Tag: swimming pool

Family holiday resorts – the pros and cons

On By jocairdwp2 Comments

Chances are, you’re either the sort of person that likes holiday resorts or you’re not. But even if you wouldn’t ever have considered staying at a resort pre-parenthood, now might be a moment to give a family holiday resort a spin. A resort won’t give you the sense of adventure and exploration that comes with independent travel but they certainly tick a lot of boxes in terms of convenience. Even for parents whose ultimate aim is to travel independently as a family, a stay at a resort can be a confidence booster, getting used to this whole new world of travelling with baby on board.

Amenities at family holiday resorts

A woman in a bikini swims with a baby in a pool at a family holiday resort
It’s useful to have a pool on hand if you don’t fancy the beach at your family holiday resort

One of the major benefits of a family holiday resort is knowing that all your most immediate baby travel requirements will be met. The resort will have enough high chairs and cots to go around, for example, as well as well designed baby change facilities, and staff used to dealing with new parents. It’s still important to book a cot in advance though, and double check any other baby amenities before you travel, for your peace of mind if nothing else.

Babies and toddlers don’t tend to be terribly fussy about beaches – as long as it’s got sand to dig in or rocks to pile up, they’re happy. As a new parent however there are certainly benefits to the sorts of amenities and services on hand that come as standard at family holiday resorts.

Umbrellas, sun loungers and boardwalks across the sand (useful for pushchair access), for example, all make hanging out with a baby on a beach that bit easier. In addition there’s the fact that a lot of family holiday resorts boast beaches that are particularly suitable for small children, with gentle surf and soft sand that slopes gently down to the water.

For those moments when a trip to the beach feels like too much effort, a resort swimming pool can be a tempting proposition. The water in an unheated, outdoor pool may not be warm enough for very small babies, but you can bring a inflatable baby paddling pool to fill and leave in the sunshine to warm up.

Kids’ clubs and babysitting at family holiday resorts

A woman in scuba diving gear holds a baby at a family holiday resort in Egypt
Scuba diving at a family holiday resort in Egypt

Kids’ clubs used to be limited to older children but increasing numbers of family holiday resorts now offer childcare for the under-2s too. Some even throw it in for free if you travel in the off-season. Provision varies a lot depending where you’re travelling to – resorts in Europe and the Caribbean are much more likely to run creches for under-2s. Elsewhere, kids’ club for children aged 4-and-up is more usual. Even if there’s no dedicated creche for under-2s at your resort, you might be able to hire a babysitter to look after your baby at their kids’ club for older children.

Childcare on tap means you’ll have the time not just to catch up on your reading, but to try some of the pursuits laid on at holiday resorts, from scuba diving to spa treatments.

Meals at family holiday resorts

As discussed in my post on baby hotel room hacks, self-catering accommodation is almost always going to be easier than staying somewhere without a kitchen if you’re travelling with a baby or toddler. That said, it’s not difficult to find resorts — particularly those marketing themselves as family-friendly — where a kettle, fridge and even a microwave come as standard in-room amenities. You might not be able to make a gourmet feast for your little one with just these tools on hand, but she’s certainly not going to starve. You, meanwhile, can enjoy having someone else cook for you at the resort’s various restaurants – meals your baby will also be able to sample, if she’s weaned.

Hotel buffet restaurants are particularly handy for new parents because you can take turns holding the baby and eating, one of getting a plate of food while the other one takes over. It may not be the romantic holiday meal you’ve ever eaten, but at least no one is left with a plate of food getting cold in front of them. Hotel buffets are also quite exciting environments for little ones – bright lights, piles of fruit and chefs in tall hats entertaining in themselves if your baby needs a break away from the table.

Potential downsides of family holiday resorts

A woman wears a baby in a sling at a family holiday resort
A sling can be useful for getting around outside a family holiday resort

The privacy that comes with a remote location is often one of the selling points of a resort but being in an entirely self-contained environment can have its downsides too. Does your chosen resort have any reasonably priced shops nearby, where you can pick up essentials like formula, nappies and ready-made baby food? If not, you’ll need to pack absolutely everything you might need for the duration of your stay, or be prepared to spend a fortune on overpriced supplies.

