Traveling with an infant
There are several ways to prepare and keep the formula on the road. Which one you choose depends on what you have with you, and on the time away from the kitchen and refrigerator.
Adding milk to each bottle. If you are on the road for 24 hours or less, and the baby is on artificial feeding and the mixture is cooked on concentrated milk, you can take with you only the necessary number of bottles containing sugar and water and sterilized as usual. Take with you small jars of concentrated milk, one for each feeding. With each feeding, you open another jar, add the necessary amount of milk in a bottle, where there is sugar and water, put on the nipple, shake, warm. If you are making sugar water, use the usual amount of sugar and water, but you need to calculate how much sugar water to put in each bottle and how much concentrated milk is then added.(Divide the total amount of water and milk by the number of bottles.) For example, the total amount of the mixture consists of 400 g of concentrated milk, 600 g of water and three teaspoons of corn syrup, divided into five bottles. Mix sugar with water, pour 120 g into each bottle and sterilize. Before feeding, add 75 g of concentrated milk to the bottle, and pour the rest of the milk from the jar( or drink it yourself).With this method, milk is always fresh, despite the lack of a refrigerator, because it remains sterile in the jar until the very feeding.
Portable refrigerator for travel. Another method for traveling with a duration of 24 hours or less is to prepare in advance the right amount of a normal mixture, both for home use. Then these bottles are kept in a portable refrigerator or in a bucket in which you sterilize the bottles. This method can be used to prepare a mixture on concentrated, pasteurized or regular fresh milk. You need a place in the car for a portable refrigerator or bucket. Wrap a bucket outside and cover it from inside with at least ten layers of a newspaper bandaged with a string;while the bottle should be removed without removing the wrapper. When you need to go, place the bottles in a bucket in the wire nests and fill the bucket with ice to the top( pieces or cubes: finely chopped ice melts quickly).After feeding, rinse the bottle, pacifier and funnel with a brush and soap before using them again, or take with you so many clean bottles and nipples to make it all the way.
Cooling a liter bottle with milk. Another way to save space is to keep all the milk for a mixture for 24 hours in one sterilized liter bottle that is stored in a portable refrigerator or in an ice bucket. If a child drinks pasteurized milk, just put a bottle of milk from the dairy farm on the ice. If you go by train or fly by plane, find out in advance whether there is a refrigerator and whether you can keep yours. With each feeding, you fill the bottle through a funnel from a large bottle. After feeding, wash the bottle, pacifier and funnel with a brush and soap before using them again, or grab clean bottles and nipples all the way.
How to ensure the safety of one or two bottles. If you only need one or two feedings on the way, wrap well chilled bottles in 10-15 layers of the newspaper or keep them in a thermos bag designed to preserve the cold. On the train, the dining restaurant waiter will put one or two bottles in the refrigerator. On planes sometimes there are boxes with ice.
How to prepare a mixture in a longer journey. If you spend a few days on the road, the situation becomes more complicated. Talk with the doctor, taking into account the nature of the path, the diet of the child and the peculiarities of his digestion. Call the airline or railway office to find out what amenities they have. If a child eats a mixture on concentrated milk, it is easiest to prepare the mixture before each feeding, using small jars of concentrated milk. Then nothing needs to be cooled. Take with you so many jars, how many times will you feed on the way. Bring sugar or a bottle of corn syrup. Water is most convenient to buy a sterile and distilled in a half-liter bottle in a pharmacy. When you need it again, buy another bottle. The water will be the same sterile and the same composition( it has no taste).You can boil water at home and take it with you in bottles.(It's better not to use water on the train or out of the faucets along the way. This water must be boiled. In addition, a change of water can cause a stomach upset in the child.) You will need a funnel, a measuring spoon, a can opener to open jars, a brush-brush for washing bottlesand a sufficient number of clean bottles and nipples to last until the next wash.
