Travel

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Marnie's recommendations on travel

Based on my experiences, I would recommend:
* make yourself a VPPS - a very portable potty system is compact, light and takes the pressure off finding a toilet in a place you don't know well. Especially handy to have when the baby MUST go now and you are in the midst of nasty turbulence on the plane. There is a pic and description of our VPPS here.

* carry the VPPS with you at all times - I thought we wouldn't need it on one flight - but you would have laughed and laughed at us trying to juggle baby, airsick bag and disposible all the while with baby in child restraint and big turbulence. (Baby refused to go in the disposible! Clever baby LOL so I finally held her over the sickbag and then put the dipe in the bag to absorb the moisture...)

* take training pants rather than dipes if you have them (they are smaller to pack, quicker to dry)

* wash as you go - I washed by hand every night - or sooner if there was the slightest opportunity. They dried over night where we were.

* lay everything out on the bed that you think you will need - then halve it. You can always buy something if you desperately need it wherever you go.

* make sure you have a comfortable sling and that you know all the different wearing options.

* plan to do MUCH less than you would if you were travelling on your own or with adults only - and include playground time and similar to give the baby a chance to relax as well

* EC while away from the distractions of home always was much easier for us; I would hate to have jeopardised it by using disposibles.

* travel with another amiable adult, not one who will be stressed by everything taking twice as long as it "should"

* make plans for your trip then be prepared to make serendipitous alterations - the unplanned moments of our trips have been among the most memorable (eg last trip I had thought to go to some museums in Frankfurt - but DD#1 was so enchanted by the white swans that we sat and watched them all one afternoon - and went back to draw them again the next day - and the next! :-)

Another recommendation

We have traveled on 2 occasions on a plane now and my dd is almost 9mo. My best advice is just to take him/her as you would at home and still give opportunities. I would definately make sure they have some sort of a diaper on though as you may have to wait in line or may not be close enough to a bathroom if they have to go.

I have never held my dd in the "positions" only sat her on the bblp or the regular toilet with either me sitting behind her or just holding her there. I have since picked up a folding potty seat that folds up small enough to fit in my purse or diaper bag and that has seemed to give her more security.

However, bathrooms are more distracting for her as there are other people flushing, hand dryers and automoatic flushers going off. So she will go if she really has to, otherwise she is more interested in other things going on around her. We had a lot more misses on the days that we traveled, but I didn't worry about it too much and she got back on track pretty easily.

Have fun with your travels!