While your resort itself might be easily accessible with a pushchair, you can’t assume the same of the area around it, particularly in destinations in the developing world. If you’re happy to stay in the resort for the duration of your holiday, that’s not an issue, but parents who think they might like to do some exploring will need to factor that into their planning.

Packing a sling or backpack carrier is an easy workaround, allowing you to leave the pushchair in the resort while you venture further afield on foot. If you’ll be doing any journeys by taxi, a child car seat is another essential. (A family holiday resort should be able to provide one for airport transfers or recommend a cab company that can do so but you’ll need to check in advance.)

How to take your baby swimming

On By jocairdwp1 Comment

Taking your baby or toddler swimming is great fun, whether you’re visiting your local pool or taking a dip in a hotel pool on holiday. Your little one might be nervous of the water at first – clinging onto you like a baby monkey and objecting every time her face gets wet – but it won’t be long before she’s merrily splashing and demanding to be thrown up in the air.

Some of the information in this post will be applicable to swimming in the sea but my main focus here is swimming pools (I cover beach visits more fully elsewhere on the blog). I found my first few swimming pool visits with the baby girl quite stressful – while the actual swimming part was lovely, the logistics of getting changed, dealing with the pushchair, showering with a baby, etc, were surprisingly challenging. Now I’ve got the hang of it all, I wanted to share what I’ve learnt in the hope that when you start taking your little one swimming, it all goes smoothly from the very start.

Before I begin, a quick note about when to take your baby swimming for the first time. While lots of pools advertise swimming lessons for babies from a few weeks old, it’s advisable to wait until your baby is around six-months-old before taking her swimming in chlorinated water. Young babies have extremely sensitive skin which is easily irritated by the chlorine and other chemicals in pools, and there is some suggestion that immature lungs can be damaged by breathing the chlorine-rich air in badly ventilated indoor swimming pools.

Choosing a pool

 

A toddler looks into a locker
The baby girl investigating the lockers at Archway Pool in North London

Most large public swimming pools in the UK will have a training or toddler pool with warmer water than the main pool, but it’s worth checking in advance. If you end up in a pool where the water temperature is less than around 26°C your swim will be very short indeed, which hardly seems worth the effort.

Outdoor pools at hotels and resorts are very often unheated, so take a small inflatable paddling pool with you that you can fill from the pool or shower and leave to warm up in the sun.

Essential kit

Whatever the temperature, it makes sense for your little one to wear a wetsuit. You’ll be moving around in the water, but your baby probably won’t be and she’ll get cold soon. A wetsuit will buy you time, though bear in mind that even in a warm pool, wearing a wetsuit, 20 minutes is about the maximum time you can expect to spend in the water. A full body wetsuit is also useful in terms of protecting your baby’s skin from the sun if you’re swimming outside.

Swim nappies are required for public pools. You can choose between disposable and washable. Washables are better for the environment and make sense financially if you plan to take your little one swimming a lot. A washable swim nappy fits tightly around your baby’s legs and is worn with a washable cotton liner and flushable paper liner that catch the poo. Disposable swim nappies are more widely available, including at a lot of public pools. If your baby will be in and out of the water a lot over the course of a day – in the pool at a resort, for example – disposables are easier, though once you get the hang of travelling with a couple of spare cotton and paper liners, washables work well too.

I also usually bring a ball or toy watering can to play with in the water, and a poncho towel for warming the baby girl up as fast as possible after showering. Plentiful snacks work as a good distraction for the few minutes when you’re getting dressed after your swim.

Pre-swim

A woman wearing sunglasses swims with a baby at an outdoor pool
Swimming with the baby girl at Verdugo Recreation Center in Los Angeles © Lani Caird

Scope out the whole changing area when you arrive, before you get your baby out of her pushchair. You’re looking for somewhere spacious and close to the baby change table, lockers and showers. If there’s nowhere close to all three, the changing table should be your priority as you’ll need somewhere safe to put your baby while you get ready.

