Tips/Advice: International travel with a 13 month old

mkp988

My husband and I are taking our son (who will be 13 months at time of travel) to the Dominican Republic at the end of February. Looking for advice since we have never traveled in an airplane with a child! Tips on strollers- Best lightweight stroller to use, but would like it to have a nice canopy for shade since it will be 85 + degrees. Bringing a car seat? He will be on whole milk- Do they have whole milk in punta cana?? How to distract him and keep him happy for a 4hr flight!!!!??!!! help!!

Sascha3

We just went to Anguilla for 2 weeks last month!  We are in Vegas, so it was a 5 hour overnight flight to Ft Lauderdale, a 5 hour layover in the airport, a 3 hour flight to St Maarten and a 30 minute ferry boat to Anguilla.  And a taxi to the ferry and then to the hotel.  It sucked!  Honestly, the only time she was bad on the plane was the second hour of our redeye.  She was tired but too hyper to sleep.  She eventually fell asleep, but woke up for the layover and couldn't go back to sleep.  She only got about 5 hours that night.  But she was shockingly in a good mood and very happy and smily.  I think she was just so interested by what was going on.  The worst part of travel is ALLLLLL the equipment.  We gate checked our stroller and carseat.  We have the Inglesina Zippy...very lightweight umbrella stroller.  And we knew we would be in a couple taxis and have a few days where we rented a car, so we brought the carseat.  The airplane was much easier because my husband was with me.  The other 3 flights she has been on to visit family, I was alone with the baby and it was much harder.  Baby + stroller + carseat + diaper bag + luggage = not fun at all.

The first couple nights were pretty rough because there was a four hour time difference and she was cutting a tooth.  She went through way more formula than normal and we ended up running out near the end of the trip, and the island didn't sell Nutrimigen.  So she had a few days of regular formula.  I am sure they have whole milk.  Use BOTTLED water!  The water supply is just different and you don't want to deal with that. 

We brought a KidCo Peapod tent for her to sleep in, but the hotel had a crib.  She ended up in bed with us most nights, which we never do at home, but it helped her on the trip.  The Peapod came in VERY handy for beach time.  It is UV 50 protected, so we put her in her tent to play and take naps and keep her out of the sun.  We brought some small toys, but anything makes a toy at this age.  Little boxes, cups, the toilet paper she unraveled all over the room, haha.  Her clothes are so little that I packed extra for her, but we ended up having a washer and dryer in the villa so that was unnecessary.  I also packed a portable high chair because I didn't know if all of the restaurants would have high chairs.  It ended up being unnecessary except for one restaurant we went to, and of course we didn't bring it that time.

Other than the teething nights, she did amazingly well.  She was more social than I have ever seen her and so happy.  I attribute this to 2 things.  One, her daddy being there every day instead of working 70 hours a week.  And two, my daughter is OBSESSED with black women, haha.  She still cries every.single.time she sees her grandma and aunts, which is a couple times a month, and won't let them hold her, yet she will hold her arms out to any black woman she sees to hold her and she has a permanent smile.  Needless to say, she was the star of the resort that week and BFF's with every woman working there.

The flight home was a 24 hour nightmare because we took Spirit...not worth the $800 we saved in airfare.  They were so delayed leaving the island that they made us miss our connecting flight in Florida, which by the way took off ten minutes early, and then tried to say they couldn't get us on a plane for another 24 hours.  My husband refused to take no for an answer and finally got us on a flight to LA, then a hotel there then a flight back to Vegas in the morning.  I almost ran out of formula because of the extra 12 hours of travel time I didn't anticipate.  She slept most of the flights, thank god.  It was exhausting.  And they broke my stroller.

I'm sure you will have a great time.  Just be laid back and flexible.  Don't overschedule yourself with activities.  It was a perfect trip to take with a little one.  And probably the last one I will have for a while now that I am expecting twins, (not getting on an airplane with 3 babies!) so I am glad I soaked up every second:)

lp0

I've been to DR twice for weddings and won't be going back. The day before we left on the second trip I spent the entire day and night puking my brains out from contaminated food. There were 20 of us and more than half got sick. On the first trip I didn't get sick but others did. I dont mean to scare you but I wouldn't feed my ds anything from there. Even the fruit could be washed with contaminated water. If I were you I would bring jarred baby food and fruits and packaged snacks. They have milk there but it's very thin. I believe it's in powder form and they add water. I'd bring powdered formula and only use bottle water.

