Top Tips for Holidays with a Baby/Toddler

It's that time of year when many of us are turning our attention to holidays or overnight stays away from home. We've been lucky enough to go away since having the boys both in this country and further afield by plane. Whilst it's exciting to get a change of scene, hopefully some guaranteed sunshine and a break from the routine, I know it can be really daunting as well. I'd thought I'd take you back to one particular holiday where we had a bit of a longer flight and I was also 30 weeks pregnant. 

We booked to go to Dubai, as I was craving somewhere warm and sunny as well as family friendly. We decided to use a travel agent for the first time because we had so many questions about travelling with a toddler and google just seemed a bit chaotic when we tried to find answers. We booked our trip with independent travel agent Lauren Povey who was an invaluable help to us, being a specialist in family holidays but also a mum herself. 

We booked to stay in the JA Palm Tree Court Hotel which is a little out of the Dubai city but only a 40 minute drive from the airport and without having the city to look at from the beach it really did feel quite tropical. We confirmed a taxi transfer with a car seat from the airport on arrival and made sure to agree an early check in as our flight would get in at 8am. 

The only thing we needed to do now was get there. On an 8 hour night flight. With a toddler. Help!

THE FLIGHTS

I lost sleep over the idea of flying long haul with a toddler so I thought I would put a list of what we packed and how it worked so that you don’t have to lose any sleep like me!

Even though Alfie didn’t have his own seat, British Airways still allowed him his own luggage, a buggy, a carseat and hand luggage so we didn’t have to squeeze all his stuff into our bags. It is worth checking with your airline about their rules way in advance of you packing just to make sure. 

Hand Luggage for the plane - one bag each. All filled with stuff for him! 

• Snacks - one of the most essential things for any length of flight but for long haul do not underestimate the importance of snacks! We packed organix bars, melty sticks, fruity pouches, breadsticks, you name it we had it!
• Dummy - this helped his ears on takeoff and landing but if they don’t use a dummy you can use a pouch or anything that encourages them to swallow such as sucking their thumb.
• Water Beaker - this can also help with ears popping but Alfie also drank so much water on the flight and the crew were so helpful at filling it up for us.
• Milk Bottle - if needed. I didn’t realise until we got there but you are actually allowed to take liquids for babies through security but if like me you didn’t know that you can also get starbucks to fill up the bottle with warm milk free of charge which was great.
• ipad/tablet - fully charged, with pre downloaded shows on it. Lots of them. Alfie likes to chop and change his mind every 5 minutes so having a big selection was great. He didn’t sit and watch whole movies but it was a good distraction and way to keep him still (sometimes) if we needed to. I’d also recommend a childproof case for it as many many times it was thrown on the floor!! 
• Headphones - again, it was hit and miss whether Alfie would wear them for very long but it was definitely worth having them and I would recommend practicing with them at home or in the car a bit before you travel so they can get used to them and understand what they do. 
• Sleeping bag - for us we found this really helpful as it signalled to him that it was sleep time, and also preventing him from running away too fast!!
• Pillow - we brought a thin pillow that we could bunch up in various positions to make sleep a little more comfortable. Definitely not essential as the plane do have pillows but we found this helpful to have our own one that is a little more familiar to him.
• Change of clothes - hopefully you don’t have any reason to change their whole outfit on the plane but you never know and you wouldn’t want to get caught short with a poonami without any backup clothes. Also worth packing a change of top for you in case!! 
• Fully stocked nappy bag - its a tight squeeze in those airplane toilets to change a nappy so I would advise taking the nappy and wipes into the cubicle rather than the whole bag as there just isn’t the space.
• Selection of toys - we didn’t bring loads but a separated out little paw patrol figures, farm animals and cars into little bags so he could get them out and play with them some at a time rather than emptying the entire thing. I made sure he hadn’t seen them before the flight so they were all new and that definitely kept him quiet for a while. I used mesh bags to separate the toys in which he loved to get out each day in the hotel but also on the plane.
• Books - not many but a few to keep them focused on something when they need to be strapped to you during take off and landing and various points on the flight. Books with flaps to lift and things to do are definitely a good idea. 