Get yourself ready first, as you want to leave your baby in her nappy until the very last minute – you don’t want her pooing in her swim nappy before you even get in the water. Be as organised as possible when it comes to putting your clothes in the locker so you can get dressed again quickly after you’ve been swimming; same with your baby’s clothes. Your baby will most likely be knackered, cold and hungry by the time you get out the water and have finished showering, so you want the process of getting out of there to be as quick and efficient as possible.

Poolside

Take a small washbag with whatever you need for the shower with you to the poolside, along with a towel. This saves you having to return to the locker before showering.

Post-swim

A toddler in a swimming pool changing room
The baby girl on an escape mission at Highbury Pool in North London

If you’re by yourself with a small baby, the most you’ll realistically be able to do in the shower is rinse off the chlorine. You can then shower properly and give your baby a bath when you get home. Remember to moisturise as the chlorine will dry her skin.

Some pools have baby-friendly changing areas with changing tables or wall-mounted high chairs that can go in the shower, giving you the opportunity to shower properly. Or if your baby can sit or stand by herself, you can put her on the floor at your feet, assuming she’s okay with getting water on her face. As with most things baby-related, it’s nerve-wracking the first time you do it, but fine thereafter.

Don’t worry about getting dry yourself until your baby is dry and warm (ah, the selflessness of parenthood). Once you’re dry, get your baby dressed, then distract her with a bottle or snack of some kind while you get dressed. If you’re breastfeeding, factor a post-swim feed into your timings.

Practical tips for a scuba diving holiday with a baby

On By jocairdwp

Published by Diver, May 2018, with the headline “Baby diver”.

Scuba divers come out of the sea while a baby watches on a beach
The baby girl watches while her diving parents emerge from the sea at Gozo’s Wied il-Ghasri gorge © Yoji Caird

Almost the moment my partner and I found out that I was pregnant, we started talking about the first dive trip we’d take with the baby. We had lost count of the number of times that people, on finding out that we were divers, told us wistfully how much they used to love diving too…before their kids were born and that phase of their life came to an end. We really didn’t want that to happen to us, but we knew that we would need to be proactive if we were going to continue diving as new parents.

When our daughter was three-months-old we booked a week’s diving at a Red Sea resort with some friends who have a baby around the same age. That trip, which took place when she was seven-months-old, was exhausting, but it was also an unqualified success and got us talking about where we could take her next. Two dive trips later – first to the Maltese island of Gozo, then to El Hierro, the most remote of the Canary Islands – this is what we’ve learned.

Choose your destination wisely

While in the past our choice of dive destination was informed mainly by what we could afford and whether we had the time to do it justice, these days there are more factors to consider. Babies and jet lag are a bad combination, so we try to avoid time differences greater than four hours unless we’re going away for at least 10 days. Flight time and transfers come into play too – long-haul flights are doable with a baby or toddler, but short-haul is certainly easier, and the smoother the transition from airport to accommodation the better. If you’re itching to visit a particular long-haul destination, however, there is definitely an argument for doing it sooner rather than later – most airlines charge a small fee for travelling with a baby, while toddlers two and up pay full fare.

All those considerations might seem limiting, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing: there’s a lot of world out there to dive and it can be helpful to have your options narrowed a bit. Being forced to shift the focus onto some of the excellent, but less glamorous, diving available closer to home can be positive too. We are UK-based, but had never thought to go the Canaries before, for example, because far flung spots like Sipadan and the Great Barrier Reef just seemed like more tempting options. But on our recent trip there, we dived on an underwater volcano, spotted bull rays for the first time and explored some of the prettiest shallow caves we had ever seen.

