Forum : Mums

oh no, what a difficult situation.
i have never been abroad let alone with children so i dont know a great deal from personal experience, but people do do it all the time, so you will manage with the baby being in another country. regarding the feeding, as i say dont know a lot from personal experience, but it is going to be (if you are formula feeding) what water you use - presumably you need bottled water - to make up the feeds and then you'll need to take enough formula powder to get you through, you'll also need sterilising equipment, clothes, toys, nappies etc. how much is obviously going depend on how long you are going to be there. it would of course be much easier if you are breastfeeding! plus if baby is weaning at that point (earliest you can wean is 17 weeks) then that is another consideration about food, equally if you leave baby behind and go though and s/he is weaning your husband is going to need to know what to do. in all honesty though, i dont know if i could leave a 4 month old and go away, but it is your sister's wedding so such a hard situation!
by 4mths old your baby shouldnt be costing you a fortune, it'll only be food and perhaps the next stage of clothes so hopefully that will be ok and your baby wont have to go without.
i really feel for you, not an easy situation to be in. x

Hi, goodness me! I lived in thailand for a year when I was 19 and I think that maybe your sister should rethink! Its a wonderful place BUT it takes a few days at least to get used to the climate change and the food, chances are that you will get a dicky tummy, like livi's mummy said you would have to use bottled water and you'd have to check the mineral content in the water, and some contain sodium so you'd have to be careful about that.
Also its the rainy season - its usually torrential rain which floods the streets but then its sunny again straight afterwards!
My friend took both her babies abroad from a young age but they only went to greece or spain, thailand is a lot different, plus there's the long haul flight with stops inbetween.
I think you'd probably need to speak to somebody who had been on a long haul to asia with a baby to get better advice really but personally I don't think I'd do it!
Sorry if that comes across as negative but I wouldn't take a young baby to thailand, but having said that I probably wouldn't have braved spain with a young baby either!
Maybe speaking to the travel agent who she booked the wedding through would help, they must have advice for people travelling with young babies.
Good luck! :-))xx

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/travel/

Hi, I personally wouldn't take a 4 month old to Thailand, but if you are going to I would definitely try to exclusively breast feed as it will be really difficult to feed the baby otherwise. It is difficult to find bottled water in the UK that has low enough sodium content to use so if you get to Thailand and can't find any or can't read the bottles then you would be a bit stuck. I don't think you can even take the ready made cartons abroad anymore due to terrorism restrictions. I'd also be worried about the risk of infections and the heat as 4 month old babies can regulate their body temperature. To be honest, I think your sister is being a bit selfish asking you. I'm guessing she's not got kids yet else I don't think she would ask you!! You may feel o.k. about leaving the baby with your other half but unfortunately you won't know how you will feel until after the birth. With my first, I didn't even leave her to nip to the shops for weeks as I just didn't feel like I wanted to as i wanted to be with her every minute!! Whereas with my second, I was much more relaxed and realised when I was in a shop that I had left him with his dad for the first time without even thinking about it (I felt terrible afterwards!).