Travelling with Infant - tips?

[cmon0005]

Hi all,

In a couple of months will be travelling overseas with our 5 month old infant (at the time of travel).
It is our first child so have not had to think about it ever till now!

We are travelling to a few destinations, mainly to relax, all hot tropical climates.

Flight wise all flights are Business class and where the aircraft has a bassinet we have secured one + both myself/wife are QF plats so lounge access is also catered for. I am not so worried about the flights because of these reasons.

I am after tips once on the ground from AFFers.

-Travel in hotel car/taxi. We won't take our car seat as it is too big. How have you handled travelling once at your destination, did most hotel cars have car seats available, if not what is the safest way to travel with the infant?

-We are mostly staying at Starwood hotels and we have requested a baby crib at all of the properties, in your experience are the hotel cribs good?
Other option is we could purchase one of these travel bassinets Brica Portable Folding Travel Bassinet?

-Sun and mosquito protection? what have you used to protect that is safe? and any other tips?

-How did your baby adjust to new timezones?

Any other tips or experiences are welcome.

Thank you!

 

[aaronjames000]

When we went travelling with our little man we booked transfers with baby car seats ahead of time to make sure he was safe. There were times where we had to jump in taxi's for short distances but we mostly tried to use planes or trains wherever we could.

For sleeping we used one of the baby bjorn travel cots just so we knew that he would be comfortable and have a familiar environment to go to sleep... he's two now and we still use it when we go away... so we've got lots of good mileage out of it; https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...ved=0CAkQ_AUoA2oVChMIs7aBsf7wxwIVIR6mCh3w0gxZ

Also another thing which helped us out a great deal was a babyzen yoyo travel stroller. It folds up to become small enough to take as cabin baggage so it helped no end while transiting through airports, and also once at our destination, it was small enough to swing over one of our shoulders when he decided he had enough of being pushed around (and wanted a cuddle!) https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...ved=0CAkQ_AUoA2oVChMIs7aBsf7wxwIVIR6mCh3w0gxZ

As for timezones, our little man didn't adjust at all when we went to Europe, and we pretty much had a whole month of broken sleep. Don't let that scare you though... every child is different and it was all part of the adventure!

 

[greenfish]

We've never had problems with hotel cots / borrowed cots etc for all 3 kids, so we only travelled with one if we knew there wasn't one at the destination.

Never really found a satisfactory solution to the child seat problem. Sometimes we took ours - including using it on the plane. Often avoided taxis in favour of rental cars.

Did sometimes use travel strollers, though still have nightmares of navigating Venice with one. I preferred just using a baby bjorn baby carrier - fabulous bit of kit, our one survived all 3 kids and a couple of kids from the exended family. All 3 kids were pretty small though.

Where possible I timed flights to coincide with regular sleep times. All the kids seemed to adapt pretty quickly to different timezones, but YMMV.

 

[LadyC]

We have done 3 trips overseas with my son who is now 18 months old with another one planned in November. All our trips have been in Asia.

We have never bothered with car seats. We never spent a lot of time in cars so just didn't seem worth while.

We have both a baby bjorn and a tula. Great for carrying snoozy baby but also for keeping bubs close and happy.
Have a portacot but never took it as all hotels we stayed at had a cot. They are normally quite big too.

Other tips - get a good collapsible stroller. We bought a second hand maclaren techno xt off ebay and it is great for travelling. Also, my son has a special blanket which is his comforter. I bought multiples of it. I always take a couple with us when travelling as it helps him settle and sleep more easily. Finally if your wife is breastfeeding, that can also help a lot with ascending and descending for the baby.

 

[dodgeyhack]

We've always been able to organise transports with car seats.
Hotels all seem to have the same model cot, which is pretty good. Though the mattress seems a bit thin to me, our girl has always slept well.
We got a travel bag for our Bugaboo and took that on a lot of trips. It was great for her to sleep in at dinner. It's big though so had to make sure any hire cars could take it.
Now she's 19 months, we just carry her everywhere.
We always managed to forget the baby bjorn. Seriously, not once but twice. When we did have it though, it was great for the airport after we dropped off the pram.
As far as mosquitos go, Parakeeto make some pellet things that go either in bracelets or a pouch with a carabina. They seem to work pretty well, but we've not been anywhere that's been bad for mozzies - didn't see a single one in Fiji.

 

[cmon0005]

Thanks all so far for the tips, greatly appreciated, keep them coming!

We've gone out today and tried on all of the baby carriers, in the end we went with the Baby Bjorn it was certainly the most comfortable for both us and baby