Would you take a 6 week old to Disney???

[cats7494]

I am glad you are rethinking the trip.
Personally I wouldn't do it - between the heat, humidity, germs... Compound that with an upcoming layoff - there is no way I would go.
I just had a baby 3 months ago and I would not take her.
Wait until the new baby is older so she/he can enjoy the trip too! JMO

 

[imsorry]

I would not do it. I wouldn't expose a baby that young to all those germs.
Also, the heat. I saw someone with a tiny baby the last time we were there. The baby was in a dark green carriage with the cover up to block the sun - I don't want to think how hot it was in there!

I would seriously consider waiting until the baby was a few months older. This is not a criticism - JMHO.

 

[kimmikayb]

Personally, the heat and germs can be dealt with. Don't let anyone slobber or sneeze on the baby, take frequent breaks in AC, plenty of fluids. Babies travel very easily at this age. Breaking the sleeping pattern? I wouldn't worry about that at all...at that age they want one of two things, fed or changed. Their cries are so small then I don't think it would disturb anyone. If you get tired, go nap with the baby. You're driving and that gets you off the crowded buses, in your own car. You can buy trip insurance and cancell if God forbid something goes wrong with you or the baby. Inducing at 38 weeks isn't a big deal anymore. I was induced at 38 weeks with all four of my kids (I have big babies). The doctors will know if an induction is fesible. If not and you go 40 weeks, you have the trip insurance, right? Hopefully you have a plan to deal with baby blues, sickness and any other obstacle.

Someone mentioned sunscreen....did the doctors change their minds and babies can use sunscreen now? I know we weren't suppose to when my kids were young. Not until what? 6 months?

I guess my concern is, your husband is being laid off and starting school. Only you know your financials but I would be scared to death to drop that kind of dough with the future you're looking at.

 

[katerkat]

Personally? I wouldn't. We took Russ to Great Adventure when he was about 13 weeks old and he was MISERABLE. It was only about 80º but he overheated very fast - we had him stripped down to a onesie and covered in damp burp clothes to try to cool him off. I was nursing and had to work doubly hard to stay hydrated enough for both of us. The heat made him grouchy, the constant everything overwhelmed him - not someonthing I would ever attempt again.

And I'm not against infants at Disney - heck, I took Russ to DL at 6 months old and we're going again at 21 months - but there's no way I'd attempt it under six months.

 

[wdwmom2]

I definately would not go to WDW, although I would really want to!!! The reason is because of viruses, bacteria, and the baby's immune system.

If an infant less than 2 months of age presents with a temp and there is no know cause, that infant will be subjected to a lumbar puncture, sterile urine catherization, and blood work. None of which sounds very appealing.

I know that all fevers don't mean that the infant has something bad, but doctors do not take these chances with little ones.

I did find alittle article for you if you would like to read it. There are many more articles if you want to Google. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3842882&dopt=Abstract I had had to assist with too many of these procedures to want to expose an infant unnesseccarily to something simple that may give him a temp. To me the risk just isn't worth it. I would probably wait till the baby was at least 4 months of age.

Just my $.02!!!!!!

 

[va32h]

If an infant less than 2 months of age presents with a temp and there is no know cause, that infant will be subjected to a lumbar puncture, sterile urine catherization, and blood work. None of which sounds very appealing.

Wow! My dr would consider that excessive. Two of my three children had fevers when they were very young babies and never received any of these procedures.

 

[wdwmom2]

Wow! My dr would consider that excessive. Two of my three children had fevers when they were very young babies and never received any of these procedures.

He must have found a cause for the temperature. As long as a cause is found, it very possibly can be avoided. But to take the chance of a baby having a blood infection, urinary tract infection, meningitis, you know, the serious stuff is just too high a risk. Really young infants with these problems if serious stuff!!!!

 

[wdwmom2]

va32h

I just called one of the peds that I work for to double check, it is the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics to do this full work up on infants less than 2 months of age that have a fever with an unknown cause. I know that it may sound like alot, but just to let it go could be wasting precious time that could make or break the situation if treatment can be started right away.

 

[Kallison]

I had three in four years and I was never comfortable traveling with them as infants. I don't think any of them went out into crowds until a minimum of 8 weeks and then it was very minimal. I would think ask your pediatrician, if he/she is okay with it and you want to then go. I guess it would also depend on the overall health of the baby. If the baby is severly jaundiced or something like that, it may not be good to travel. I always remember someone bringing their newborn (several weeks) into church one winter and just passing that baby around like crazy. The next week the baby was in the hospital, I always wondered if that was why. I'm just germ phobic in general, ask my middle school students.

 

[SunFloridaDisney]

If an infant less than 2 months of age presents with a temp and there is no know cause, that infant will be subjected to a lumbar puncture, sterile urine catherization, and blood work. None of which sounds very appealing.

Yep, unfortunately, that happened to us, with our youngest DD(11 now).
She was born in December, and when she was 3 weeks old, the week between Christmas and New Year's, we were out and about with her, not in Disney, but here in our hometown. She developed an ear infection, but the ped. didn't know that when I brought her in. He immediately had her admitted to Children's hospital, where I stayed with her for about 4 days while they did quite a few tests. Not a fun New Year's that year! Funny thing was, this was my #4 baby, I thought I had been through mostly everything by then, but if I ever had another, no way would I take them out in crowded public places until they were a bit older.

IMO, with that experience, I vote no. When the baby is a bit older, I personally would feel much better about it. We were there once when DS was 9 months old, it was great.