Family-friendly dive centres

A man and a woman in scuba gear stand at the seaside with their daughter in a pushchair
Before a dive at the Salt Pans on the Maltese island of Gozo © Yoji Caird

Dealing with staff who are willing to be a bit flexible about how they do things (within the bounds of safety and not negatively impacting other divers, of course) makes all the difference when it comes to diving with a baby in tow. We really fell on our feet with the staff at the dive centres we’ve visited since travelling with our daughter. The dive guides and RIB driver at Orca Dive Club Soma Bay in Egypt were extremely patient when we arrived a few minutes’ late for the scheduled departure time for almost every dive, for example, while those at Atlantis Dive Centre in Gozo let our daughter and my babysitting brother (see below for more on childcare on dive trips) come with us in the dive truck so they weren’t stuck in the apartment.

Let the dive centre know that you’ll be travelling with a baby when you first enquire about a trip. Or if you’re booking through an agent, ask them to sound out the dive centre on your behalf. If they appear uptight at this stage, look for an alternative – travelling with a little one is unpredictable enough with having to worry about dive centre staff throwing a hissy fit if you have to opt out of a dive at the last minute.

In addition to making the diving itself more relaxing, and therefore more enjoyable, a family-friendly dive centre can also be helpful when it comes to recommending baby-friendly restaurants or activities, and some will even arrange babysitting. At Atlantis our little one was delighted to find a huge pile of toys belonging to the daughter of the couple who own it; and we were delighted to be able to sort out our gear in peace after each dive.

Get informed about your accommodation

If having the dive centre close by was important before, it’s even more so now – babies take up a lot of time and you don’t want to spend any more of it in transit than strictly necessary.

Other factors to consider when you’re choosing accommodation are proximity to shops, bars and restaurants, availability of healthcare (more of an issue at remote destinations in the developing world than elsewhere) and the presence of a pool (ideally heated) or baby-friendly beach.

The biggest accommodation decision you need to make is between resort and self-catering. The latter is certainly easier as far as flexibility around meals and snacks for your little one, but grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning take up valuable time that you might otherwise be able to spend diving. Hotel buffets are also excellent if your little one is hard work at mealtimes, allowing you to tag team eating and childcare while not letting your dinner get cold.

Make the most of childcare

Two women in scuba dive gear hold babies wearing sun hats
Tag-teaming babysitting and diving © Steve Pretty

Couples where only one partner dives have it easier when it comes to travelling with a baby – just make sure the non-diving partner gets some relaxation time doing what they like, too.

If both dive, the simplest option is to tag team diving and childcare, but that can feel like a somewhat sad way to spend a vacation if part of what you love about scuba is sharing it with your other half.

Many resorts have a free or inexpensive kids’ club, some of which are open to children from the age of two. This can be an excellent – and fun – solution to your childcare problem, but won’t be right for all children. You need to be prepared for your child to take a while to settle in or refuse to go altogether.

Taking a non-diving friend or relative along to babysit is a good alternative; and offering to cover some of the costs might entice more candidates for the role, if your budget stretches that far. Or go with another pair of diving parents who will be happy to look after your little one while you dive and vice versa.

Be organized

Vacations are supposed to be about kicking back and going with the flow, right? Sadly not, if you’re talking about taking your baby away with you diving. Gone are the days when you can just roll up at the dive centre, do a day of diving and head straight to the bar afterwards. That doesn’t mean you won’t have a brilliant trip, it just means you need to do a bit more day-to-day planning than you used to.

On our trip to Egypt, my partner and I and the other couple all each squeezed in two dives a day every day by doing very efficient changeovers. After each dive the babysitting pair would be waiting at the dive centre with the babies, ready to hand them over the moment the diving pair were out of their wetsuits. As the new diving pair prepared for their dive, one of the new babysitters would take charge of the babies, while the other rinsed and hung up both sets of gear. We would also discuss at dinner each night who was diving and when on the following day, making use of both early morning and sunset dive options so we could pack in as much time underwater as possible.

For self-catering trips, meal planning will allow you to have as chilled out a surface interval as possible, especially if your accommodation is close to the dive centre. It’s not always easy pinning down exactly how long you’ll be out on a dive, so having something easy like sandwiches or leftovers that be quickly thrown together or heated up is a good route to go down.

