Travelling with a 2 month old

[EmilyM13]

Hi,

Looking for some advice!

I am expecting my first child in February and we've been invited on a family holiday to Barbados in May! The baby will be 2/3 months old, depending on their arrival and I'm just wondering if anyone can offer any advice?

• can they travel at this age
• they won't have had all of the injections, is this ok?
• what's your experience of travelling long haul with a baby
• any advice!!

Thank you in advance!

Emily

Yes you can take a two month old. Sometimes it’s easier to go when your baby is young. Small babies are portable and often a lot more flexible than older babies and toddlers.

Your baby will need a passport. NB: this will involve the most hilarious photoshoot of your life.

Breastfeeding obviously makes it easier because, hey, no extra gear! Be willing to feed anywhere, don’t be shy. I was really worried about this when I was a new mum, like the first month. But trust me, you get over it.

In almost all flight situations, people with small children are allowed to board priority. Get it! It really does make a difference being able to get your stuff in the overhead bins and settle in before the plane becomes a giant human traffic jam. Especially if you’re traveling alone with baby. The same goes for security lines.

I would check the health status of Barbados regarding illnesses such as measles and whether it’s sensible for a baby to travel to travel without jabs. Always take professional health advice. If you are staying in a villa or a relative’s house would, I think, be easier than a hotel.

You might want to factor in plane bugs and whether your very young baby could cope with changing air pressure when descending in the plane. If I’m honest, I would leave it a year.

It's really important that your baby has all his/her vaccinations before flying as both the airport/plane and the destination can be sources of illness for a small, unvaccinated DC. I travelled long haul with DS1 at 4 months old and it was fine from a POV of ease of carting him around and feeding him (he was EBF at that point), but the doctor was insistent that we didn't take him until he'd had certain vaccinations and we were only travelling between the US and the UK, so no tropical illnesses to worry about.

We travelled to Europe twice in that period with DD and it was fine. The first trip was before she'd had any jabs. It's worth checking if there are any specific health risks at the destination, but I wouldn't worry about the flight. They are fairly portable at that stage, and will hopefully just sleep on you. You will just need to get a passport sorted quite quickly!