travelling with baby

[madmac]

Hi, we are taking our baby on her first trip and will still be sterilising bottles (she'll be 8mths) has anyone else had any experience of this? Do you have any tips? Myself and my husband have been quite a few times so we were thinking that the best thing to do is to take disposables for our Gatwick hotel stay the night before and for the flight and then buy cold water sterilising equipment when we arrive in Florida. Does anyone have any tips for travelling with one baby for the first time? We've only done center parcs by car and that was bad enough!! At least in Florida things are cheap enough to be bought there for two weeks and then passed on or disposed of! We also wanted to buy her one of those little tents you can get for the beach would we better getting it here or there - I have looked on the walmart website but can't find them on there. Any ideas? We don't go until October 6th so we have a while to plan but you can guarentee we will forget something. THANKS :rotfl:

[JuniorMickey]

I highly recommend reading Dawn's Jedi Report. If I'm not mistaken her son was 8 months old when they went. You can find it here (http://www.wdisneyw.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20841) Grab a cup of coffee before you begin them ;) They're addicting

[Dawn]

:overhere:

Been there, done that, with an 8 month old.

Sterilising - we didn't. I've never seen sterilising equipment on sale in the US anywhere. :unsure: We just washed bottles in really hot water - packed a bottle brush and small container of washing up liquid in hand luggage. If you really still want to sterilise then you can use a heavy-guage plastic bag and cold water tablets, or a plastic bucket with a lid. But really, we just used soapy water and had no problems.

Tips. Plan, plan, plan. Start making lists now of things you'll think you'll need.

[Dawn]

Hey were'd you sneak in from?

[madmac]

thanks I will look over at the reports now. The only reason we will still be sterilising is because our son died last year of a psudomonas infection which is commonly found in water and he was only 5mnths old - if we hadn't been through this I expect we would be alot more confident - maybe we will be once she goes throught the 5mth 8 day stage who knows. By the looks of things if we can't get the equipment we won't be able to do it anyway! now over to those reports :hehe: also I didn't know there was a "kids at WDW" bit so I've learnt something new and found a new place to go when I've finished with the "UK visitors" sections :wiggle: :wiggle:

[wdwgrandma]

You can probably still buy sterilizers at places like "Babies R Us" and other places like that...

Quite a few of the moms I know use Playtex nursers with the plastic liners, which may be why you don't see as much sterilizing equipment as you used to.

[wdwgrandma]

By the way, Walmart sells a sterililzer!

[Dawn]

So sorry to hear about your son. Can understand why you are cautious about sterilising after reading that.

Where are you staying? If you're in a villa then you can boil bottles in a saucepan of water for 5 minutes to sterilise them.

Or take a pack of sterilising tablets with you from the UK and if you can't get hold of a sterilising unit, then a plastic container with a lid will do just as well.

Any other questions, just fire away. I know all about the scary jars of baby food they sell out there.

Oh and check out this site http://www.babiestravellite.com/index.html Wish I'd known about them before we went. :sigh:

[madmac]

Thank you Dawn, have just read your report we were in hysterics here, we were watching our daughter Madison rolling around on the floor thinking "oh god why did we book you on a 9 hr flight" the only thing we did do was to book her her own seat as we are flying with TCD so its more affordable and we weren't allowed to upgrade as we were flying with a baby! So with regards to baby food are they not too great out there? We are looking forward to it but with that fear of dread in the background. Our son died the day before we were due to go to DLP and we also had 3 weeks booked at Pop Century for August but by then he'd been gone a while so we are looking forward to taking Maddy even if it will be a travelling nightmare.

[Dawn]

So with regards to baby food are they not too great out there? .
Full of things that I'd never heard of. Steven had just started on small lumps when we went and the jars were labelled "with added texture" but I never found out what the texture was made of. :eek: There's some more organic ranges available now and if you check out that link I posted you can buy a whole load in advance and have it delivered to where you are staying so it will be there on arrival and you don't have to lug it all the way there with you.

Seriously though, the flight was not really a problem. Bit of forward planning required, that's all. :thumbs:

[madmac]

When you say forward planning do you mean take ropes and sedatives!! So how old is steven now 2ish? Are you going this year or next? We are staying in a hotel so I am not sure if the company will deliver to us there but its worth a try I suppose. We've never stayed in a villa because there has always just been us two (now three), we did have a timeshare at Bryans Spanish Cove but we sold it last year after problems with the deeds - I want to buy a villa but hubby is a bit cautious - I say do it now and think about it later :lol:

[Dawn]

Ropes, sedatives and most important of all - duct tape! :lol:

Steven's 2 and 2 months now. :eek:

Company should deliver to hotel addresses, I think there's a $5 delivery fee, but that's much better than dragging tons of nappies out with you or wandering round supermarkets looking for something that resembles your regular brands.

