BLW on holiday in Asia

[Hybrid]

Hi,

Just need some advice for when we go on holiday to Malaysia at the end of January. DS will be 8 months and we've been doing BLW which has been going pretty well. My concern is that it might be difficult to find food for him to eat which isn't full of salt etc.

I also went to see the surgery nurse today with regards vaccinations and found out he's too young for the Hep A jab which is the disease caused by contaminated food normally from poor hand hygiene etc. The head nurse was very unhelpful asking why on earth I would take such a young child away when I asked about suitable food etc.

I'm now worried that food is going to be a real problem for him and that he won't be protected from Hepatitis A.

We're going to be staying in a really nice resort for half of the time we're away but for the rest of it, we'll probably be eating out in restaurants and food stalls.

Any advice would be really appreciated!

how long will you be away?

we traveled with our DS in Thailand for 3wks when he was a little older than yours (early 2009) and he pretty much lived on fruit, coconut shakes, chicken rice, tuna sandwiches, yogurt and breakfast cereal, all of which were widely available. We found that he tended not to eat as much when we were traveling and particularly in the warmer weather, but he was perfectly happy and suffered no ill effects.

I think as long as your careful where you eat from and what you're choosing, you'll probably find it easier than you expect. I was really worried in the lead up to our trip and actually bought some puree stuff in jars etc. but needn't have bothered in the end.

ohh could have written this myself. We're taking our six month old to thailand in February. Advice from hv was don't take her. Very helpful.
We've got a family appointment withthe tropical health bureau tomorrow so they should be a bit more positive.I'll come back and pass on anything useful if you like.
My cousin brought his little guy to asia twice at about the same age and said he ate like a king loads of fresh fruit and veg. You've just got to be prepared to use lots of bottled water around the baby. I'd forget about mineral content worries for a week or two.

It'll be fine as long as you're careful thats what im telling myself anyway.

Ill be back.

Thanks so much for those replies.

There is loads of fresh fruit and veg out there isn't there which I was forgetting. And DS absolutely loves yoghurt and fruit!

Trixie that would be so great if you did get back with any advice the tropical health bureau have to offer. Sounds like you HV was as annoying as our nurse!

We're off for 2 1/2 weeks - do you think using mineral water for him would be ok for this length of time?

Also, did either of yours use formula whilst they were away? If so, did you just use normal tap water for boiling and making them up?

I think it would be advised to use bottled water for formula feeds but choose one with the lowest sodium content.

bottle feeding on holiday

We went to Thailand and Malaysia with our 14 month old for 6 weeks. It was fine - lots of bottled water (sodium content needs to be under 1 but nearly all were). C had lots of fruit, especially bananas, pineapple and water melon. Because restaurant meals are so cheap out there she mostly had something off the menu. The Malays are very keen on babies so they were always really helpful at choosing something that was appropriate heat wise for her or they would cook her something different especially for her. only trouble was that we didn't know how much salt they were putting in their cooking but she was over 1 so we didn't worry about it.
our HV thought we were bonkers too!
just make sure they drink extra fluids as C did get dehydrated more easily because she wasn't used to the heat.