Before each feeding, pour into the bottle the right amount of water, syrup( or sugar) and concentrated milk from a freshly opened jar. Put on the pacifier and shake the bottle until it mixes up. The doctor will tell you the proportions for each bottle. For example, if the total amount of the mixture contains 400 g of concentrated milk, 600 g of water and 3 tablespoons of corn syrup, and you divide this total into five bottles, each bottle should contain two teaspoons of corn syrup, 120 grams of water and 75 gramsconcentrated milk.
The bottle can be warmed in the train sink( in the toilet).The waiter in the dining car, the stewardess in the plane, the waitress or the cook in the roadside cafe or dining room will warm a bottle for you. If you are traveling in the car, you can turn on the bottle heater in the cigarette lighter outlet or grab a special heater.
Since you probably will not be able to boil the bottles and nipples, you should wash them thoroughly with a brush and soap at every opportunity. Rinse and dry. You can use washed, but not boiled, bottles, because between the feeds they do not contain a mixture in which the bacteria could multiply.
Solid food. Take most of the solid food with you in cans for baby food. They can be warmed before opening and feeding the baby directly from the jar. Do not try to provide the child with all the products that he receives usually( for example, potatoes).Take with you enough products that he likes and that he easily assimilates. Most small children on the road eat less than at home. Do not force the child to eat if he ate less than usual. Perhaps he will want to eat less, but more often.
Eating a child older than a year. The child is best not to drink water taken on the train( take water with him in the bottle), and do not feed unusual food. When buying food in restaurants and cafes, avoid cakes and cakes with cream, puddings on milk, cold meat, cold fish, cold eggs, salads with sauces( including sandwiches with such salads).In such food, poisonous bacteria multiply more easily if the dishes are not thoroughly prepared or stored in a refrigerator. It is better to feed your child with hot food, fruits that you cleaned yourself, with milk in a sealed package. Of course, you can cook at home sandwiches, for example, with peanut butter, jelly or tomatoes. Even if you are going to feed the child in roadside restaurants and canteens or the food that is given on the plane, grab a stock of food for snacks or in case lunch lingers: a pack of salted crackers( say, it helps against nausea with a long ride in(although you avoid all this at home), cheese and hard-boiled eggs( if your child likes them), fruit, a thermos of milk, a can of prunes in case of constipation.
Other tips. If you are traveling with an infant, it is advisable to move with maximum comfort. In the first class car you will be given more attention, and if you can afford it, you will feel more confident in a separate compartment with a crying child.
Disposable diapers are very convenient.
Do not forget to grab toys, with which the child is accustomed to fall asleep. On the way, they will create additional conveniences. In addition to familiar and favorite toys, it's nice to bring along a few new ones - the type that you can play for a long time: a train from several cars, a doll with several sets of clothes and other possessions, a book for coloring or cutting, a new picture book, card houses or othertoys that can be folded and disassembled, a bundle of paper and colored pencils. A child of three years or older likes to pack his favorite toys in a special small bag.
It is necessary to have a box with cotton wool or other cleaning materials. Several large glues or plastic tablecloths; one will protect the bed at night, the other will close the carpet if the child is eating at the hotel or sitting on the floor.
If you are traveling in a car, you need to stop not only for ordinary food, but also in between to intercept and to allow children to run a little - on a special playground or in a city park, where you do not need to constantly monitor that children do notran out onto the road.
For a small child, you can grab the toilet seat, if it's used to it.
The place in front of the rear seat( where the legs are placed) can be filled with things and covered with something, so that the child has a space where you can crawl and fall asleep. If the children want to stand, they should stand on the floor, not on the seats;The rear seatback of the front seat must be covered with something soft so that there is no injury when suddenly braking.
Road baby cradle or specially fitted basket is very useful in car, train and airplane. The child in it can be transferred without waking, and it is more convenient for the mother, even if sometimes she will have to hold the cradle on her lap.
A good rule for traveling in a car is to plan the end of the daytime move to 4 pm, so that there is more room to find a room in the motel and so that you do not have to travel long hours with tired children. Sometimes a man decides to travel a certain distance at any price and does not stop, even if it is already too late. But if he before the trip will give the floor to stop at a certain hour, then there is more chance that he will behave intelligently.