Brit's Luna154

My DD has traveled a ton. We took her to Australia, Europe, Morocco, and tons of 4+ hour cross country flights within the US. She has flown 48 times and probably 90% of those were "good" flights, but even on the bad ones, just remember that it is a finite period of time. Yes, the next 4 hours might suck, but 4 hours is not forever. A few things that I can think of to make your trip easier:

1. Pack light. We only do carry-on bags. H make room for a day worth of diapers and some toys in his bag and I make room for DDs clothes in my bag.
2. Skip the diaper bag. I use my purse as a purse/diaper bag. We bring 2-3 sippy cups and a 3 oz bottle of dish soap to wash them along the way. I can fit 2-3 sippy cups and 4-5 diapers + wipes in my purse and eliminate a bag. Since we carry on bags, I have DD's clothes and a ton of other diapers in our suitcases if I really need them.
3. Get a car seat "backpack". Wearing the car seat bag on your back frees up your hands. I pack the rest of the diapers that we need in the car seat bag. We have a JL Childress one that we bought on Amazon. I'm sure there are a ton of options out there.

Don't worry about milk. Almost everywhere you can buy that ultra-pasteurized shelf-stable milk. When in doubt, use that. In Morocco and Portugal I was able to buy that type of milk in single servings, kind of like juice boxes, but with milk. I squeezed those into sippy cups and could keep them at room temperature. Super convenient.

Most babies will sleep, at least a little bit, on an airplane because of the white noise. Other than that, we bring a book and maybe a toy or two, it hasn't been a huge problem to entertain DD on flights, just normal peek-a-boo, singing, clapping, etc.

 

ETA: Along the lines of LP's response, this may be a place where you need to be careful what you eat. I haven't been there, so I'm not sure, but you may choose to use typical food safety measures for you and your LO. As long as you follow basic guidelines, it shouldn't be a big deal. I lived in India in 2011 without getting sick. You just need to be vigilant.

1. Drink bottled water only.
2. Only brush your/LO's teeth with bottled water.
3. Do not eat any fruits or vegetables that are not either cooked or peeled. For example, bananas and oranges are safe, but apples are not unless you peel them. Similarly, uncooked lettuce is not safe to eat because it is washed with that water that you are not going to drink and tomatoes are also unsafe because they are not peeled.
4. Foods that are cooked are generally safe.
5. Baked goods are generally safe.
6. If the food vendor clearly does not have anywhere to wash their hands (i.e. food cart) do not eat the food.
7. Basically, use common sense.

mrs.larry

PP tips are good ones!

as for strollers - we traveled to hawaii (similar sun situation) with a MacLaren Volo when DS1 was 13 months old and it was great.

bring the carseat to the gate and ask if the flight is full, or if you MIGHT be able to pick up a spare seat to put your kid in, if you didn't buy him a ticket. I've done this and lucked out, and I've done it and been out of luck. if there's no extras, you can gate check the car seat.

Here are a couple of posts I've written about traveling with kids if you want to check out how I did it - both light and heavy:

https://alittlebarefoot.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/travel-tips-for-toting-tots/

https://alittlebarefoot.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/light-traveling/ - easy trip, one short flight and all carry-on luggage.

https://alittlebarefoot.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/burdened-travelers/ - longer trip with multiple modes of transport, tons of crap including sporting equipment, checked bags and all sorts of mayhem.

mkp988

Thank you everyone for your tips/advice. I hope everything goes smoothly!!

Brit's Luna154

mrs.larry:

As for strollers - we traveled to hawaii (similar sun situation) with a MacLaren Volo when DS1 was 13 months old and it was great.

We use a MacLaren Volo - it is probably the lightest weight stroller on the market. The sun shade leaves a bit to be desired, but I have hung a scarf/wrap over it to provide more shade.

That said, I don't know if I would buy a stroller just to travel with as ours has gotten pretty jacked up. Our first stroller got completely destroyed when we flew it to Australia. Our latest, the MacLaren Volo, is usable still, but has two bent axles from flying.

mrs.larry

Brit's Luna154:

mrs.larry:

As for strollers - we traveled to hawaii (similar sun situation) with a MacLaren Volo when DS1 was 13 months old and it was great.

We use a MacLaren Volo - it is probably the lightest weight stroller on the market. The sun shade leaves a bit to be desired, but I have hung a scarf/wrap over it to provide more shade.

That said, I don't know if I would buy a stroller just to travel with as ours has gotten pretty jacked up. Our first stroller got completely destroyed when we flew it to Australia. Our latest, the MacLaren Volo, is usable still, but has two bent axles from flying.

the padding on the handle on ours got torn the first time we flew with it. we fixed it with tennis racket grip tape... but it was kind of disappointing for a new stroller. I agree about not buying one just for travel... but then I would probably be even more mad if I'd travelled with a nice stroller and *it* got messed up...