babies abroad

[sammymum]

we're going to a keycamp - tenting in Spain!!! - with a 9 month old. does anyone have any tips? also, can I use bottled water for her bottles, or tap water, and do I still need to boil it?

just asked the same question about going abroad to my HV and she said boiled water but if no chance of boiled water not sure. There are 'travel clinics' that might have more information on this. She seemed to think that there are additives in bottled water that babies aren't supposed to have.

bottled water with low mineral content like Evian is ok for babies. DOn't boil or the mineral content will go up (as some water will evaporate in the process)

Chuffed, HVs make me soooo mad! bloody useless response!

I took dd to Greece for three months last year when she was 4.5 - 7.5 months. The situation with the water is that some bottled waters have a high mineral content which would be inappropriate for a babe. My doctor gave me a leaflet which spelled out what the maximum amounts should be, and I took v. great care to make sure that I bought only water that fitted that profile. It was, actually, quite difficult on the Greek island I was on, as many of the waters available had sodium and potassium levels that were way too high.

You need to remember your school chemistry too - the minerals are often only shown in shorthand - eg: sodium is shown as 'Na'. Can't remember the proper names for those.....but if you did chemistry, you'll remember what I'm going on about!

My advise would be to ask your HV (!), or maybe the doctor, or the practice nurse for specific guidance on using bottled waters abroad and take it with you.

Having said all that, the mainstream brands, such as Evian, do tend to fit the profile, but check it.

And I boiled it all - dd survived!

I got a leaflet from the company who make the baby milk powder whose name has now completely escaped me, the ones that do the White and the Gold. Anyway, when i contacted them about making up bottles for a 4 month old while in Spain they sent me a great leaflet that explained everything and listed makes of bottled water that were safe to use.

thanks for that, I think it's SMA you mean. anyway, I had a look at their web site last night, and they have leaflets about travelling with young babies, and using bottled water hopefully that's the right one. I did ask my HV, but she didn't seem to know much about it

DH's family is Spanish, babies drink any bottled spring water and nobody dies, even if your baby is highly sensitive to sodium not much damage can be done in the space of a short holiday, but if you are really worried stick to Evian.

PS. I don't know if this may reasure you but we found England's tap water harder then Spanish one

My 6 month old ds drinks un-boiled Spanish tap water and is fine.

I don't give him Spanish jars of baby food though as they all have salt in them. I cook, or get friends to bring them over. They don't sell rusks here and Pampers are called "Dodot". Other than that, the only things you need to worry about are heat and mozzers really. And the sun. Bring lots of cool clothes (or let him/her go around in just a nappy all day - saves on bibs!) and some of that spray stuff you put on clothes (I think you can get baby-safe versions).

chandra - you should try the tap water round here (Granada)! Mind you, I can't complain as it's from the mountains and more or less the same stuff as gets bottled.

sammymum, we were in Spain last week and had trouble finding Evian water, however I found the Spanish equivalent which is called Font Vella, on their web page www.aguainfant.com/AGUAS-ESP/E/F/f-vella.htm in the comments it says:

""Adecuada para la preparación de biberones de leche de inicio ( Na < 25 ) y de continuación ( Na < 50 , Flúor < 0.3. ""
which means it's adeguate to prepare bottles of formula milk since the content of sodium and fluorum are very low.
DS is 1, and he was absolutely fine with it. They also have what they call Leche de continuacion which is already made in carton, the only problem of course it's that once it's opened it needs to be stored in the fridge....

DS was absolutely fine on hols in Spain, his cough and snuffle cleared up within 3 days from arriving, loved the water, the weather and the people!

Even easier than boiling,(so your tent doesn't get hot and you save on gas!) you could get some Milton fluid or sterilising tablets and it just takes 30 mins to sterilise the water. I haven't tried it myself, I'm just reading the bottle here. Go to milton-tm.com and click on 'handy tips', it looks like a better option, you can get a few litres ready in one batch.

I am sure that on Mumsnet somewhere is a listing of which bottled waters are safe to use for formula. I remember Evian & Vittel. Gave it to my ds 10mths when we went to Paris for a long weekend.
Also used (from John Lewis) a sterilising tablet for the bottles for cleaning. This came with a bag to put any tap water in with the tablet & leave for 30mins. It worked really well - I'm sure milton would do the same thing. But this was with handy bag per tablet & for any water.

Not sure re the rest of the camping thing as I have not done that, but ds was fine with looking @ all new things. We just needed to give him crawling & cuddling time so that he's not in his pram the whole time. New surroundings was fun for him so not a lot of toys were needed.

have fun

Does anyone know why they recommend us to boil water for babies anyway? I didn't find that out until dd was three months and it seemed pointless to start boiling it then.

But what is wrong with the water in the UK that means we have to boil it?

I think it's for the same reason why you sterilise all milk related equipment, they're just not geared up to fight all the bacteria tha come with it.

A baby's digestive system is still very immature and gets easily upset.

Boiling kills off lots of bacteria

this v obvious but i was chuffed when i thought of it - a muslin hung from a car window makes a good shade.

are you taking a kettle for boiling? - i think milton is easiest myself, having spent a bit of time boiling water in saucepans and trying to dissolve sterilising tablets (ours were from superdrug).

Gee the milton tablet idea sounds fab, we took our 4.5mth old DS to Bali and spent so much time boiling bottled water in a travel kettle! and only used the milton tablets to steralize equipment. He is now 11mths and we have just been away again and we gave him straight from the bottle - Evian water. heinz powder packet meals were his favourites and easy to prepare using bottled water.

when we were travelling with dd - used low salt water like evian to make up her milk...we also used some of the ready mixed little cartons as well...