Our flight there was a night flight departing at 8.40pm. Of course we didn’t actually take off until 9.30pm, and I definitely hadn’t even thought there might be delays but thankfully it wasn’t too long. I naively thought that because Alfie was exhausted he would fall asleep pretty quickly on the flight but oh no! He was absolutely wired and over stimulated for the first two hours and I completely panicked thinking this would be it all night! We were able to take our buggy right to our seats as we have a BabyZen Yo Yo that folds up small enough to be counted as hand luggage. We booked a bassinet seat at the back of the plane in the hope that they would fill the plane from the front first and there might be a spare seat lurking in the back, and it worked in our favour so we had a row of 3 which was amazing. he obviously didn’t go in the bassinet, or the toddler seat that BA kindly put up for us but it was great having the extra space being in that front row so I recommend booking that seat even if you know they won’t sleep in the cot. 

After two hours of pulling our hair out trying to get him to sit still and not run off down the aisle, he started to calm down and we put the sleeping bag on him and encouraged him to watch some peppa pig on the ipad. His eyes started drooping and we crossed everything. He fell asleep in his own seat with the pillow propped up against the arm rest so he looked semi comfortable and thankfully he stayed asleep from 11.30pm for the duration of the flight. He would stir occasionally so went from sleeping in the chair, to on my lap which was not terribly comfortable with a bump but as long as he stayed asleep I wasn’t complaining! 

The flight on the way back was a daytime flight. I was terrified because I knew we wouldn’t be so lucky to get him to sleep most of the way but we had to get home somehow so we packed all the same things back in our hand luggage and again got super lucky with a spare seat at the back of the plane by the bassinet section. We had to get up pretty early to leave the hotel so he was already overdue a nap by the time we boarded the plane at 10.30am but of course he wanted to run round and go crazy when we got to our seats. We had learned by that point that the airline crew just don’t mind and there was apparently 22 babies/toddlers booked on the flight so we knew we weren’t the only ones to be causing chaos which was felt oddly reassuring. 

We didn’t strap him onto our laps until the very last minute and got out some books and toys for him to play with by our feet beforehand. This seemed to calm him a lot which was great. The iPad was used to keep him on our laps and once we put the sleeping bag on him he actually started to get sleepy which we were thrilled about so we transferred him to his own seat and he slept for a dreamy hour and a half … but that was it. We weren’t going to get any more from him so the rest of the 5 hours of the flight were pretty hectic I’m not going to lie.

Every snack was offered, every toy was played with, every book was read over and over again and we just had to take it in turns to follow him up and down the aisle. No one minded, or at least not outwardly so we just let him do his thing and occasionally he would sit down and watch ten minutes of paw patrol to allow us to chill for a second but we were so grateful to hear the “cabin prepare for landing” eventually! Everyone was so nice, the airline staff didn’t mind about the mess we had caused or the chaos at every toddler row so we didn’t feel any pressure to keep him in his seat (although that would have been nice!!) and we made friends with other parents in the same position as us! Nothing like bonding over the chaos of parenting hey?!
 

We were very grateful to have the Yo Yo buggy so we didn’t have to wait for ages at the other end for the buggies to be collected from the plane, we felt pretty smug pushing ours past all the parents waiting I have to say and with some stroke of luck our suitcases all appeared within minutes of arrival at baggage collection so it all ended well but blimey flying with a toddler is a workout and a half!! Totally worth it of course, but we just didn’t quite anticipate the lack of rest or even just sitting still!! 

THE HOTEL

Of course it was a family friendly hotel, we made absolutely sure of that so there were plenty of shady places and even a kids pool that was covered but there was never any guarantee that Alfie would stay playing in the shade, or keep his hat on so it was the factor 50 police over here and i am proud to say that there was no sunburn for the entire holiday! 

We used Childs Farm suncream on him which worked very well, and didn’t cause his skin to flair up as it can be quite sensitive sometimes. 

EATING

Being in a hotel is always such a luxury, not having to cook or clean, and this is one the main reasons I was so excited to stay where we stayed. We booked the all inclusive package and I am so glad that we did. Alfie eating in restaurants for every meal, when he is a pretty fussy kid, did fill me with dread but I was so pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. He ate amazingly! We were able to give him a selection of foods without worrying about wasting food or money and it meant that he tried so many new things. He also loves people watching, and waving, so eating out was such fun for him and it kept him happy in his highchair for much longer than usual. 

Once one child was spotted having an ice lolly by the pool it was pretty impossible to stop them all wanting one so we didn’t stress over that, we just made sure to try and stay away from them before lunch and before his nap as the sugar kick really did make a difference. 

We obviously tried to keep his diet as balanced as possible offering lots of fruit and veggies at every meal but the reality is that sometimes his meal was chips and pasta and that’s ok. It’s your holiday too so don’t spend your time worrying about him not eating his broccoli. The nice thing was that we ate every meal together so he would try what we were eating and copy us which is something that just isn’t easy to do at home everyday. 

