Going on a villa holiday with a 6mo

[Superchop]

I have a feeling I'm going to regret asking but....

Will I regret booking it, was it a silly first time mum mistake?

We are traveling to the algarve with ds's grandparents, staying in a villa in may- I think it will be 30+

I have no idea what he should wear or do. I think I will constantly be panicking about the heat.

Please tell me how to look after him whilst trying to enjoy myself!... If possible

You will have a brilliant time, with a bit of organisation and some common sense - and doting grandparents!!
Best advice is: trust your instincts

I used to work on a one day out, one day in basis so the children had chill time. Everyone else was free to do their own thing, but every other day was a villa based/round the pool day.

Here are some things I learned by mistake:
Never let anyone else suncream your baby. They miss bits!!
Buy twice as much sun cream as you think the baby will need, and smother them in it morning, noon and mid-afternoon!
Set up a comfy play area in the shade
Always loudly confirm who has responsibility for the baby, if it is not you for 5 minutes! Literally say "OK - has responsibility for babychop. I am going out"
If you rely on any manufactured baby foods, take it with you. You can never guarantee exactly getting what you.

I am sure lots more advice will be along in a minute

We did this with my parents in Greece at about 7mo I think.

We put one of the umbrellas over a paddling pool next to the pool and she happily sat in there forever! We also got her a little boat for the pool. I have the most fantastic picture of her sitting (seemingly alone, though my DM was under water holding the boat string!) in her inflatable boat, in the middle of an empty infinity swimming pool with a view of the sea.

You'll have an amazing time!

We brought dd to Malta for a couple of weeks when she was 5 months and it was fine. Harder work in general being away from home but fine. She was in vests and shorts a lot, our pool was a bit chilly but she loved the sea. If we were going out we brought the buggy and sling and we had a little fan that clipped onto the buggy. A villa should be handy enough because you should have cooking facilities. We brought our monitor too so I could relax if we put her down to sleep.

Don't worry too much about the heat - it got to 30 degrees last summer in England and our two slept like, well, I would say babies, but you know what I mean... you can get 0.5 tog sleeping bags for proper hot weather and just pop him in that with a nappy on for the nighttime. If he likes a darkened room for sleeping, dampened tinfoil is excellent for blacking out or else you might get lucky with a room with shutters.

It'll be great! 6 months is a good age because they are old enough to look about themselves and enjoy the new environment but not so big that they have 10,000 preferences about what to do, what to eat etc (sigh).

My top tips would be to do nothing to encourage your child to crawl and don't start weaning early. Our holiday with 28wo non-crawling DD was bliss as I'd started weaning her at 25w so she was basically on a bit of baby rice, banana, avocado and some cooked apple and pear (all of which are easily available in the Algarve) for the holiday and would happily sit under an umbrella with her toys playing. Holiday with 31wo crawling DS a couple of years later was a nightmare as not only would he not stay in the shade but, obviously, he'd always head towards the most dangerous thing he could see. He was also slightly further through the weaning cycle so I felt obliged to give him a more varied diet. In retrospect, that holiday could have been the time I realised BLW was going to be the way ahead for DS.

Otherwise

• light sheet or giant muslin for sleeping under. Actually, giant muslin useful for all sorts!
• you will lose hats so take spare
• just because your DC shows no sign of teething before you go on holiday, doesn't mean they won't start whilst you're away so take a variety of teething products with you. You're bound to try them at various stages over the following months so just see it as an upfront cost. Likewise, take infant ibuprofen & calpol as you do not want to send your DP or in-laws around the resort late at night trying to find a pharmacy
• most villas in Portugal will have hard floors so, if your DC isn't a solid sitter and you have an inflatable ring thing, deflate it, pack it & re-inflate it whilst out there
• door bouncers take up very little room in a suitcase so take one if you have one & your DC likes it
• inflatable seats for the pool are brilliant
• few restaurants in the Algarve seem to have highchairs so a booster seat can be invaluable
• few restaurants have changing facilities so have a portable change mat with you.

The other thing I'd said is that bear in mind it's going to be very different to any other holiday you've ever had. There will still be night feeds, nappies to change, someone to entertain and look after. What works for us (other than putting the DC in childcare or, in your case, sending them off with the grandparents) is that we would take it in turns to have time "off". So, after lunch, DP would take DD for a stroll in her pushchair to get her to sleep whilst I was "off duty"; in the morning, I may have taken DD in the pool for half an hour or so, whilst DP was off duty. It took us a few days to adjust to this as I'd had some Disney image of us all having quality family time for the entire week before realising that I just wanted an hour by the pool by myself with my book & that DP wanted the same. With DD, we ate out every evening as she'd either fall asleep in her pushchair or she'd sit it in watching the world go by whilst gumming on a bit of bread. With DS, we ate out a couple of nights as he wanted to be involved which made it harder work. Also, by that stage, DD was coming up to three and harder work in a restaurant when she was tired than she had been at 6mo.

Wow thanks for the insider info.
Great to hear you've had such positive experiences abroad in the heat with your dcs.

Good advice re. Teething items, seating solutions. I'm likely to have overl

*overlooked this.

This may be a dopey question but how long were you outside with your dc for during the day (even in the shade)

Also, any suggestions for suncreams? Did you use those SPF swim suits?

Sudocrem do a factor 50 mousse sunscreen which is aimed at infants (from what I understand, even 'kids' ones aren't so great for very young babies)

Oh, and a baby wetsuit is probably a good idea if the water isn't that warm:
e.g. this one