Holiday advice

Khannie

We're hittin' the Canaries on Thursday for two weeks. I'm sure there are loads of you out there who have done it before, but I've never been on holidays with a baby (she's 7 months old)....

Basically, I'm looking for those little gems of information that you all learned the hard way.

I'll start the ball rolling....One that I heard (and will be using) is to give her a bottle as the plane takes off and lands as it helps with the ear popping thing.

Anyone got other gems?

dubsgirl

bring the lightest buggy you can - hard work dragging it onto beach

Hire a fan for your room if possible

Bring lots of vests for little one as the usually end up in these most of all!

Enjoy yourself, I was pleasantly surprised when I first went on a holiday with a baby they are usually a whole lot easier abroad for some reason!

shrapnel222

the bottle is a good idea, but we usually just use a dummy and make sure he's is sucking it during take off and landing.

one thing we found really handy was a huge sheet for the beach so he could crawl around on it without getting sand everywhere, and a big sunbrella. also depending on how windy it is, it might be worth buying a windbreaker out there, just to stop the sand blowing on her. Also, get a pack of baby swimmers (nappies for swimming) as they can be extortionate out there.

Khannie

This is golden stuff. Keep it coming folks.

ArthurDent

We bought one of those pop-up tents - ideal for a nap on the beach. Also boots have half price on loads of summer stuff - we got the UV swim suits and found they were v useful for keep sun off babs

unkel

Swim nappies and high factor sun lotion. Hats. Parasol for on the buggy. Don't assume the local shops have the same baby milk / food as you buy at home

Pray the plane isn't full and you can get 3 seats between yourselves. Ask the airline staff when checking in / move to front of queue when boarding

foxinsocks

Sunblock, factor 50 at least... they'll burn after 5 minutes in the sun without it. Put it on all over, remember even her feet.

THe bottle during take off and landing is brilliant advice... when i took mine on a plane when she was 9 months old i was still breast feeding, so she spent most of the flight attached. It kept her happy and quiet.

If you're going to be on a beach, and you want a buggy there, its important that it's lightweight buggy, but to be honest, the small wheeled kind is just pointless, you wind up just pushing it through sand. Whichever you bring, make sure it has a useful sunshade on it, a lot of the sunshades only work so long as the buggy is pointed in one direction.

The UV swimsuits are great for babies, but I found on the bigger child they just wind up keeping cold water on their skin. While this may be great when you're abroad and its warm, it's not so good while here, and there's an onshore breeze.

Have a think about how you're going to sterilise bottles while you're away too.

Fox_in_Socks

Khannie

Just wanted to report back on how we fared now that I'm back.....

unkel wrote:

Don't assume the local shops have the same baby milk / food as you buy at home

We brought formula with us, but it turned out that they sold aptamil in pharmacies there.

unkel wrote:

Pray the plane isn't full and you can get 3 seats between yourselves.

We paid an extra 36 euro at booking time to guarantee this. It was well worth it IMO.

Balls....I have to go....I'll finish this off tomorrow.