travelling abroad with 8 month old, any tips?

[NannyJo]

I am planning going abroad with my 8 month old son but worried about a few things, i'll just list them and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

what water is safest to use for bottle feeds? also boiling veg for solids? Mineral or boil their water?

Travelling in taxi's, what about car seats are they necesarry if it's just for one or two short taxi journeys. Will they be adament about him having one?

What happens to his pushchair at the airport (it's a huge clumpy thing)Do we have to pay extra for it because of it's size and weight?

Do they tend to sell our brand of nappies out there (costa del sol) or do we fill our suitcase with them?

Sounds silly i know but it helps to be organised with a trip abroad, I was a nightmare before i had baby let alone now.

Well in Spain:

• boil the local water, or use the local mineral water (can't remember the name - has a red and white label) as that has the lowest salt content.

• taxi drivers in Spain won't give a stuff if you use a car seat or not. I have travelled a couple of times with ds on my lap in emergencies. See kids bouncing around in the back all the time

• no - pushcahirs are free with all the airlines i've travelled with (easyjet, bmibaby and some charter ones)

• pampers=dodot huggies are huggies but are less common.

does that help?

The local mineral water is Lanjaron. Just remembered. Not hugely local to the Costa del sol, but nearish!

Usually recommend Evian or low sodium content mineral water but you can boil the local for cooking.

Don't think they'd insist upon a car seat but I expect you'd feel happier with one - can you prebook a taxi with one from the airport ? (We did in Majorca last year )

Large pushchairs (ie. not umbrella or flat fold) usually go in the hold and are checked in but unlikely to be charged as excess, but may vary by airline. If you are really lucky you may get to take it to boarding gate. However unless you arrange as you have it tagged to collect from aircraft it may not be available until the baggage hall the other end.

Most brands are stocked in Europe albeit sometimes under a different name, but take some to cover the first few days. tbh changing brand for a short while probably won't hurt and you could keep him in Swimmers (either disposable or reusables) for much of the day anyway.

hth

at malaga airport you always have to collect buggies (even small ones) from the carousel - bring a sling if you have one!

Whereabouts are you going exactly?

I used their drinking water for bottles and cooking, once it has been boiled it has killed off any bacteria Some mineral water has too high mineral/salt contents btw.

Taxis won't be adamant about you having a car seat it is just whether you wnat to take the risk. I take my car seats and my pushchair with me and have never been aked to pay for the extra. One time I went with 3 suitcases, buggy, back pack and car seat and no one batted an eyelif.

Never paid extra for a buggy. I have always had to leave mine at the bottom of the steps to the plane and collected it at the carousel.

Pampers and Huggies are global!

HTH