[Dawn]

Forgot to say. My trip report - I think parts 64 and 65 will be most useful for planning purposes.

[sumahtex]

Hi,

Did you ever consider sterilizing by way of the mircowave?? We TRavelled last year and got these really cool mircowave sterilizing bags from babies r us - our son was only 2 mths old at the time and I was a sterilizing freak with both my children - after last thing you needon vacation is a bad attack of the tummys!
Unfortunately I can't remember the manufacturers name of the bags - they are really heavy gauge plastic with a ziplock top - you simply add 1oz of tap water along with your bottles etc and then mircowave for I think it was 3mins or so- anyway the coolest thing was that there is a little hole in the side of the bag so you can drain the water and then as long as you don't open the bag everything stays sterile upto 24 hrs. We just loaded the bags into our backpack and off we went for the day- if you want more info let me know I'll check the exact name etc for you. Unti then have fun!!!

Sarah

[Cindernaenae]

I don't have any babies, (and so sorry to hear about your other son :hug: ), but if you're just looking for a way to get hot water in a hotel room for sterilizing, how about getting something like this (http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=2-2/qid=1120048309/ref=sr_2_2/601-0070124-2844912?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B0000BYBTR). That way you can just plug it in and the water will heat up.

[beverley]

Hi, we are taking our baby on her first trip and will still be sterilising bottles (she'll be 8mths) has anyone else had any experience of this? Do you have any tips? Myself and my husband have been quite a few times so we were thinking that the best thing to do is to take disposables for our Gatwick hotel stay the night before and for the flight and then buy cold water sterilising equipment when we arrive in Florida. Does anyone have any tips for travelling with one baby for the first time? We've only done center parcs by car and that was bad enough!! At least in Florida things are cheap enough to be bought there for two weeks and then passed on or disposed of! We also wanted to buy her one of those little tents you can get for the beach would we better getting it here or there - I have looked on the walmart website but can't find them on there. Any ideas? We don't go until October 6th so we have a while to plan but you can guarentee we will forget something. THANKS :rotfl:

Hi I have travelled to florida with my little boy 3 times in the past year and he has only now turned 1, its not as frightening as you expect. I dont know if your staying at a hotel or villa with a microwave but I bought microwave sterislation bags for my little one as I am very fussy about his bottles and they work really well. Also in Walwart they sell nursery water especially for babys and this water is safe, dont use the tap water not even for brushing your teeth. Walmart have a good baby range and also supertarget have an excellant range including all the advent products. Youll get your tent in the big toyrus store beside the florida mall. Or if you want it before you go try ebay as they sell them. Have a lovely and safe holiday!!!!!!!

[madmac]

thanks everyone for your tips. I think the microwave sterilising bags are the way to go - now all I need is the microwave :lol: we have a new dilemma too now. We have booked Maddy her own seat (shes a bit porky at 17Ib and shes only 5 months so far) and the airline have asked us if we want to take our own car seat - we didn't even think of this - but now its opened up a whole new batch of questions! Also the criteria the car seat has to meet reads like a novel - what does everyone else think? take our own or hire at Dollar??:shrug:

[JuniorMickey]

Take your own. I don't have kids but my niece is picky about her seat and it will be something of familiarity to your DD. Also, you know it's safe and clean. Who knows what Dollar will give you (and you'll save some $$ by not having to rent it)

[Irish-Tink]

It's been a few years since mine were babies - but a friend recently bought an Avent travel kit which had plastic bags for the milk and came in a Tupperware type thing which doubles as a steriliser for the teats

[Dawn]

Take your own car seat. You don't know what your going to get at the other end. :eek:

[Irish-Tink]

Take your own car seat. You don't know what your going to get at the other end. :eek:
Plus do you really want to pay the $5 per day that the hire company charges

[babybelle]

Few years back we took DD at 17 weeks old. We ran out of sterilising tablets and the girl in the pharmacy hadn't a clue what I was looking for (and that was in Walmart!!!). She explained that most folk there used their dishwasher to sterlise bottles.

If you don't have a microwave, take plenty of sterlising tablets and use an hotel (or buy a cheap) ice bucket with a lid as a sterilising unit, its a handy size for two or three bottle.

Another tip I would give for travelling with a baby is to buy several of the little mini ready made formula milks - these are much easier to use on the airport or on a flight than making up from a tin of formula. I also think their is some regulations about taking opened tins of formula milk too.

