Family vacations seem such a big deal to plan for especially with an infant in the equation.  Aside from the logistic concerns, I'm anxious whether he's old enough to travel by plane or long drives and for health reasons.  What did or do your doctors say about this?

Adrienne Sordi wrote:

We took Christian at 5 months to Rome. So that is an 8 hour flight going and a 10 hour flight back (tail wind). The experience was pretty good. We made sure we had plenty of food with us and the regular essentials in his diaper bag. We didn't bother giving him any drugs before flying since I am not a big fan of drugging my kid to make him sleep. We made sure there were plenty of toys with us and we kept him entertained. If you are going to Europe and your child is less than 25lbs you can request a bassinet for them to sleep in. You are also entitled to balkhead seats, they can kid out people that aren't with children or that have medical needs to give you a seat (we know this since that is what happened on the way back from Rome, they gave my child the bassinet and gave us the seats behind the balkheads)

I went to go see his Paed before we went to ask some questions. Mainly b.c I wanted to know if there was anything that I needed to be worried about. He said travelling is fine.

We ended up packing Christian's formula since buying formula in Italy is VERY expensive, and we used tap water to make the forumal (we did not boil the water). The Paed said the water in Italy and in Canada is the same (I can agree with that since I used to drink the water from the tap in Rome when I was little) and boiling clean water is a waste of time for a 5 month old.

Hope this helps,

 

Adrienne

 

Thanks Adrienne.  This is very insightful!  :)

Nina Sy wrote:Family vacations seem such a big deal to plan for especially with an infant in the equation.  Aside from the logistic concerns, I'm anxious whether he's old enough to travel by plane or long drives and for health reasons.  What did or do your doctors say about this?

We took our DD on vacation when she turned 6 months and then again when she was 16 months. Let me say how wonderful and easy that first trip was! We took her full sized stroller and are very happy we did. She stayed on schedule with her naps, was a dream on the plane and having the stroller she was used to napping in when we were out at home made it very easy to travel with her. Do it now! You won't want to once he starts walking- that's a whole other type of trip. Fun, yes, but relaxing? No way.