 

[WeLuvWDWx5]

I had my DS in late August, 2002, and his first trip to Disney was 6 weeks later in early October. We had a great time. I will admit that we only considered the trip because my DH had a conference there and we felt that our DD's (6 & 8 at the time) deserved a fun trip after being home all summer with a mommy in her 3rd trimester of pregnancy. It wasn't our most fun summer.

While there, we ran into friends of my DH's who were there with their 3 yr old and 7 week old DS. We both talked about how nervous we were to take the trip, but how happy we were since we were having such a great time. We both really needed some family fun.

I will admit that it depends on the baby. We were lucky that our DS was our best baby (although that has changed since he has become a toddler). Since I had a c-section, I would go back to the room often with DS when I needed to rest, while my husband took the girls swimming or just remained longer at the parks.

Goodluck with your decision. It definitely worked out great for us. By the way, I had the blessing of my pediatrician as long as I kept him out of the sun. While it was still hot in Florida, he never seemed uncomfortable and actually slept better from being outdoors so much.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

FWIW--the whole heat and humidity thing--we have baby's in the state of Florida everyday and our babies do just fine.

There are ways to deal with an infant and heat without schlepping back to the hotel room. Between a/c'd stores, a/c'd attractions and the a/c'd baby centers--not an ideal trip--but you figure you'd probably be stopping frequently anyway to feed junior--easy enough in a/c for a cool down break.

dress them in a onesie--keep them shaded and they are good to go.

(I could have sworn I posted earlier--so I may be in the twilight zone--or this is a duplicate post. If the latter--my apologies!)

 

[poohandwendy]

I just wanted to clarify, the only reason I mentioned the idea of hurricanes is that it **could** present issues regarding water, electricity (AC) and travel. I knwo that we had a very hard time getting gas when all of the local stations ran out. We actually did run out of gas in a gas station parking lot. It was a nightmare because we were out of our element, ie did not know the vicinity. Luckily, we did not have any young children to deal with. Then, we could not get a hotel room until the wee hours of the morning after we finally hit Jacksonville. We were just exhausted.

Just something to consider because it is not out of the realm of possibility to run into weather related issues when travelling to Florida during tropical storm/hurricane season.

Yes, people deal with it every year...but locals definitely have the advantage of preparedness, being in their own homes/element, local resources and knowing their way around.

 

[Aidensmom]

FWIW--the whole heat and humidity thing--we have baby's in the state of Florida everyday and our babies do just fine.

There are ways to deal with an infant and heat without schlepping back to the hotel room. Between a/c'd stores, a/c'd attractions and the a/c'd baby centers--not an ideal trip--but you figure you'd probably be stopping frequently anyway to feed junior--easy enough in a/c for a cool down break.

dress them in a onesie--keep them shaded and they are good to go.

(I could have sworn I posted earlier--so I may be in the twilight zone--or this is a duplicate post. If the latter--my apologies!)

I had the same thoughts. There are thousands of infants who live in FL, the heat IS something that can be overcome.

 

[jajuan]

Sorry if I am repeating things that have been said before. I didn't have time to read all of the posts. I have 4 children and they all 4 went between 2 and 4 months. My first trip to WDW was planned before I knew I was pregnant. It involved a lot of people so I went ahead with my plans. Disney is so wonderful providing nursing rooms/diaper changing rooms and nice air conditioned restaurants. Needless to say, after a wonderful experience the first time, we just kept going

 

[Disneyglobegirl]

Sorry JMHO...but personally I would not even consider it. I live in the south and I would never even consider taking a 6 week old to WDW that time of year because of the heat. Also every trip we have gone on I have encountered many sick people who do not care if they spread their germs - they are not canceling their trip because they are sick, most of them do not care if they spread their germs - they paid alot of money they are going on their trip never mind how many people they make sick by going !!

 

[Disneyglobegirl]

FWIW--the whole heat and humidity thing--we have baby's in the state of Florida everyday and our babies do just fine.

I'm sorry - no offense, but I doubt all those Florida babies spend all day outside in the heat at WDW. Also I live in the south and raised my kids in the heat and humidity however I would NEVER take my kids to WDW for vacation at 6 weeks old. That would be nothing but misery - When my kids were that old we spent most of our time inside in the air conditioning - less heat and germs.. We never even considered taking them outside in the heat for hours at a time because of vacation.

 

[Puffy2]

No offence at all, but absolutely not.

Why? Newborns really shouldn't be exposed to large crowds for infection reasons.

I'm certain "many people do it" - but I've never thought it was a good idea, and I'd never do it myself.

Other things to consider - emotions run high after giving birth. It might not be the best time to throw in the stress of a vacation. Your money is probably better spent waiting awhile.

 

[Zandy595]

Would you take a 6 week old to Disney???

Never

 

[mom2boys]

Are you flying or driving? I would think twice about flying - too many germs. I wouldn't worry about "all those people" at Disney. I recall the baby books the baby was less likely to catch something in a public place like the mall then at a family function. The people at WDW won't be trying to hold your baby -family would.

Think long & hard about the heat. Our youngest was 23 monthes on our first family trip. We had to return to the room one day when we realized he had had too much heat/sun. He spent the day in the stoller with a sunshade. When I look back at the pictures, I realize that he was dehydrated. He also had sunburned cheeks. I feel horrible about it to this day - he'll be 11 next month.

Didn't Disney offer the free dining last December?