[tb2830]

hi
when i use to travel with babies i use to buy the disposble sterile bottles from boots and ready made milk in the cartons
you could always ask the hotel if they could boil your bottles for you or they could come up with some suggestion
i also once owned a microwave sterilister that was really light so you could always pack one of them

[beverley]

Ive have always taken my own car seat. dollar charge 25 dollars per day and they are not the cleanest. You can buy a britex car seat that is very light weight and portable butyou need to use the adult seat belt. I have taken my mamas and papas carry seat with me before and just put it through excess baggage and this is ok to use as well. Hope this helps also the hotels might let you use the hotels microwave as it only takes a few minutes and all the parts are in sterile bag. All the best. Also ask the airline about a skycot for the baby and they might arrange for seats beside a sky cot so she can sleep flat for a wee while, i had one on virgin and it was great, theres no extra charge.

[madmac]

thanks for all the replies, this site is great! All I will say though is I asked one question and now have a thousand more!!! there are things people have brought up that I hadn't even thought of, especially the open formula tin thing - I am sure I knew that from being behind parents on previous trips but as usual forgot to apply it to our trip!!! I can see us getting in a right mess, we are the people who arrive at the airport with our hand luggage and then buy everything out there (incl. suitcases) this year we will be the ones who have our luggage labelled "HEAVY" on the way out and need a separate 747 to bring it home again!!!! Why didn't we start local and work our way outwards - I should have realised this from our trip to center parcs really. Please keep the tips coming though as we really really need them. THANK YOU :hehe:

[Dawn]

madmac :overhere:

I've just been in our local Boots and they have the Boots own brand cold water sterilising kit reduced from £15 to £8. It's a rectangular container with lid about 16" x 8" x 5" and holds 6 regular sized bottles. Comes with 3 bottles and a few bits and pieces - yes I got it off the shelf and studied it. :lol: Anyway it's small enough to go in a suitcase/holdall and you can stuff it with clothes so it will hardly take up any extra space, and it's cheap enough so you can just leave it out there.

I got all excited and rushed home to tell you. :blush:

If you want one and can't get one locally let me know and I'll dash back and pick one up for you. We're in Kent a lot - we can get it to you somehow. :thumbs:

[Dawn]

Or or or or...

Mothercare sell cold water sterilising bags - big plastic bags you use with sterilising tablets - £7 for 7 bags. You can get them at www.mothercare.co.uk (http://www.mothercare.co.uk)

[madmac]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: that made me laugh so much - I can't believe that in boots doing your own shopping you thought of sterilising bottles for someone for a website that is so nice - I live in walderslade so am not too far from Bluewater so I will have a look there at the weekend and see what I can find I will let you know how I get on - I will also look in mothercare and see about the bags, but we have those B Free bottles and they are bigger than the avent or the disney style ones so I think we may need the sterilising unit. We are starting the weaning again next week (we stopped a couple of weeks ago as she was only just over 4mths and she was gobbling it down and shes already a little porker at 17Ibs) so hopefully when we go in 12 weeks time :wiggle: she will be eating proper solids and only having a couple of bottles a day. We are staying at the hilton at Gatwick the night before so I am going to use those throw away bottles until the plane. Thanks again you are so kind - can we put you in our suitcase and take you with us :lol:

[Dawn]

can we put you in our suitcase and take you with us :lol:
:excited: :excited: :excited:

Yes please. :D

[lisastep]

HI:)

It looks like you have had lots of tips from all these nice people, but I will add one more. We went to Mexico with our son when he was 5 months old and also took disposal bottles and cartons of already made milk (a godsend!) We even took a portable kettle too to boil his water as there wasn't one in the room or a microwave. I bought the steriliser tablets from mothercare and they worked a treat. I used the bin (sounds terrible, but I cleaned it and it was fine), and lined it with the bags before steriling the bottles. Unfortunately the cleaner thought the next day they were rubbish and got rid of them...nightmare, but we did recover them! I suggest you take disposable bibs. They were a real help rather than washing out dirty bibs all the time. I took jars of food for him, but as I was making my own at home he wasn't too keen on the jars, so mashed a lot of things up as fine as possible.

As we were in Mexico without a car I did take all his nappies, but when we went to Disneyworld last year we only took enough for a couple of days and then went to Walmart. They have Pampers there, so you will be fine buying them. One other thing we did take to Mexico and Florida was a small fan that can be attached to the pram...really useful. They sell child ones in Mothercare. They look like a bird, but are really cute (had lots of comments about it). and cost about £10.

