All About Travelling Pregnant Or With Kids
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jan17_mummy
If your child is the 'tough' type, i.e. not picky in sleeping at specific time/place, you would not foresee much problems bringing him on the trip.
We brought our DS to Japan when he's almost 12 mth, to Perth when he's 16 mth. He survived train trips, self-drive road trips (sleeping at the back of van on some nights) and campervan, all because we trained him to be tough since young.
On plane : Pacifier, milk(BF if possible), sweets during take off/landing to prevent pressure in ear.
At 14mth, your child probably would want to wander about, let him/her be, just follow close. You'll get many smiling faces along the aisle anyway.
My list of things to bring for the trip:
Enough clothes for changing/keep warm, hankies, towels, blanket, small pillow/bolster, wet wipes, small bottle of clothes detergent, baby bath, diapers and milk powder, common medicine for fever/running nose, chest rub, moisturizer, baby sunblock, favourite healthy snacks, not forgetting TOYS....and the stroller/buggy. (We used only harness during the Japan trip as stroller's too heavy to carry around especially in train stations)
(We packed a large backpack with 80% baby's stuff, left with enough room for only 2-3 sets of clothes each for the 14-Day trip - handwashed our laundry along the way)
You're the best person to detect any mood change and discomfort before it happens, attend to his/her needs earlier can bring less stress for you & hubby.
Enjoy the trip, treat your baby as a pet/toy to add juice to the holiday. haha (That's our thinking then, bringing him along to provide entertainment, but not the recent trip to China at 2 year + because most places we went were not easy to walk for adults, left alone a toddler)
~~above based on my personal experience, hope they are helpful~~ -
wah, seems that a lot of you dun have problem bringing toddler on plane. for me, it's horrible. brought DS2 to Tokyo when he turned 21 mth. you see, he is a very very very difficult child. toys, colouring, etc anything only help maybe just 5 mins, after he is done with the toy or whatever, he will just throw it aside, and maybe find other things/people to disturb. he is not afraid of strangers, he can disturb people when he sat beside them. even if I told him not to repeatedly. and boy, I'v to hold him throughout the whole journey (about 8 hours?). either sitting or standing and walking around.
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Make toddler tired, so hopefully he will doze off most of the trip
(this can backfire if you kiddo is hyper )
Pacifier or milk before/takeoff/landing.
If child get eardrum pressure issue upon takeoff, your whole flight is
Other than that, if child choose to misbehave, there is little you can do to coax him/her -
smurf:
wah, seems that a lot of you dun have problem bringing toddler on plane. for me, it's horrible. brought DS2 to Tokyo when he turned 21 mth. you see, he is a very very very difficult child. toys, colouring, etc anything only help maybe just 5 mins, after he is done with the toy or whatever, he will just throw it aside, and maybe find other things/people to disturb. he is not afraid of strangers, he can disturb people when he sat beside them. even if I told him not to repeatedly. and boy, I'v to hold him throughout the whole journey (about 8 hours?). either sitting or standing and walking around.
Who said it was easy? I had to have him on my lap the whole 8 to 9 hour journey too, plus at the end of the journey, we still took another 2 hour plane flight in japan itself. Cannot go toilet, ok? Got to tahan or listen to baby wailing. Same during the trip while in japan itself. -
not much experience for long trip. Took a 3 hour when DS is about 2 yrs old. A box of coco clunch to occupy him while the plane take off and browsing pix on my phone as well as in flight entertainment and meal help pass the time. It helps that he eats really slowly...
my ds also active type and keep opening the plane's window when it is supposed to be lowered..enen I repeatedly explained to him not too. the flight attendent have to come over quite a number of times. :oops: -
[Editor's note: Topic selected for http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/our-experiences-travelling-baby-plane-japan.]
We brought our DD to Japan when she was 13 months old. At the end of the trip, DH and I each lost about 2 kg For DH, it was the lugging of luggages from Osaka to Kyoto and then to Tokyo; while for me, it was the carrying of DD throughout (as she refused to be carried by DH :stupid: ) and skipping of meals that did it. Don't get me wrong however, it was a good trip; lots of bonding time with DD and as she was getting too attached to our maid, we managed to reverse that somewhat by the time we returned :lol:
In my opinion, Japan is a good place to bring the little one. It's clean and child-friendly generally. For example, in every department store, you would be able to find a nursery and baby changing room easily. They are well stocked with diapers (need to pay of course) and you could feed your baby inside these rooms if need be. Public toilets are quite good too. There is usually a baby changing board; and when you need to use the toilet, some cubicles would even come equipped with a child holding seat!
So what do you need to bring? First, let's start with the flight. If you could, try to take a day flight in case your child is a fussy sleeper. That way, if she doesn't sleep, at least both parents and her would not have a long grudging day ahead. Day flights also tend to be less crowded and you would have no lack of attention from stewardesses drawn to cute babies. Remember to bring your baby's milk powder and milk bottle for the flight. As for hot water and cool water, you could get that from the flight attendants, unless you are fussy and want to bring your own. For us, the consideration for bringing along water is whether she needs to drink milk from the time she gets off the plane to the time when we eventually reach the hotel. Sometimes, child food provided on the plane may not be that agreeable with the little one. Do bring along something else as the flight is about 7 hours long. On top of the milk powder, we would bring along some of her baby cereal and a bowl for mixing the cereal (yes, we almost brought everything :lol: ) and some Pigeon's ready-to-eat food packs. The Pigeon baby food packs are great for travelling. You just need to put a pack into a bowl of hot water, and a meal is ready within minutes! Taste great too. I usually buy those that are mixed with rice and I particularly like the brown rice with seaweeds - yummy!
Couldn't find a picture of that from the website, but this is a sample of the Pigeon baby food pack:
http://www.postimage.org/
By the way, if you are travelling with SQ, you can specify that you want toddler's meal, otherwise, you would end up being served Gerber baby food .
As for taking off and landing, as we do not give our kids sweets (not at 13 month - what if she chokes?) or pacifiers, instead, I give mine a pack of biscuits shortly before the take-off or landing. As the plane takes off, I stand by water for them to drink. So far, not a single problem for our numerous trips. Pigeon has many choices of biscuits, each either come individually wrapped or about 4 packs in each box. My children's personal favourite are the small little round yellow biscuits - the type that melts in your mouth, and fish favoured crackers.
http://www.postimage.org/
http://www.postimage.org/
On board the plane, you could keep you baby occupied with her favourite activities, whatever that might be. At 13-14 months, they are not too much into watching movies. The ear-piece is too big for them anyway. Alternatively, just bring her for walks around the plane when she gets too bored. If she is able to sleep, that would be the best. At this age, she should be able to still fit in the bassinet. Once my DD starts having her own seat, I also bring along a neck rest whenever we take those long-haul flights. Remember to bring extra sets of clothings for the flight, including a cardigan in case it is cold.
Once you are in Japan, eating out is easy. For breakfast, if your hotel stay comes with breakfast, there is usually Japanese buffet breakfast where you can have porridge for instance. In our case, we have a mix of that and baby cereal (as that was what my DD ate for breakfast at that time). Lunch and dinner were usually ramen, other Japanese food and occasionally, the pigeon food. Don't forget to bring a pair of scissors and some baby spoons when you are out dinning, but remember to check the scissors into your luggage or you won't get pass airport security with that pair of scissors. Other things that I won't leave home without are hand sanitizer, fruit peeler or knife, vegetable wash for washing fruits, some flu/cough/fever medicine and of course her favourite toys (bath toys are important too to get my DD into the bath tub ) and books.
Lastly, do remember to buy that all too important travel insurance. Seeing a doctor in Japan would be very expensive! -
OT:
I dun think Japan very good for children leh. at least not Tokyo. no doubt a lot of baby changing room and nursery, and it's clean and child friendly and it's very safe for children. but it's super crowded! :shock:
go to any train/metro station, and there is no lack of people, even busying than raffles place, many many times. and we have to squeeze in train bum to bum, with baby in tow. not easy lah...in my opinion, maybe aa beach resort or laid back places such as Australia would be better ( I never tried before though)??
Restaurants in Tokyo dun have baby chair, so either your baby sit on your lap, or sit in a pram (you need to bring though).
Not sure if you can bring water onboard the plane, cos security very tight nowadays. maybe check with the airline?? -
smurf:
You just ask for water on the plane, or just refill your water bottle from water cooler after going thru the security.
Not sure if you can bring water onboard the plane, cos security very tight nowadays. maybe check with the airline??
Oh, but must qualify, I don't use milk powder so don't need sterilising/boiled water, etc. So we travel really light. We only pack baby's clothes, the thinnest pack of diapers, some books, a few small packs of raisins/biscuits, that's all.
During holiday, the baby just eats whatever we eat. Other than that, he breastfeeds.
No need to think so much. Just go, lor. It will not be as easy as travelling without baby - the baby would be heavy to carry, he will cry when tired, etc, but at least you get to travel! -
phankao:
You just ask for water on the plane, or just refill your water bottle from water cooler after going thru the security.smurf:
Not sure if you can bring water onboard the plane, cos security very tight nowadays. maybe check with the airline??
Busymom mentioned that if mummy is fussy, then can she bring own water. NOT the water on plane or water cooler.
For this, have to check with the airline. -
would you travel to an isolated place in scandinavia with toddlers for 1 month? and stay in hotel?
I understand that some places in scandinavia is very isolated with maybe 3000 population. how to go stay there with toddler for 1 month? if the hotel doesn't allow cooking, and can only eat what they cook.
anyone experience this before?
:?