going to Phuket with baby

Hi all, we are going on a short trip to Phuket with baby. He's 9 months old and it's his first time to travel. He's on 3 solid meals. So far he's only been eating homecooked food with slightly more texture so I don't know what I can feed him in Phuket. I'm prepared to bring some commercial baby food jars. But I find most quite runny and I don't think he'll be satisfied with 2 jars per meal. Some people here mentioned about getting whatever is suitable at the buffet breakfast but I'm worried about the seasoning they put in. I know bananas and avocados are handy but I can't offer him just that. Can anyone share your experience?


Also, do I need to sterilize his bottles still or I can get away with it?


Thanks :)

hi nicher,


wherever you travel, i think when baby is below one, your best bet is to find a hotel where the rooms come with a small kitchenette. then you can prepare some easy food for your baby and sterilise bottles too. if you haven't got a room like that, fret not, there are still other ways around it!!


i would still sterilise bottles at 9 months but of course it would be madness to bring your steriliser. get either the lindam steriliser bags (in singapore, mothercare sells it so enquire with the hk branches) or you have to use tablets.


as for getting stuff from breakfast buffet, i think stick to the fruit and bread but for the cooked stuff, you might want to stay away due to seasoning.


we travelled to bintan for 3 nights when my baby was about 10 months. as bintan is an hour's ferry ride away, i packed my baby's food (all vegetarian just in case the meat couldn't survive the trip) in a cooler bag with lots of ice pack and kept them in the villa's kitchen and warm them up in the microwave. my friend brings her own baby food even when she is staying somewhere without a kitchen in the room. if it's a short trip, she puts everything in the mini bar and asks the hotel to heat it up for her before feeding. if it's a longer trip, she arranges in the hotel to put the food in a deep freeze in the hotel kitchen.


honestly, i think that's quite alot of effort on my friend's part, you are on holiday after all, haha especially as she had a hard time communicating her requests to the hotel! just remembered, at 9 months, your baby's diet is still quite simple. if you want to feed breakfast before going out for your breakfast, what i did on one short trip was bring a few jars of organic fruit puree and mixed it up with his oats cereal (i brought his usual) for breakfast. as for lunch and dinner, he just ate jars....just bring more if he needs to eat more, you didn't mention how short your trip was but honestly, a few jars on a trip is ok!


sorry if my answers are all over the place, just typing as the the ideas come to me!

just one more thing, my friend went to bali when her child was below one and stayed in a villa with personalised service so she managed to get the villa's cook to whip up some simple vegetable puree for her baby. so it really depends on where you are staying!

Hi Wheelymate. Thanks so much for your time and the tips. We will spend 5 days there and are staying at the J.W. Marriot. There won't be a kitchen or microwave in our room so I can't think of a good way to heat up the food. It does look like a lot effort on your friend's part. I'm really impressed... not sure if I can do the same.


As you said, breakfast is easy. I can always grab fruit at the buffet bar and mix it with his usual baby muesli. I will bring my breast pump so I can get some milk to mix with his cereal.


Some people suggest to bring the blender. The problem is I don't know if there is unseasoned food there available. Maybe I have to bring 8-10 jars of baby food afterall...


Will try to check out those sterilize bags too :)

bring enough jars to last you the trip in case there are no alternatives. but at the same time, see if you can borrow a baby food maker (all in one gadget that you can steam/blend/etc, think some of the mums on this forum have mentioned the brand, you need to do a thread search)...perhaps you can then pop by some supermarket in phuket and buy some simple veggies like carrots, sweet potatoes or whatever and make a simple veggie stew?


haha, yes, my friend makes a big effort!


yes, check out those steriliser bags, they work great, just make sure the hotel helps you out with the microwave!

On top of bringing food jars, you can send an email to the hotel, enquiring about the restaurant preparing daily pureed baby food for you upon request.

I had seen them serving baby food at their restaurants.

I would definitely still sterilise until baby is a year. I used to take cold water sterilisation tablets or ask the hotel for a steriliser. A hotel like the Marriot will have some for sure.


Re food to eat, breakfast shouldn't be a problem, especially if it's a buffet. Lots of fruit, toast, cereal that mushes like Weetabix, scrambled egg (if well cooked), etc. I used to take my own Weetabix and then give baby some fruit from the buffet and some toast to nibble on, etc.