Hope some of this helps.
Have a great time
Lisa

[madmac]

HI. Well Dawn I have my sterlising equipment all ready, I have the tablets and have some microwave bags (just in case) and am going to buy a bucket in Walmart when we get there. Its still over 11 weeks but you got me all exceited about going so I am almost sitting here with my bags packed!!!!:lol: :whistle:

Thank you Lisastep for your ideas, following Dawns comments on the baby food available i am a bit worried about how to feed her but think I will do as you did and mash up a bit of what we have (minus the steaks of course!) I bought the whirly bird fan from mothercare last week actually for the exact purpose of taking it to Florida - great minds really do think alike - it must be the name :hehe:
(I'm a Lisa too)

I want to go now, can anyone fit me in their suitcase pleeeeeese :unsure:

[Dawn]

Hey! I thought I was going in your suitcase. :(

Anyway - Lisa's disposable bib thing - we did that too and worked out great. See all these disposable things you take, as you use them it leaves more room in your baggage to bring things home. :D

Steven was on SMA milk at the time and they do sachets of pre-measured 6oz feeds. We had a travel kettle and boiled water last thing at night. In the morning we got the clean bottles and put 6oz water into each one and just left them like that until it was milk time. Then just add the sachet and shake for instant feed. No need to worry about keeping milk cool during the day.

[Huntermom]

When my kids were young, many years ago-youngest just turned 17-a British friend loaned me a very small table top food grinder so I could make my own baby food when we went out. None of mine ate the jar food. I was later able to find my own in a baby store here. It worked very well to grind just about anything from your plate into a lovely mush. I would be careful what you fed your child though. We found new foods could set off a lovely case of diarrhea.

Also, we always took our own car seats when we travelled so we could buckle our kids into thier own seat on the plane. The familiarity of it made them more willing to sit nicely and fall asleep. I assume that's why they asked about bringing your own seat.

Diane

[magicmom]

Where are you staying? If you are staying in a suite and will have access to a microwave, Avent makes a great microwave sterilizer. Of course if that won't be possible, I don't know what to tell you, but thought I'd let you know in case that was an option.

[lisastep]

Hi Lisa (2)

What Dawn said sounds very familiar to us when we went to Mexico...same experience. The bird fan is a definite must and we will be taking ours again when we go in September. I think it's going to be even hotter this year when we go as it was hot at the end of September. The batteries run out quickly on the fan so buy plenty....probably best in Walmart rather than the parks though!

Just one other point. We did take jars of the puddings and fruits as he didn't mid them, it was just the savoury food he didn't like. Thanks goodness I don't have to worry about that anymore as he eats all things now!

Have a great time...where are you staying?
Lisa:)

[madmac]

Hello Yes Dawn you are still welcome to suitcase space but I will have to pay extra to bring you home so would you mind possibly staying out there:lol: depending, of course, on how much money we bring home - based on past trips I would say goodbye to your family now:lol:

I am going to have to print all these messages out - I can use them as my "to pack" and "to buy" lists. Will someone just put "baby" on a message though as with all these others bits I expect she will get forgotten :lol:

Does anyone know where I can get a car seat that is approved by the airlines to use on the flight? I know britax do one, but it feels quite heavy - does this count as our luggage allowance??? thanx again

Oh and we go on 6 Oct and we are staying at Travel Lodge opp Kissimmee Old Town - I am sure I was asked this - its 11 weeks tomorrow (incl Gatwick overnight stay) :cloud9: Do I sound excieted yet - give me about 9 weeks and I will be bouncing off the walls:wiggle:

[cdavenport]

Hi, we are taking our baby on her first trip and will still be sterilising bottles (she'll be 8mths) has anyone else had any experience of this? Do you have any tips? Myself and my husband have been quite a few times so we were thinking that the best thing to do is to take disposables for our Gatwick hotel stay the night before and for the flight and then buy cold water sterilising equipment when we arrive in Florida. Does anyone have any tips for travelling with one baby for the first time? We've only done center parcs by car and that was bad enough!! At least in Florida things are cheap enough to be bought there for two weeks and then passed on or disposed of! We also wanted to buy her one of those little tents you can get for the beach would we better getting it here or there - I have looked on the walmart website but can't find them on there. Any ideas? We don't go until October 6th so we have a while to plan but you can guarentee we will forget something. THANKS :rotfl:

0

[tajainaz]

Baby!

Trying to remember from previous threads on the subject... I do not *think* the car seat counts as part of your luggage allowance. Might be a good idea to check with your airline, though.

[Dawn]

I think the baby counts as carry-on! I really wouldn't recommend packing it. :lol: