Where/How to vacation with a 10-11 month old baby??

[ceely]

Pardon my ignorance, but I would like to hear from others who have done this before as it is obviously completely new to me.

We want to take a vacation with our baby before i go back to work. I am anticipating that my daughter will still be on jarred/baby foods. Initially I thought a cruise would be good, but the appeal WAS that we could go to more than one place/country in one trip. Then I realized "wait! we have a baby now!" :facepalm: Those excursions won't necessarily work with a baby in tow. I'd have to pack her food, and then where would I warm it??? So a cruise is less appealing as I am not keen to stay on a ship for a week. So is an all inclusive resort-type deal better then?

Please enlighten me. Ideaas are welcome. Thanks.

[junkyardbottles]

A 10-11 month old baby can reasonably be expected to eat table food. You just have to cut the food in small pieces. Sure, they can' digest hard rock candies yet, but you weren't expecting to make that a meal :)

I'd suggest feeding your child what you would be eating. Getting a grilled chicken salad? Cut up the chicken into smaller pieces to give to your toddler. Cut up the veggies in smaller pieces. Share some pieces of bread. Skip the jarred food by instead opting for soft apples, bananas (although bananas do not travel well), sliced grapes, etc. Go for cold foods (easier to carry a small lunch cooler instead of searching for a microwave) such as yogurt, cheese, avocados.

I can't imagine any where you're going to be more "primitive" than camping; we had no problems camping with our 11 month old. We didn't take any baby food with us - just gave her smaller pieces of what we ate. Gums are stronger than you think!

I'd recommend a vacation where the baby and you, both, can have fun. You'd want to avoid including things like casinos, bars, drinking, etc. from your vacationing - not really the kind of places that welcome babies. I highly recommend camping, it's a whole lot of fun and kids love it. An all-inclusive resort would be great, be sure to look for family friendliness.

[wirebound]

We introduced solids to one of our sons in Mexico, bought jarred food there, and warmed in a cup of hot water, the sealed jar just sat in the cup, otherwise, he ate bananas, avocado or any soft food we ate minus the spice, at 10 months, the spice may be less of an issue and you may well be beyond purees anyways but these were his first foods... Basicalky I figure as long as its clean and other people's kids are eating it, mine can too!

[dor79]

By 10-11 months a child can eat a fair amount of solids. We've been transitioning to table food since 8 months, although we had homemade food, never jarred.... Bring a Magic Bullet with you, if you have to puree.




I would think a resort would be the best place to travel with a wee one.

[nalababe]

When our oldest was 11 months we went on a four week trip to England and Switzerland. We travelled all around. There really was little that couldn't do. Really this was a trip to see family and friends.

When our youngest was 11 months we went to Beijing, Singapore and Bali. We stayed with friends, stayed At resorts and stayed at city hotels. Again, you can see countless things and are not really limited.

The keys for a good trip are not to rush, do have a tight schedule...allow yourself to change plans at a moments notice. Take along some food just I case you find yourself somewhere there isn't food they'll eat.

[jimmy-j]

we went to vegas when my son was 1 year old.

i have family there. visited them and took my son to see the sights and bright lights. he loved it! perfect angel on the plane ride there and back. people in front and behind didn't even know we had a kid on board until we were getting off the airplane.

he's 2.5 now and i think since vegas, he's got an obsession with airplanes and helicopters.

[barricuda]

I know this may vary with each kid, but has anyone tried road trips with babies less than a year old? I was hoping to do one towards the end of my wife's maternity leave as well. I was thinking of driving around Quebec for a couple of weeks and was wondering how feasible that would be with a 11 month old.

[speed2]

I am taking my 10 month old boy (my 2nd one is 3 years) to Cuba end of April. I think my wife want to take water for my 2 boys (I heard that they have bottle water, but my wife still want to take bottle water from here)

We also thinking of buying Kettle so we can boil the water and warm up the formula milk, canned food etc.

Thanks

[ginabobolee]

We took our daughter to Vancouver (from Toronto) when she was 9 month old.
We are going to go to Florida soon.
You can almost everywhere. Just needs to give yourself enough time (double it basically) when travelling with little one.

Diapers/formula/jar food can be bought almost everywhere in North America. I always pack an electrical water kettle with us so I boiled the water for her.

[wirebound]

I know this may vary with each kid, but has anyone tried road trips with babies less than a year old? I was hoping to do one towards the end of my wife's maternity leave as well. I was thinking of driving around Quebec for a couple of weeks and was wondering how feasible that would be with a 11 month old.

We drove around Vancouver Island, camping with a 9 month old, the trip to Mexico above was spent with our 5 month old, 2 year old and we backpacked for a week around and a family member drove from Ontario to Alberta and back with their son before he was 1 ... totally feasible ... and totally memorable. You go at a slower pace which is nice at times, you may not see *everything* but that's okay too. Frankly, having kids that still nap make it easier to travel as well! If you need to drive, its pretty easy to time those to nap times as well...

[jimmy-j]

I know this may vary with each kid, but has anyone tried road trips with babies less than a year old? I was hoping to do one towards the end of my wife's maternity leave as well. I was thinking of driving around Quebec for a couple of weeks and was wondering how feasible that would be with a 11 month old.

would be good but might be a long and slow drive because you'll have to stop often to allow your little one to stretch out, change diaper and feed.

[mintchoco]

We did a driving trip with our daughter at 8 months to Newfoundland. We kept the hours driving each day to around 1.5-3 hours. We would make sure to get to our next destination in the early afternoon, check in, and let our daughter take a nap in a real bed. She didn't always cooperate in the car so it was a pain entertaining her and she was still nursing quite frequently that we had to stop and nurse or change diapers. Bring toys with you to entertain baby.

[nalababe]

I know this may vary with each kid, but has anyone tried road trips with babies less than a year old? I was hoping to do one towards the end of my wife's maternity leave as well. I was thinking of driving around Quebec for a couple of weeks and was wondering how feasible that would be with a 11 month old.

We drove to Florida, did a number of 2-3 day or week long trips in Ontario, drove around England.

...actually found it easy with a little one as they sleep more than an older one.

[barricuda]

cool, thanks for the stories folks.... looks like lots of you had fun road tripping with your infants...

[ceely]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I should have mentioned that my daughter is a gagger/refluxer so we've been going a little slow with solids. She is on Stage 2 foods, but I still have to be selective (soft lumps rather than hard lumps). So I am a little concerned about going away as she is not ready for table foods just yet...thanks for all the input! Keep it coming!

[Chigu]

Pardon my ignorance, but I would like to hear from others who have done this before as it is obviously completely new to me.

We want to take a vacation with our baby before i go back to work. I am anticipating that my daughter will still be on jarred/baby foods. Initially I thought a cruise would be good, but the appeal WAS that we could go to more than one place/country in one trip. Then I realized "wait! we have a baby now!" :facepalm: Those excursions won't necessarily work with a baby in tow. I'd have to pack her food, and then where would I warm it??? So a cruise is less appealing as I am not keen to stay on a ship for a week. So is an all inclusive resort-type deal better then?

Please enlighten me. Ideaas are welcome. Thanks.

We took our daughter to two vacations before she was a year old. We took her on a Hawaiian Cruise, and also an all inclusive in Mexico. From our experience the cruise was MUCH MUCH better and much easier. With a cruise, your room, as well as all the amenities are very close by (and at that age, you don't really have to have huge rooms for them to run around in), also the food is of much better quality, and has more variety. We found that at the all inclusive, the selection was limited (we are vegetarian).

However, we went on a "beach vacation" cruise, I don't think I would have taken my daughter if we did a Mediterranean cruise that stopped in Italy, Spain etc. That area requires a lot of walking and exploring.

The all inclusive wasn't as fun, other than the food, sometimes you are VERY far away from your room, so you may have to walk quite a distance to get to the pool or the beach, or the restaurants.

But I have a bias, i love cruising.

[ceely]

We took our daughter to two vacations before she was a year old. We took her on a Hawaiian Cruise, and also an all inclusive in Mexico. From our experience the cruise was MUCH MUCH better and much easier. With a cruise, your room, as well as all the amenities are very close by (and at that age, you don't really have to have huge rooms for them to run around in), also the food is of much better quality, and has more variety. We found that at the all inclusive, the selection was limited (we are vegetarian).

However, we went on a "beach vacation" cruise, I don't think I would have taken my daughter if we did a Mediterranean cruise that stopped in Italy, Spain etc. That area requires a lot of walking and exploring.

The all inclusive wasn't as fun, other than the food, sometimes you are VERY far away from your room, so you may have to walk quite a distance to get to the pool or the beach, or the restaurants.

But I have a bias, i love cruising.


Did you do any excursions? How did you manage the stops or did you stay on the boat the entire time? Was your baby on table foods when you went?

[Chigu]

Did you do any excursions? How did you manage the stops or did you stay on the boat the entire time? Was your baby on table foods when you went?

We did some excursions, such as seeing the Volcanoes etc, I just used the baby carrier and had her strapped to my chest. We went with another couple, and the only issue with excursions we had was me and the other guy went golfing, and my wife took our daughter to the beach. The next day, she went with the couple to Ziplining, and I stayed with my daughter on the boat/beach etc. THat's one of the sacrifices we had to make. It would have been nice to go ziplining together.

We didn't stay on the boat at all, we brought along our travel stroller, and went off the boat at each stop, we even rented a car in Maui and drove to different areas. We just made sure rental company had car seats available (which they did).

My daughter did eat SOME table foods (like rice), but really not much. She was a picky eater. She ate a lot of the bottled food (like the veggies and pasta, etc), and the bottled fruit, as well as her stage 2 cereal. All the restaurants were great with having us warm up her food in their microwave, and with the cereal, all you need is hot water.

Mexico, we didn't really do any excursions as we have been there many times. But just found it much less convenient then on the cruise.

[swk2006]

We actually did a cruise with our 11 month old in January to the Caribbean with Princess. I agree with the others that if you decide to go on a cruise, it should be to the beaches with less excursions and sight-seeing as opposed to a european cruise. Besides the debate between cruising and all-inclusives, here's what we found for cruising specific to infants.

The positives were:
- the cruise will provide you with jar food, juice, and cereal, you just have to request it beforehand
- they will also provide you with a travel crib (playpen), again make sure to request it
- the medical facility, unfortunately, our daughter got sick so we had to make use of it - but they were quite good and at least i would imagine that it's up to US standards

The only negative was cost as she cost as much as an adult 3rd person. As well, not sure if you were hoping to go in the water, but most cruiselines will not allow infants into the pools unless they are toilet trained.

hope that helps.

[ceely]

We actually did a cruise with our 11 month old in January to the Caribbean with Princess. I agree with the others that if you decide to go on a cruise, it should be to the beaches with less excursions and sight-seeing as opposed to a european cruise. Besides the debate between cruising and all-inclusives, here's what we found for cruising specific to infants.

The positives were:
- the cruise will provide you with jar food, juice, and cereal, you just have to request it beforehand
- they will also provide you with a travel crib (playpen), again make sure to request it
- the medical facility, unfortunately, our daughter got sick so we had to make use of it - but they were quite good and at least i would imagine that it's up to US standards

The only negative was cost as she cost as much as an adult 3rd person. As well, not sure if you were hoping to go in the water, but most cruiselines will not allow infants into the pools unless they are toilet trained.

hope that helps.

WOW. Thanks a lot for those tips. I never even thought of that stuff - great to know! So wait, the cruise ship charges for a baby???? I guess because I know babies fly free, I didn't think of paying for her accomodations. Eeks.

[ceely]

We did some excursions, such as seeing the Volcanoes etc, I just used the baby carrier and had her strapped to my chest. We went with another couple, and the only issue with excursions we had was me and the other guy went golfing, and my wife took our daughter to the beach. The next day, she went with the couple to Ziplining, and I stayed with my daughter on the boat/beach etc. THat's one of the sacrifices we had to make. It would have been nice to go ziplining together.

We didn't stay on the boat at all, we brought along our travel stroller, and went off the boat at each stop, we even rented a car in Maui and drove to different areas. We just made sure rental company had car seats available (which they did).

My daughter did eat SOME table foods (like rice), but really not much. She was a picky eater. She ate a lot of the bottled food (like the veggies and pasta, etc), and the bottled fruit, as well as her stage 2 cereal. All the restaurants were great with having us warm up her food in their microwave, and with the cereal, all you need is hot water.

Mexico, we didn't really do any excursions as we have been there many times. But just found it much less convenient then on the cruise.

Good to know. I will consider this when deciding on the location of the cruise.