Travelling abroad with a 6 month old

[simons123]

Booked a holiday to Spain in July when the little one will be six months. Obviously a little nervous about taking her abroad but we both need a holiday.

How difficult is it with a newborn on a plane?

Were you able to take the pushchair on the plane easy enough?

Any tips once we are there?

[AB]

Drop the pushchair at the gate, get it returned when you land.

It's handy to have to get through security quicker too. Relatively short flight but you can't predict how a 6 month old will react. I did 7 hours with a 6 month old and luckily he slept most of the way.

[BlackTails]

simons123 said:

Booked a holiday to Spain in July when the little one will be six months. Obviously a little nervous about taking her abroad but we both need a holiday.

How difficult is it with a newborn on a plane?

Were you able to take the pushchair on the plane easy enough?

Any tips once we are there?

Been a while, though as I remember it at that age they are easier than when they are 1-3.

Food supply is in mum or in powdered form. Carry nappies, wipes and nappy sacks in a bum bag (much easier when you’re in the plane loo). If you can carry junior in a papoose/baby bjorn thing and check the pushchair into the hold, do so. Much easier.

In Spain the locals, esp the older female ones, will give you funny looks for not wrapping up junior in warm clothes in the middle of summer. Ignore that. Obvious things like sun hats, sun tan lotion liberally applied. Don’t let her hold you back - consider her as an appendage that does the things you do (within reason - obviously not clubbing). Restaurants should be able to provide high chairs. Just keep her occupied/ happy while you eat.

Something that is sights-based and keeps you all moving is probably better than a beach holiday. The more stimulation the better; babies seem to come on disproportionately when exposed to both parents in a stimulating environment.

Enjoy it, and don’t be nervous!

[sjc]

Do yourself a favour and try and time the bottle feeds for immediately after take off,the constant sucking will help to pop their ears and help in adjusting to the air pressure.Then go overboard with the dummy for once if they’re still on it.

[Alorotom]

Honestly it’s not hard at all.

We went all over the world long-haul with our daughter from her being 2-3mths old (her first flight was to NYC).

Be prepared for all eventualities and pack things you know grab her attention - she will get a little upset at one point, it’s fine, don’t panic as it’ll make her worse.

Don’t listen to the threads on here from moaners complaining about kids on planes.

[justin220]

We're not long back from tenerife with our 6 month old, and 5 year old.. we came back needing a holiday! took the stroller as hand luggage and put into the overhead cabin. Id highly recommend a snooze shade for the pram

Also take a carrier for walking the aisles.

Feeding on take off is a good suggestion, and bring their favourite grab toys.

[LastPoster]

AB said:

Drop the pushchair at the gate, get it returned when you land.

Up to you if you take the baby out first

We took our six month old

Flights were ok, he slept pretty much all the way each time, even though the return was pretty noisy with quite a few bawlers.

Didn’t enjoy the holiday much though due to it not being anything like as relaxing as you would expect (first time parents worry as much as anything I expect) so didn’t bother again for quite a while

[Bill]

The most important is timing feeds for takeoff and landing. We took 5 months old twins and a 3-y-o to Ibiza. All went fine but on the return trip they'd all fallen asleep. We were stood waiting for everyone to get off trying to work out how we were going to get the unrousable 3-y-o off when someone went met on the way out offered to help. They carried him all the way through the airport and their OH got our bag off the carousel.

[Jurgen100]

If you’re hiring a car I’d recommend taking your own car seat. There’s nothing worse than being tired, stressed etc with a screaming baby and you’re trying to fit a car seat you’re not familiar with (I found they’re never isofix seats from car rental companies)

[PRO5T]

BlackTails said:

Been a while, though as I remember it at that age they are easier than when they are 1-3.

I can only echo this! Once our first born was 18 months however...

justin220 said:

We're not long back from tenerife with our 6 month old, and 5 year old.. we came back needing a holiday!

I'd only echo this! Didn't bother with abroad until the youngest was then four years old.