Be prepared for a slower pace

A woman and a baby play on rocks, photographed from the water
Hanging out at El Tacarón natural swimming pool on El Hierro on a day off from diving © Steve Pretty

Unless you’re taking a babysitter along who’s happy to look after your little one all day every day, it’s unlikely that you will be able to do as much diving as you did on trips pre-parenthood. Chat with your partner (and whoever is helping with childcare, if applicable) before the trip about your expectations – all things considered, how many dives will you each be able to do per day? Getting into the right frame of mind – that you’re there not just for diving but also to spend some time together as a family – will ensure you have a more enjoyable experience.

With that in mind, it’s probably best to hold off on those bucket list dive destinations until your child is old enough to be left at home with a relative while you travel – or of an age to dive with you! You don’t want to fly half way round the world just to spend your trip seething with jealousy when you find out that you missed out on seeing the sardine run/marine iguanas/a shoal of manta rays because it was your turn looking after the baby.

Destinations that require long boat trips to reach the dive sites are best saved for another time too. Opt instead for a resort with an excellent house reef, or plenty of local dive sites, so you can dive a couple of times a day with a minimum of fuss. You may not see anything really earth shattering on this type of trip, but sometimes a slower pace can give new passions room to breathe, whether that’s observing fish behaviour, spotting rare nudibranchs or getting handy with a GoPro.

Remember that increased time topside is also an opportunity to immerse yourself in the cultural side of a destination, get to know a new cuisine or explore the great outdoors, all elements that might have played second fiddle to the diving before your little one came along.

Don’t be intimidated

If all this sounds like hard work, don’t worry…I promise that it will be worth it. A dive vacation with your baby in tow is a very different beast to the dive vacations you took before you became parents but different doesn’t mean inferior – go into the experience with your eyes open and you never know what adventures you might be letting yourself in for.

Sun protection for babies and toddlers

On By jocairdwp

Taking your little one out in hot weather can be nerve-wracking. So here are some tips on how to protect that perfect skin from the sun, whether you’re on holiday somewhere exotic or adventuring close to home.

It’s best to keep babies and children out of direct sunlight entirely, particularly at the hottest time of the day, between 11am and 3pm. Put your little one in lightweight clothing so she’s as covered up as possible and use baby-safe sunscreen on any exposed areas. For visits to the beach, swimming pool or paddling pool, a UV-protection suit and hat provide excellent coverage. A sun tent (I like this pop-up one that doubles as a travel cot) means you’ve always got somewhere shady to lay your baby down.

Sunscreen

La Restinga beach
Hanging out in the late afternoon winter sunshine on El Hierro in the Canary Islands

Choose a sunscreen with an SPF (this tells you how much protection the sunscreen offers from UVB radiation) of at least 30 and a UVA star rating of four or five to get maximum coverage. My paediatric dermatologist friend recommends the Australian brand SunSense – it doesn’t actually include a separate UVA rating because in Australia all sunscreens must screen UVA as well as UVB. An SPF50+ sunscreen will filter out at least 98% of UV radiation.

Remember that sunscreen can go off, particularly if the bottle has been left in the sun for extended periods. Have a look for an expiry date on the packaging; if there isn’t one, use it within a year. If you notice the cream has a strange consistency or smell, that probably means it’s degraded, which means it’ll offer less effective sun protection and might even cause irritation to your child’s skin.

Apply sunscreen when doing your baby’s final nappy change before leaving the house – it’s much easier to get consistent coverage when your little one is naked. Apply it all over just in case – you never know when a toddler might decide to strip off, and you want her to be protected if when she does. The easiest way to apply sunscreen to a baby or toddler is with a roll on; these small bottles are expensive for the quantity you get, so I suggest buying a big bottle and making your own roll on from an empty roll-on deodorant – just pop the ball out with a spoon, wash and refill.

