Warming Bottles At Wdw!!

[mrsminniemouse]

Hello everyone!

We are off to WDW on Friday 5 December with our 6 month old baby. I am soooo excited!!!

I just wanted to ask, what is the situation for getting bottles warmed in restaurants and other places? Will they warm it in hot water for me? Not sure because obviously hot water is a health and safety issue.

Also, I am not sure what to do about baby food. Cannot decide whether to carry jars of food that can be eaten cold, or to buy the dried stuff that you add boiled water or milk to.

We are travelling from England so wont bring a full 14 days supply but will visit the big Publix near Celebration instead probably. I am very excited about baby shopping in American shops for diapers etc, your shops have much more exciting stuff than ours!!!

Mandy xxxxxxxxx

I have been checking the forecast, weather looks good so far........

 

[jenny2]

I didn't have any problem getting a glass of very warm water to warm the babies bottle up in! Some restaurants actually brought a large glass of quite hot water. We travelled with our 7 month old and brought jars of food. If they needed to be warmed I just put them in the glass with the bottle, or would stop by the baby care center and warm it up there first. Luckily my DS wasn't too picky about eating the food cold, lol!

Good luck!!

 

[Desnik]

We are just back with our 8mo. Use the baby care centers in each park. They are wonderful and have everything you need to feed and change a baby. They even sell anything you may have forgotten. I just made sure I warmed the bottle or fed the baby before we sat down to eat at a restaurant. Made for a more pleasurable time for me! I also bought baby food in jars with me from home. DS eats these without needing it warmed so this was easier for us.
Good luck and have fun!

 

[NotUrsula]

A largish plastic coffee mug is a good thing to have in your bag for meals. Ask the restaurant to fill it halfway with hot water, then put your bottles/jars in it to warm. At food courts, just fill it halfway w/ water and heat it for one minute in the microwave, and again, set the bottles inside. (Don't microwave the food itself, it might get too hot.) You want a sort of squat-shaped mug, especially if you use Avent bottles. If the outer part of the contents gets very warm to the touch, then stirring it up/swirling it round should make it just right throughout. (Note that the waitstaff will not normally warm the food for you, because they are generally not allowed to bring outside food into the kitchen, but they will get you hot water at no charge, so that you can warm the food at table yourself.)

Americans are very fond of large insulated coffee mugs, they are widely available, even at petrol stations. I have a 22 oz. insulated mug that I got for $2 at WalMart in the automotive section; it is sitting on my desk right now. It would be perfect for the purpose, it has a snap-off sip cover, a wide base and a rubber pad on the bottom to stop it sliding on the table. The wider-shaped Refillable mugs from the resorts will work as well, but are a little bit taller; you would have to reach your hand down inside a bit to retrieve the containers.

Just a note about the parks. Glass drink/food containers are generally forbidden, but they make exceptions for baby food jars. US baby-food ranges have lately switched to little plastic tubs for some of their products, especially fruits and such; much lighter to carry around.

 

[BevS97]

I hate warming bottles in tubs of hot water, it takes ages, and more than once I've seen a baby knock over v. hot water.

my eldest dd was very amenable and drank room temp bottles. dd2 is not so helpful, so what i do is fill her bottles with very hot water (i usually have one warm and the rest near boiling) and put them in a cool bag - this keeps the water hot, then i measure my powder out into a plastic tub - mothercare do one specifically for this purpose, or if you use SMA you can get pre-measured sachets. then at feed time, i get the bottle containing warm water, add the powder, and hey presto, instant warm bottle.

bev

 

[mrsminniemouse]

Thank you everyone for replying. We are taking a travel kettle for the room and Jennifer will take room temp formula so we should be ok.

Bev, we also use SMA Gold and are taking a tin for in the room plus sachets for when we are out. I have the dispenser pot too. I know SMA Gold is available in Walgreens and Walmart under another name, Parents Choice I think, so I can get more if we run out. We too carry water and add powder later, I sometimes tip a bit of cool water out and top up with boiling to get a nice temperature if I have access to boiling water.

I agree, heating jars in water takes forever. I might take powder meals when we are out and add hot water.