We always carried those beloved snacks around with us as a backup in case a meal went totally pear shaped and they were great to have by the pool as all that swimming is hungry work and he seemed to want a lot more. 

Every evening we would take two milk bottles to the restaurant and ask them to fill them up with cows milk, we would then put one in the sink filled with hot water to warm it up for before bed and then other in the fridge to do the same in the morning when he woke. We used boiling water from the kettle to wash them but also the restaurants were more than happy to wash them out for us too.

SLEEPING

One of the most asked things has been about his sleep, and I was the same before we went too. What on earth do you do with their sleep? Well, Dubai was 4 hours ahead which actually worked in our favour for the first day or two when he was still jet lagged as he fell asleep in the buggy whilst we were having dinner and then slept in a little bit for us which is unheard of with this kid!! The other nights he stayed awake for dinner with us and we learnt not to dilly dally as we only had a limited time before he had had enough of sitting in his highchair and wanted to go to sleep, often overtired so not keen on the buggy either!! His bedtime was later than at home but he would then sleep in a little later in the morning so it evened out in the end and meant that we could enjoy our evening dinner as well. He slept in what he would wear at home as the air conditioning meant that it wasn’t hot in the room. 

We used the buggy for all day time naps and because that meant they weren’t quite as long as they would be in the cot, we made sure to give him two naps a day to help him get through. 

This was a typical day on holiday for us …

7:00 - wake up and milk in the room

7:30 - head to breakfast 

8:30 - all sun creamed up and at the pool playing and exploring

10:00 - into the buggy for a walk around the hotel to help him drop off to sleep. He would usually have about 30/40 minutes and then naturally wake. 

11:00 - more playing, swimming, snacks by the pool

12.30 - lunch at one of the restaurants in the hotel 

13:30 - more playing to let him burn off some energy and let his food settle

14:30/15:00 - Back in the buggy for an afternoon nap, he would often do a little longer for this nap so maybe around an hour. 

16:00 - ice lolly by the pool, swimming, playing on the beach

17:00 - back to the room for bath time and another snack to help him make it to dinner

18:30 - as soon as the restaurant opens we were there, and ordered his food immediately! 

20:00 - Ask the waiters to fill up his bottle with milk and take it back to the room for PJs and milk 

20:30 - Bedtime for Alfie and we would watch a film or series with earphones in

I can hand on heart say that the Snoozeshade saved the holiday for us as it made sleep possible both in the room and in the buggy. We used to snooze shade for the travel cot so that it meant we could still move around the room with the bedside lights on and not disturb him which was great, and in the day the snooze shade for the buggy helped keep the sun off him and also the wind. 

If you use CHARLIEBARKER you can get 10% off your snoozeshade. 

We also took our white noise machine and plugged it in right next to the cot so it would drown out any other noise in the room whilst we were getting ready for bed etc. 

We weren’t strict with timings as such, however we did enforce those two naps sometime in the morning and sometimes after lunch as we realised quickly that it was the only way to ensure that he would make it to dinner in one piece. We adjusted the times depending on how he was in the day but those two naps were essential for him.

GETTING AROUND

We chose not to bring a car seat with us, although you are entitled to on most flights. We discovered an app called ‘Careem’ in Dubai where you can specifically order “Kids cars” that all come with car seats fitted so we used that if we left the hotel (which wasn’t often!!) and then booked our airport transfers through the hotel. 

It was handy to have to Yo Yo buggy for getting in and out of taxis too as it is so easy to fold up and pop in the boot or even by our feet if needs be. 

CHILDCARE

We made sure that the hotel had a creche that would take children under 2 years old as many hotels in Dubai were only for 4 years and above. The creche facilities were incredible, brand new and super clean with the kindest staff working in there. We booked Alfie into the creche for a few hours on two afternoons and he had a great time, whilst we enjoyed a bit of time to just chat to each other without having to have eyes in the back of our head and one of us running after a toddler who was heading towards the pool! They had babysitting on offer too but we didn’t make use of that. My overriding advice on childcare is to do your research on the options, and if you do decide to use it make sure you don’t spend the entire time feeling guilty about it. It’s your holiday too and you totally deserve some time to relax so if you feel happy to make use of the childcare facilities then that is great! 

I hope that this has been helpful for you, and hasn’t scared you off booking your trip. Going on holiday with a baby or toddler is a whole different experience but the good bits really outweigh the challenges I promise. We made some amazing memories and Alfie had the time of his life which was just wonderful to see!