To be honest, ours were both breast fed until two years and so slept with mum and the first didn't sleep for more than two hours at a time. At 18 months it was no holiday! Stressing about her toddling near a pool, getting her hand stuck in an elevator door our screaming through a dinner service while we ate separately so we didn't annoy the other diners...

Yeah, fking great "holiday"!

But at six months or whatever, strolling around Barcelona in a papoose or whatever they're called, enjoying a coffee in a cafe while she needed fed... it was great.

We took a pragmatic view on it from there on-what did anyone get out of dragging them around Europe (both kid and adult)? We figured very little so didn't do it again until like I say, they were four and seven. It was Haven up until those ages (and if that's a holiday to you-good luck!).

Now we do one big summer holiday to the likes of a Holiday Village once a year and it's all about the kids-they love it! Plus with kids clubs and them being good sleepers we also get some quality mum and dad time.

Another few years and they'll start to understand city breaks and sight seeing so we'll move on again I guess but you can't really recommend anything more than "it depends on the type of kid".

[chip*]

Alorotom said:

Honestly it’s not hard at all.

We went all over the world long-haul with our daughter from her being 2-3mths old (her first flight was to NYC).

Be prepared for all eventualities and pack things you know grab her attention - she will get a little upset at one point, it’s fine, don’t panic as it’ll make her worse.

Don’t listen to the threads on here from moaners complaining about kids on planes.

This.
Likewise, took both mine upon reaching 3 months old on a long haul (12-14 hours) so my mother could see her grandchild. I regard both my kids (oldest is 7) as seasoned flyers as they have over 10 (3 long hauls) flying holiday under their belts!
It's really not that hard, just need some simple preparation (for the babies/kids), respect (to fellow passengers) and patience (you!).

[Steve Campbell]

Not difficult, just needs planning. Take double what you need in terms of food / nappies etc. on the flight…you don’t want be stuck in an airport with a delayed flight worrying about that stuff. Probably won’t need it, but if you do it will save you hours of torment and worry.

[barryrs]

Buy a large box of earplugs and dish them out to the other passengers

[The_Doc]

Its totally doable, but we only did 3-4 hours in the plane max.
Both kids came on hols from 6 months onwards

Europe has all the same shops as the UK, so buy your baby stuff out there.
We also deliberately potty trained both our kids on Greek holidays, relying on them having outdoor accidents on the 2 week process, outside in 30C heat, on someone else's patio !!

1. Shade - Coleman suntent featured in photos, about 1.5Kg and easy to pack.
2. Lunchtime naps in the heat
3. Cover up max
4. M&D enjoy it ! I mean, having kids is a sacrifice, but they don't own you. !!


I can remember some type 3 fun on a car journey from the airport to the villa in Greece one year.
We took 2 car seats with us (free on most airlines) and half way to the accom there was an "evacuation" from 6 month old which the nappy didn't contain, and it toothpaste-ed around the nappy, around the car seat belt and looked like something from saw.

So I pulled over in a random greek village, changed nappy on a random person's low wall. MAde an attempt to hose off the muck with a billion wet wipes and bottled water. Stripped the car seat fabric off the car seat, Reinstalled the child with new nappy. Opened all the windows and carried on.
Cleaned the car seat cover the next day at the villa and it was dry in about 30 mins in the Mediterranean heat,.

Fun times.

Also remember arriving at another villa with my 1 year old, she and I went to explore the pool whilst mum explored the villa. I walked down to the pool, took my eyes off daughter for 1-2 secs and she fell in, fully clothed
Fortunately they'd had swimming lessons from 2 months on, and she grabbed the side and held on. Just as they teach toddlers to do.
So i pulled her out, all over in 5 seconds. Easy.

Walk up to villa and explain why daughter is soaked through, not so easy.

So, kids on holiday, do it. Beats having them screaming and mucky in the UK for a few weeks.




What's life for if it isn't for going on holiday ? Priceless moments.

Edited by The_Doc on Saturday 24th May 12:42