Questions on Cruising with an Infant

[shmoogrrrl]

We are sailing in March of 2003 and our wee one will be 10 months old. This is probably some of those naive new Mom questions, but I was curious about a few things.

1. How did most of you feed your wee ones? I am assuming that while Katie might be doing finger foods, she will still be eating the little bottles of baby food (since she is my first, I have no idea about when they eat what, other than the fact that in the next few months our Doc will tell us it is time to start giving her mushy stuff.). Did you feed your little ones before dinner, or bring the food and feed them there?

2. Is Flounder's Reef open during the days at sea so that we can get reservations for High tea and Brunch?

3. We wouldn't want to leave Katie on the ship while we went to do shore excursions, so if anyone has any experience or suggestions of excursions that are baby friendly, we'd love to hear them. We are doing the Western Cruise.

4. Is there a life jacket to fit a 10 month old?

 

[Mike Bartenhagen]

I will try and answer a few questions. I have 3 kids and usually have a hard time knowing when they are suppose to do what but my youngest is 8 months now so and eating the jar food. At 10 months she should still be eating the little jars of food. You could feed her when you eat or try and feed her before you go to supper but I think it will probably depend on when she is ready to eat. Flounders Reef is open on sea days. I am not sure about the excursions. There is a life jacket that will fit little ones.

When our youngest daughter was about a year old we took our first cruise and the best advice I could give you is to remember that although you are on vacation Katie will still want to take her naps even if there is something exciting happening at that time. She will still want to go to bed at the same time even if it means missing one of the shows, etc. Adults and even my 3 and 5 year olds can change their schedules pretty easy but I think it will be easier on all of you if you try and keep things as close to the way it is at home and you will all have a great time.

 

[GinaAnn]

They have infant lifejackets on deck. Just ask the CM working the drill at your station.
We needed one for our 1 yr old at the time and we were on the wonder.

 

[CamColt]

We cruised with an 8 month old. We packed the baby food in bubble wrap and fed him at his regular feeding times(which was before dinner, we had late seating). As for bottles(which he usually had at "dinner"), this isnt the most economical way, but I would think its the easiest. We bought the glass, ready made, nursette bottles of formula before we left home. Those are the ones they give you in the hospital. All we had to do when it was time for a bottle(6 a day) was pop off the top and stick on a nipple. We stuck the dirty nipple in a ziplock afterwards(if we were out) and just tossed the bottle. Washed all the dirty nipples when we had a chance. We didnt have to deal with mixing, measuring, keeping cold, warming up, pouring, etc... It worked very well. And all the room in our luggage for baby food and bottles was filled with souveniers on the way home.
As stated above, they do have life vests for little ones.
And we didnt use Flounders so I cant help you there.
As for sleeping, at that age, they will sleep just about anywhere when they need to. Ours always seemed to take a nap in the show and then be wide awake and happy for dinner, and a little longer after that.

 

[Mike Bartenhagen]

The ready mixed is a great idea but you may want to try it out before you go. Our two oldest children had no problem with it but for some reason my son always spit up a bunch more when we gave him this and it was a lot harder to get him to take it. I have no idea why this was he will eat Enfamil powder (with water of course) but the Enfamil that was already mixed does not agree with him.

 

[peg2001]

It would probably work out well to feed jarred food at the dining table while waiting for your food and then offering your 10-month-old finger foods (cheerios, tiny cubes of cheese, etc.) to play with and eat while you are eating. Most kids are ready for easy to eat finger foods by then. I heard that there is no cheerios onboard so you may want to plan to bring your own!

Peggy

 

[CamColt]

Eww, Mike, that sounds like fun. Coming from a parent of 1 child who had pyloric stenosis, and 1 who had reflux, I can appreciate not wanting any extra spitting up. Yick!

Peg, you are right. When we cruised with our little one there were no cheerios. Luckily there was a different version of them, I think it was the Kellogs brand of a similar cereal. However that was 2 years ago and on our more recent cruise, I wasnt looking for any, so I cant be sure if they still have those or not. maybe a mroe recent cruiser can confirm that they still have those.

 

[shmoogrrrl]

Thanks for all the advice! Katie is only 3 1/2 months now so it is hard for me to judge what she'll be like at 10 months! An entirely different little one probably!

As far as keeping her on schedule, that isn't a problem with us! This will be our fourth Disney Cruise so we've 'been there, done that' with most everything on board so if she needs to spend time in the cabin napping, that won't be a problem for us. More time on the Verandah for us!

We are also traveling with our good friends who have a Daughter that will be 15 months on the trip. That will make it easy to do things that the Kiddies can't take part in without having to put them in Flounders all the time because we can take turns with the guys watching the wee ones while we do girly things then switching for the guys to do stuff. We'll just have to worry about Flounders for our Palo night and High Tea and Brunch.

Thanks again!

Kathy