advice wanted for going aborad with baby .....?

[charlie95]

we want to start going on hols abroad - canaries,balearics those sorts of places. our 4 yo prob be fine but how do you cope with the practicalities of taking baby 6mths + ; if they still need pureed surely you need the equipment to do so or mash it extremely well ? or do you take jar foods for a week and hope for the best and dont mind that they live on jars for a week? or can you buy baby jar food in these places ? what about nappies ; take your own case full or buy out there?! can you hire buggies from anyway, tkae your own, or take a baby back carrier ?
any/all advice gratefully welcome.

ps havent got time to flick thru this section to see if theres anything similar

Hi charlie. You can definitely buy nappies. It depends on where you will be staying as to what else will be available, as most resorts will probably be used to babies and will possibly have food available. Beware that if you need to buy jars of Spanish baby food, they will probably have salt in them. I always take a buggy with me.

we took our own buggy and the carry these free on the aircraft.

Nappy's took enough for a couple of days then visited the hyper supermarket.

DD was on full solids there so had no problem with that.

Thomson superfamily hoidays can provide nappy's sterlisers etc to be in your accomdation when you arrive and it's all uk branded equipment.

Buy nappies in Spain, dodot are Pampers and the have huggies I cant remember the name but the packaging is the same. If you go self catering it might be easiesr fo mashing and pureeing, you good always take a gand blender, not v heavy. Some Spanish baby food does contain salt but in larger supermarkets you can by the equivalent of Hipp (I havent lived in uk for a while so that might not be the right name). Flight wise you will be able to put a buggy and car seat in the hold for free. I havent got much time now but will try and think of something useful later. I live in Spain so if you want to know anything at all let me know.

Hi,

The place you are planning to visit are quite family oriented so you should find everything you need in local stores (same standard and probably same brands as in UK......you are still in Europe!! so no worries for nappies, toileteries etc...)
Just take 24h supply so you don't have to rush to the store as soon as U et there.

As for food, you will find jars. As I said before, Spain is in Europe so babyfood is regulated, no worries there.
I also had a guilt trip RE giving jars only during holidays as baby mainly feed homemade organic food, but it is sometimes just safer than ordering puree in hotels or restaurants. Especially at lunchtime when you may worry about food spoling due to heat.

Evenings, you can ask for purees at hotel, just ask thm to heat thouroughly and let it cool before feeding.

Otherwise you can buy things like bananas, yogurtetc... locally.
BUT make sure you take baby rice with you. Continental euros mainly have wheat based baby cereals and theymix it with milk in the bottle.

I suggest your own buggy (never seen buggy hire anywhere)+ baby carrier for use in airport (and on the beach) to allow you to keep your hands free.

Finally, I strongly suggest taking Milton sterilising tablets + detoll wipes to keep baby equipment clean.I used to buy a cheap large plastic bowl upon arrival and use it for washing and sterilising bottles, feeding accessories etc...everynight so you have clean stuff for the day.

PS: B4 U go ask hotel if they can provide cot/bed sheets/bottle warmer etc....

have a great time.

any advice about transporting infant car seats and buggies on planes welcome. going to crete next week with 7 month old and 6 year old. any other useful tips welcome thanks

we just went to the USA and they strongly recommend you take your car seat for the infant to travel in (just strap it into the seat, also it makes them higher so they can watch the film better). Thought this would be a real pain but it worked out really well the only problem was the hassel of carrying it in the airport. However, on the way home we were watching a lady pulling her seat along on a wheely with her bag attached to the seat. Will do this next time.

dont know if this is usefull or even relevant but i found that my ds ate rather alot less in a hot climate and spent most of his time sucking pieces of fruit like melon,he was about 8 mnths then.
bring your own buggy ,usefull in the airport if delayed or whatever[that has a sunshade and that he can sleep in]
also ds zonked out on the plane the moment the engines revved up for take off...but then i had to move him cos i had his head towards the aisle!!
its so much easier than you think.have a lovely time x

Some airlines charge you for a seat if you do that. I suppose hit depends how long your flight is. I took dd to see friends in Madrid at the weekend and wanted to take her booster seat with me for the car, so I just did it up in the top of my rucksack. The airlines will put prams and car seats in the hold, just check that they come out on the carousel though because once I had to wait for ages only to be told prams were dropped off elsewhere. I think it happened at heathrow.

We've always taken ours abroad since they were babies and it's fab! Everywhere is so much more child friendly and they don't view children/babies as pests!!! In menorca when my ds was 3 months if he woke up the waiters would stagger our meal for us - bring us our meal one after the other so one of us could feed him and still ahve a hot meal. They were also good at jiggling the buggy for us too!

I took jars of food I have to say and mushed up appropriate food stuffs as we went along too. I took all the formula milk with me in hand luggage just in case it went astray (I was a rep in greece for 5 years so have experienced the horror stories!). Can't guaraantee getting your brand and type in resort. local nappies and wipes are fine but take enough with you for the journey and delays. the wee cartons fo ready made formula are fab for emergencies.
calpop for the plane - take off and landing try and get them to suck ( a bottle is ususally good) as it stops baby getting sore ears.

Mothercare cdo really good clip on fans for pushchairs and cots - they are chunky plastic fans that look like birds (called Birdy fans I think) and the fan is covered by a plastic cage so really safe and they were great for keeping baby cool in the buggy. We also used a beach tent as a sun shade and used the fans there too so it didn't over heat.

Don't take many clothes as baby will probaby just live in a nappy by day and a sleep suit by night! At that age they can go out with you at night in their pjs and sleep in the buggy. I agree with the sterilising tablets - I too always bought a bucket or basin on arrival for that! Worthwhile choosing a place with a microwave if you heat milk that way. I agree that baby probably won't eat as much abroad - we always found that.

I have a lot of friends who panicked about going abroad with a baby but all I can say is that they have babies in Spain, Greece etc too and they need the same stuff you'll need so don't panic about not being able to get things there!

You'll ahve a fab time and you'll be posting next year about how to cope with an 18m old on holiday!!!

I've got self sterilising bottles from mothercare. They are great because you just need to wash them and pop them in the microwave and they are ready to use in about a minute (and any restaurant would happily do that for you). I used to do all the cooking (organic) but... nothing will happen if they eat jars for a short time, of course food is going to be different (no bacon and beans jars, sorry ) but there are other things and you may be pleasanly surprised (baby jars in France are delicious! ), besides that, if Spanish children eat them regularly and are fine I don't see how your child can get particularly damaged with them.

Dodots are pampers, though I always get enough for a few days just in case (most supermarkets are clossed on Sundays and Saturday afternoons). If baby is taking formula, Aptamil is sold in Spain under the name of Milupa. Jars and formula are also find in pharmacies.

Take your own buggy, it's always nice to have a place where you can lay baby to sleep while you have your lunch in a cafe.

HTH

HTH

Does anyone know where in Spain to buy Aptamil First 200ml cartons? My parents live there and they say they cannot find it. Is it expensive?

Hiya. Dos anyone know the situation withwater in Crete. I beleive bottled water in fine but do i boil it first to make the formula? Thanks in advance. x

Hi - We would like to go to Portugal in about 2 weeks time. Just wandered if anyone had been there on hols with a toddler ? Been looking at villa's / hotels to stay in but they all don't seem to be a safe environment for a 19mth old! No pool fence ect......Any info would be very handy

you neeed to boil all water for bottle milk but bottled water is fine tap water not so good