Travelling with baby - any advice?

[Bella0831]

Hello,

I’m sure this had been asked many times before but we’ve got our first family holiday coming up and wondered if any mums have any advice. Baby will be 11mo when we go. I was thinking of taking microwave sterilising bags for bottles as there’s a baby room at the hotel with microwaves, changing stations etc.

We’ve requested a travel cot - I’m a bit anxious about the whole sharing a mattress situ and risk of SIDS, am I just over worrying?!

the thing I’m most nervous about is food for him. Baby had awful reflux from birth and is just improving now. He has a very sensitive gag reflux so our weaning journey is very slow - still mainly on smooth purées as refused anything lumpy although we are making progress slowly but surely. Breakfast should be fine as he’s good with yoghurt / banana but I’m worried about the rest of the trip! I’ll take emergency pouches just in case…

our fight is an early morning (7.30) so I’m hoping he’ll be so stimulated by the airport he’ll sleep most of it!

any other tips / pearls of wisdom fellow mums can share?

x

How old is he now? Just wondering as it sounds to me like you’ve got a younger (6mo ish?) baby and you’re not sure how much of a difference there’ll be in the next few months. They come on loads in this timeframe! 11mo are pretty robust as a general rule.

I personally wouldn’t worry about sterilising bottles for an 11mo, just a good wash is fine. You might find he’s dropped quite a few feeds by then and is mainly on solids (although he might not be, they’re all different!)

Travel cots are usually just the hard mattress so I think pretty low risk. Also at 11mo I’d expect him to be able to sit, roll and crawl so your SIDS risk is massively decreased anyway as they start moving themselves about in their sleep by this point.

Is your baby a lot younger at the moment? 1YOs are pretty robust so I wouldn’t worry about any of that. Bottles I wouldn’t sterilise, you’ll probably be on 1-2 day so I’d use ready made formula, pack a bottle brush and washing up liquid. Pouches of baby food is ideal for travel, the rest of the time food from wherever you’re eating should be fine but pack some extra pouches and in case you decide to have something not suitable e.g. oysters for lunch, extremely hot curry for dinner! Travel cot mattresses are pretty hard and at that age the only thing that it would have occurred to me to worry about is if baby will sleep well.

At 11 months our slept in bed with us and ate off our plates, no need to order extra food as they don't eat that much at that age. I breastfed so can't advise on sterilisation. Dd2 had reflux but food solved it, thicker is better

We've travelled extensively since DS was 4mo (now 13mths). Must haves for me are a bottle feed or dummy at take off and landing - helps with the changing pressure. Also a muslin or light blanket for the flight to help him sleep (DS has a tough time falling asleep if it's too bright).

Travel cots have generally been fine, usually they give us masses of blankets and pillows that we chuck in the cupboard, and just use his sleeping bag as we do at home. Biggest headache was usually were to place it in those tiny European hotel rooms so we weren't constantly tripping over it! If the cot has open or mesh sides, I'd drape some bath towels over the sides so he can't see you moving around.

We've done a few of the 7.30am flights, so guessing you need to be out the door around 4.30/5am? Your LO will probably be fine on the flight, but may need an earlier bedtime or an extra nap. We usually just planned to eat dinner in the hotel room after putting him to bed on the first night. Next day he'd be back to normal and we could plan on dinners in restaurants.

On food, pouches were fab for lunch and/or dinner on the go so we didn't have to have a long stop at a restaurant, etc. If your LO likes pouches, just go with it. A few days of pouches won't do him any harm, and it makes planning the day SO much easier. We picked up a boatload of them at Sainsburys and Boots when on sale for 75p each, so always had an emergency stash for a impromptu trip to London. For snacks - put some baby biscuits in a zip lock bag (from airport security, just wash them first!), grab 2 bananas/some fruit from the hotel on the way out, and you're covered for snacks.

While packing for a baby was an absolute nightmare (he needed a whole suitcase for his mountain of crap, while DP and I shared 1!), travelling with him was the best thing we did in hindsight. Mostly short haul, but we did our first long haul over Xmas. Did nothing for DS 😂, but was brilliant for DP and I as new parents and as a couple.