 2 kids (then aged 3.5 and 1.5), and it's amazing how focussed your packing list gets when you know you have to pull everything plus the kids in a trailer behind the bike! (I must admit we all looked pretty scruffy by the end of the week...)

Thanks all. Wish me luck (don't know how to do a harrassed face !) So wish we were going back to France this year instead !!!!!

By car :0

Meant

Azzie please tell us more about your bike trip with trailer and two kids, sounds brilliant.

I got my ds his little trunks from our local swimming pool, they have a little sports shop there selling mainly swimming stuff. Im not going to add anything to your list, I always take much too much. I will add one thing though those sun tan wipes from pampers, very handy for the bag and light.

A useful strategy (for the journeys as well as the stay itself) is to have a bag with toys, mostly old favourites but also a couple of new ones, and bring them out one at a time, always putting the previous one back. This kept us going on a four-train journey to France.

And get more than one washable swim nappy - they're horrible and clammy to put on when still damp.

By the way the Portugese love children and babies.

Tillysmummy, I have been all over the place with my son (now 18 mo.) so I have a bit of experience with travelling. I haven't been to Portugal, but we go to Italy all the time and I'm sure it's not too different. First, everything will be cheaper there including Towels, beach toys, food, baby anything. And you will be able to find just about anything you need (though for some reason I haven't seen swimming nappies anywhere but here and the u.s.) Only bring with you things that you are concerned about in terms of brands. I bring enough soap powder for 3 washes and lots of nappies as I like Tesco's and the suntan lotion that know doesn't give me rashes. I buy shampoo, beachtoys, etc. there. Bring a small "first aid kit" with the kind of things you might need quickly like plasters, calpol sachets, thermometer. You will be able to find doctors and medicine if you need anything more serious. Take a very light umbrella buggy and a light cloth to cover it with for sun purposes. Try to bring one or two very big suitcases rather than lots of little ones. You will find it much easier to keep track of your luggage and to get from plane to car to hotel etc. Also, carryon the minimum you need as just the nappies and baby food and change of clothes for baby will take up enough space. As wmf said, you will find people friendly and helpful and almost everywhere will be babyfriendly. People on the continent tend to put their children to bed much later and do a siesta during the midday heat. It might be worth considering this during your stay as restaurants will be happy for you to bring your baby along and you can enjoy yourself more. Most places will have highchairs. Bring a bib and sippy cup when you go out. The blowup paddling pool as a "playpen" is a good idea unless your daughter is as "unpennable" as my son. He promptly climbed out of his, filled it with sand and then every piece of garbage he could find on the beach (this was at just about 9 mo.). He also ate handfuls of sand. I was hoping he might realize that it didn't taste too great, but he never came to that conclusion. Anyway it didn't seem to harm him.
Also, at that age I brought along my mouli and made all his food like I did at home as we were staying in a self-catering flat. But my friend who fed her son bought food, found herself bringing back cases of french baby food as it was so much better than the english stuff.
Relax and have fun!

The only things I would add to the advice that you've already got is a wee pop up sun tent. We found it invaluable for ds (holiday in Greece at 11 months) as it gave him somewhere to play in the shade and to sleep. He wasn't particulary mobile though (only just commando crawling) and I know some people have found the tent not so useful with more mobile babies.

The other thing we found useful was a harness & reins - not for walking, but for winding around the back of chairs to "strap" him in. I don't know what Portugal is like, but we never found any high chairs in Greece, and most of the chairs were not suitable for the wee "handbag" high chair (cloth one from Boots) that we had.

The backpack for ds was also useful - not all of the beaches/paths were suitable for a buggy (certainly not the Maclaren daytripper we'd taken - we thought longingly about the fancy ATP we'd left behind as we'd thought it would be too bulky). It meant we could go to some of the nicer beaches off the beaten track.

Purp, the main challenge for our cycling trip was packing (plus all the training we'd intended to do but never got round to...). One pannier was the changing bag, one the office (these were the only two we had to take with us when we left the bikes), one contained all the wet weather gear, and one the food. The kids rode together in a Burley trailer and entertained themselves very well, while we had the tent, stove and clothes etc in the other trailer. We took very few clothes, and the kids took Koly Bear and Piglet (luckily their necessary bedtime companions are small!) plus a couple of small books each. We also took a Pritt stick, scissors, exercise books and crayons - these meant that the kids could draw things to entertain themselves, and we could collect postcards and tourist leaflets etc to make ds's holiday diary with him every evening. We pre-booked campsites so that we could be sure they'd be there and open when we turned up. Most of the campsites we stayed on had small play areas and wild rabbits (very entertaining). One night we camped in the middle of a race course and one of the trainers who had stayed over after the day's racing introduced ds and dd to her racehorses - magic! It was physically tiring, but a lovely holiday - and because it was election week we missed most of the media hype, which was an added bonus.

Tillysmummy, you can also get the swim nappies in Boots and Mothercare. I always used them for mine, both at local swimming and on holiday. The main thing you often can't get easily on the continent is medicinal stuff, so as others have said, Calpol, Tixylix, whatever you might need.

Yes, I forgot about the reins. I carried them with me everywhere until just recently so they automatically went on vacation. Superduper handy.

Tillysmummy, sorry haven't been following this thread too closely, but we were on holiday in Portugal when DS was 9 months. We stayed in Portomao (sp?) about 15 mins walk from Praia de Rocha (sp?). Everywhere we took DS there was a highchair available although very often in the evening we tried to give him a jar of food at about 6pm (his usual dinner time) and we would eat at about 8pm, usually by the time we walked to the restaurant from our apartments he was asleep this let us have at least part of our dinner in peace. If you are anywhere near Portomao there is a great supermarket there called Modello (sp? again), basically they have everything you would need at reasonable prices. However we found when in Praia de Rocha and using the small tourist supermarkets the baby food was quite alot more expensive, I suppose a bit like comparing ASDA with the corner shop.

Anyway I don't really have anything to add to what everyone else is saying but have a nice time and tell us how you got on when you get back!

Thanks so much ladies. This advice is invaluable and there are lots of things I wouldn't have thought of like the reins and paddling pool for playpen etc. BTW, Joe1 what are the pampers suntan wipes ? Like suncream ?

One last question then I promise not to bother any more , what suncream do you recommend - my dd has mild eczema and to now I've been using boots own factor 40 which doesn't seem to irritate her but does happen to spread like tar and prove to be real pain to put on her.

Another useful tip is to keep a couple of Calpol sachets in your purse, so that you've always got some if you need it.

I use Coppertone Waterbabies (spf 30 or 45) which I get in the states. I don't know if it's available over here. I use it on myself too as I have really sensitive skin. It's not too greasy and it doesn't smell too strongly. Whatever lotion you do use, be careful not to get it anywhere near your daughter's eyes (and therefore don't put it on her hands). I've yet to find a suntan lotion that doesn't very painfully sting the eyes. I use a hat that fastens under the chin to protect the face. H&M and the gap usually have nice ones.