Personally I wouldn't consider even attempting to make my own food for baby for lunch and dinner. You are staying at the Marriot - ask them to mash some potato, carrot, whatever baby likes. I was never turned down. And I used to take a couple of fruit purees (the Organix ones that don't need refridgeration) or jars just in case.

In the past, I've brought enough jars and rice cereal/oats just in case. But often I was able to get away with using items from the buffet. Breakfast is easy--usually consisted of fresh fruit mixed with baby's cereal. For lunch, it was a jar of chicken or beef baby food in addition to finger foods gleaned from breakfast such as bread, cheese, and tomatoes. For dinners, we gave bubs a jar of spinach baby food and he nibbled off our dinners---some things we'd order include steamed or grilled fish/chicken with no salt/pepper--all sauces on the side, plain pasta,

steamed veggies, rice. And of course, there is always that basket of bread! (We figured so long bubs was still drinking formula so it wouldn't hurt if his diet of solids wasn't as varied for a week or so).


By the way, you can always ring up room service to heat up food for your baby if there is no microwave in your room. We've always done this and the nice thing is that they even offer to wash our food containers! The only negative is that room service sometimes takes awhile...so be sure to call them to heat up food before bubs is very hungry!

Oh thanks very much for the helpful advice! I'm much relieved now after hearing this. I likely will not bring my freezer bag with frozen pureed food coz I already feel like bringing the whole house over. Will see we can get from the buffet and worst comes to worst, will ask the hotel to prepare unseasoned steamed veggies or meat.


The next thing I'm worried about is whether bub will sleep well in an unfamiliar cot.

In the past we have taken sufficient jarred food to last the holiday - luckily we always stayed in a hotel less than a week!


Of course you can try the buffet out and hopefully your baby will enjoy some of the food, but I liked having the security of knowing if they didn't there was enough jarred food with us. Invariably our children preferred the jars to the hotel food at that age.


The hotel shops and the like tend to stock jarred food only for younger babies. If you take your own jars you can get coarser blends and ones with meat and fish in. Both our children ate jarred food happily on holiday even though they didn't eat it at home. Bumps to Babes has a good range of jars for the older baby and by experimenting a little before you go you can find the right brand.


We also took our own baby cereal with us and stored it in an airtight box. It made breakfast really easy and we could extend the time our children were happy to sit at table by letting them eat toast and croissants afterwards. Before we used cows milk we would take a brand that you mix with water.


I know its a pain to take a case full of food but I would do it again in similar circumstances.

Hi Nicher

When we stayed at the Marriot about 3 and a half years ago, I remember they had a deli shop (with a small casual dining area), which was open virtually all day. It had a wide selection of fresh fruit and breads - in particular, the papaya with fresh lime juice was superb. It also sold yoghurts.

The Marriott which is located in the north-west of Phuket, is quite close to the airport (and is fairly close to Blue Canyon golf course) but, from recollection, is not close to any shops.


Hope this helps.

Roz

Thank you all. Very very helpful info for us. Unfortunately we are not staying at the villas so we won't have our own kitchenette. But since some of you mentioned about their excellent customer service I'm not too worried :)

Hi Nicher,


I just came back from a holiday which involved a one week stay at a hotel with an 11 month old. I too was worried about what I was going to feed the little one, how many jars of baby food to take, if I'd be able to get unseasoned hotel food, etc... In the end, I made a trip to Bumps to Babes, picked up a box of baby rice, about 3 jars of food, and a few small cartons of Cow N Gate milk. I mixed baby rice with fresh fruits from the buffet table for breakfast, baby rice with a 1/3 of jar food each time for lunch and dinner, and added the milk to everything. It's of course essential to have a kettle and fridge in the room. I also did buy another 2 jars of food in a local supermarket. On hindsight, I think I could also taken a bit of couscous for mixing with the jar food. You just need to pour hot boiling water over the couscous, cover for a few minutes, add a few spoonsfuls of the jar food to it, and lunch/dinner is ready to be served.


Anyway, if it's the Marriot you're staying at, then I'm sure you won't have a problem. Have a nice holiday.

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