Baby travel and weaning: 5-7 months, still easy to travel. The destinations could get more adventurous than with babies under 6 months – even tropical, as long as babies are properly creamed and kept in the shade. Enjoy the last couple of months of reduced mobility parents, soon you will be kept fit and on the top of your toes! We ventured ourselves to the Caribbean – great holiday enjoyed by all parties. Liguria for Easter – another great one to top up on Yum Genovese focaccia and Piedmonte wines. Bucharest for friends and grandparents. Followed by Cornwall for parents and wide skies.
Few considerations: weather, proximity, facilities. Hotel versus flats, full basis versus a la carte, babysitting available, extent to which parents could enjoy the evenings and some grown up time, extent to which hotel could prepare baby meals, if in a flat high chair, blender, fridge & freezer.
Tested destinations:
Oxford – Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisions
Packing lists, baby travel and weaning tips: Add to the Yummy mummy bag an already made pouch or little pot prepared by yourself. I found puréeing fruit and vegetables very easy and froze little pots. When travelling we used a special bag where little pots last for 24 hours frozen and once arrived at destination put them again in a freezer. Initially the frozen pots mainly consisted of puréed fruit (pear, apple, mango) and carrots. Around 5.5 months the frozen little pots ensured the baby had enough protein and the right vegetables, I concentrated on carrots, parsnip, chicken, salmon and cod. Found this great especially when combining it with fresh grated fruit and mashed items (banana or avocado) to make sure the baby palate is exposed to a variety of flavours and balanced in terms of nutrition. Also very handy when you are picking less baby friendly destinations or a flat – for us and a couple of months represented quite an ideal and quick solution for good & balanced baby diet.
To the previous check-in luggage list, add your little container for frozen little pots, a couple of bibs (one plastic) and a couple of baby spoons for baby travel and weaning. Also for checked in section, for Caribbean we added baby rice – you are introducing the little one to lots of novelties so they could use something they are familiar with in the morning. As a general observation most hotels are happy to blend fruit and vegetables and when renting a flat you could grate or mash with a fork.
Criteria & considerations when choosing the holiday:
After 5 months also found sleeping with the baby in the same room fine, especially that he was sleeping through the night in most of the occasions. A living area though and terrace are v useful however, if baby is going to sleeping 7pm -7am, parents could really enjoy themselves over nice dinners, movies, socializing and so. My suggestions for 5-7 months babies & travelling would therefore include:
– cool hotel or flat, with separate living area.
– freezer quite important for us.
– baby cot goes without saying.
– if renting a flat, ideally a baby chair for meals – less mess.
– pool doesn’t need to be heated any-longer, a grown up acceptable temperature would do.
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