I am a bit concerned to read we wont be able to take our stroller into restaurants, I had not thought of this. We have no car seat on our buggy (I dont approve of these types of strollers being used for more than an hour or so, bad for the baby's back plus poor little things look so scrunched up in them) Jennifer cannot sit up yet so the wooden highchairs wont be much use. Does anyone know which restaurants have the infant style highchairs? We have a dinner booked at Crystal Palace and I think someone said they have them there.

Hope you have a great trip. We are going to Windsor Palms next May. Cannot wait to hear what you think of it!!

Mandy xxxx

 

[NotUrsula]

"I hate warming bottles in tubs of hot water, it takes ages"

That's really interesting that you both think that. How hot was the water? I always heated DS' milk that way even at home, and I always used water that was at a full boil. By the time I got DS settled on my lap, the bottle was always plenty warm. I found that refrigerated breast milk warmed for 90 seconds in right-off-the-boil water was just right, with formula it took more like 3 minutes. Jars of room-temp food were usually OK after 4 minutes when they were stirred.

Hot water that you are given in a restaurant will normally be drawn off the water supply to the coffee urns; tap temperature on those machines is right about 200F. The water from the coffeemaker in your hotel room is probably going to be a little less hot; probably around 180-185F. The reason that I recommended an insulated mug is that it helps to keep the temp high long enough to heat the bottle.

Keeping the hot water well away from baby's reach goes without saying, of course.

 

[Jen117]

Chef Mickeys has infant style chairs. That is the only one that we ate at that did. However, several others allow strollers. Just ask. The Biergarten and Liberty Tree allow them. Also, Ohana's at the Poly asked if we had a stoller for our 6 month old and we could have brought it into the restaurant if we had it. It never hurts to ask first and it is much easier for you.

 

[BevS97]

NotUrsula, I would say I have waited upto 10 minutes to get a bottle of refridgerator cold milk warm. Of course, I can't say quite how hot the water was because I just ask for a mug of water in a restaurant and it comes out at whatever temp they give me, it's not usually boiling though. I haven't done it for a long time though, because I really prefer my "mix up the bottle at feed time" method for lots of reasons, the main one being that I don't have to worry about how long we are out and how cold the bottles are staying, also when dd is hungry, she is hungry NOW and any wait to warm the bottle seems like too long

know SMA Gold is available in Walgreens and Walmart under another name, Parents Choice I think, so I can get more if we run out

Thanks for that tidbit, that is VERY useful. I was just planning on buying any formula and hoping my baby would be ok with the change, my eldest dd never minded a change in formula, so I wasn't too worried, but if I can get the same stuff then even better!


We have taken a stroller into a restaurant before, when my dd was 3, she was asleep though, and rather than wake her, they just let us wheel her right in. I think it really depends on how busy the restaurant is, and whether there is space for the stroller without blocking aisles. I agree with you on the carseat, I do have a travel system, but we will only use it occassionally. I am also planning on taking a sling (not a Baby Bjorn, although I have one of those too, but an actual sling), I find I can hold dd in the sling and still eat my dinner quite comfortably.

We took those packets of dry food to Majorca with us when my dd was 8 months, and in the end we used very little of them as she mostly ate food from our plates mashed up, or finger foods. 6 months is a bit younger, so she may not be ready for mashed food just yet (I can't remember, it all seems so long ago..)

Bev

 

[Desnik]

You most certainly can take strollers into any restaurant at WDW parks!!! We just did this with DS who is 8mo. All we did was say we need to bring our stroller in and they said no problem! I was already with an excuse and they said no need, he's an infant of course you can bring in the stroller. I said he can't sit up on his own yet. All they do is seat you at a table that can accomadate 1 more than you have in your party. They remove that 1 chair and you put the stroller there. We saw lots of parents of infants on this trip and they were doing the same thing. No way could you eat with a baby in a carrier on you! Your food would be on the kids head!! I guess a sling would be better. Also we saw parents with their infants in the car seat that fits into the stroller. My little guy still fits in his infant carseat, but I also think it is not good for too many hours, especially since we drove and he was in it for a long time. At rest stops I would give him baby massages!

 

[BevS97]

No way could you eat with a baby in a carrier on you! Your food would be on the kids head!! I guess a sling would be better

What a funny image I;ve just had- you are right a carrier wouldn't work at all, with the sling, my dd (and she's only 11 weeks, so quite small), just lies across my lap, and the sling holds her so I have both hands free to eat. When she is having a fussy evening I eat quite often like this.