Persuading a wriggling toddler to let you apply sunscreen can be challenging, particularly when you’re already out and about and she wants to be dashing around. For some reason the baby girl loves putting on cream (it might be because I used to do a bit of baby massage at bedtime so it’s got cuddly associations for her, but really, who knows?) so I tend to make a big thing of sunscreen, to make it seem like a treat rather than something tedious to be endured. Reapply every two hours, or more frequently if your little one has been in water.

On the move

A pushchair, covered by a black sun shade, sits in an alleyway. A pair of little feet are poking out from underneath the sun shade.
Napping in the narrow back streets of Victoria, the biggest town on the Maltese island of Gozo, with the help of our SnoozeShade

Most pushchair brands make a sun canopy you can attach to keep your baby in the shade when on the move. Personally I find the canopy easier to use than attaching a parasol. A pushchair sleep shade will give you even fuller coverage for when your baby is sleeping.

Now that the baby girl is a bit bigger she hardly ever lets us put the sun canopy up, so it’s a matter of covering up with clothing, a hat (if she can be persuaded to wear a hat; and it’s a big if – I’d welcome tips on how to talk her into it!) and sunscreen.

For a babies in a front-carrying sling, all you need is a hat and sunscreen for her hands and feet. Wearing a wide-brimmed hat yourself can offer extra coverage. Backpack carriers, where your child is high up on your back, often come with a built-in or attachable sun canopy – make sure yours has one before investing.

Dealing with sunburn

If your baby or toddler gets sunburnt, get her out of the sun as soon as possible. Talk to your GP – they may want to see your child to check that the sunburn isn’t severe. In the meantime, cool the skin by applying a damp muslin square or flannel for 15 minutes a few times a day, give her tepid baths, and get her to drink plenty of fluids to cool her down and prevent dehydration. Apply water-based moisteriser (oil-based products can worsen burns) to relieve any itching and give baby paracetamol or ibuprofen if the sunburn is causing her pain.

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Essential kit: baby paddling pool

On By jocairdwp

For most of the babies and toddlers in my life, bath time is an important part of the bed time routine. But what if you’re away from home, and the hotel or holiday rental property where you’re staying doesn’t have a bath tub? Here’s where an inflatable baby paddling pool comes in.

Hosing her off in the shower will get your little one clean, but if she’s not used to it you risk stressing her out with a new experience just at the time of the evening you want her winding down. It’s also a job that really requires two sets of hands until your little one is able to sit up confidently by herself.

You could forgo the bath altogether, of course, and use baby wipes instead, but that’s only really a solution for a short trip. Especially if you’re somewhere hot, and dealing with additional grubbiness-inducing elements like sweat, sunscreen, insect repellent, sand, chlorinated water, etc, you’ll definitely want to find a way to give your baby a proper wash at the end of the day.

How to use a baby paddling pool for bath time

A toddler has a bath in an inflatable paddling pool in the bottom of a shower stall
An inflatable baby paddling pool is useful instead of a bathtub and can be used on the beach too © Steve Pretty

The trick is to travel with an inflatable baby paddling pool, which you position on the floor of the shower, or just on the bathroom floor if the cubicle is too small or awkwardly located. If you don’t have hot running water, as was the case at the place we stayed in Goa when the baby girl was four months old, you can ask the management for a jug of hot water and blend until the temperature of the water in the baby paddling pool is what it should be.

A baby paddling pool is also handy for camping, allowing you to do bath time in the warmth and comfort of your tent or camper van, rather than interrupt the bedtime routine with a chilly walk back from the shower block.

Even if there is a bath tub where you’re staying, a baby paddling pool is a very handy piece of kit for hot climates, and beach destinations in particular. Unless you’re somewhere tropical, the sea will probably be too cold and rough for more than a quick splash. Hotel swimming pools, meanwhile, are often unheated and too chilly for all but the hardiest of babies and toddlers. A baby paddling pool, however, left in the sunshine to warm up a bit, is the perfect option for cooling off and splashing about in.