Baby Travel Essentials – Holidaying with a Newborn

Call us crazy but even though it’s the hottest summer the UK has had in a very long time, we decided to take our 3 month old baby to Ibiza! Not for a party holiday, I hasten to add. We chose Ibiza because of the flight time, we looked at a few places around Spain but we got a great deal on an all inclusive family resort on the white isle. I’m a worrier, I’ve told you this before, but I’m also an obsessive planner and list maker. We ended up taking more stuff than we needed so I wanted to share with you my baby travel essentials along with the stuff that you can leave behind!

We had quite a solid luggage allowance, 20kg each and 10kg for Theo plus a hand luggage bag of up to 7kg for me and my husband. I usually always go over my luggage allowance so I had to be really strict with myself this time. I usually take loads of clothes and shoes that I don’t end up wearing! This time I wore everything I took and it was just the right amount so it’s actually done me a pretty big favour.

This is a list of what I actually took with us with a bit of a description of my rationale, underneath it you’ll find a cut down printable checklist of the baby travel essential items.

Hold Luggage:

• Rompers x 6 – nice and lightweight for the heat in the daytime
• Short sleeved vest x 3 – for night time outfits
• Long sleeved vest x 2 – for night time outfits or sleeping in depending on room temperature
• Dungarees x 3 – night time outfits
• Sleepsuit x 2 – for sleeping, again didn’t know what the room temp would be like
• Muslin x 2 – no explanation needed here, I actually ended up taking the wrong bed sheet so one of these was in the cot for the whole stay!
• Bib x 2 – we only really use bibs for wipe ups, take more if you use them alot!
• Mattress protector – I find it odd that you’re advised against buying second hand cot mattresses but hotel travel cots are fine, I took our mattress protector as an extra but of protection!
• Cot sheet – a smell of home and better than using a hotel sheet just in case.
• 1 tog sleeping bag – didn’t need this, we could control the aircon in our room but worth taking
• Breathing monitor – I’m going to do a review of this soon but my Snuza Hero MD is a must have for home or away!
• Baby monitor – so that we could sit on the balcony but make sure he was ok
• GroEgg –  didn’t need this as I only realised when we got there that the baby monitor has a thermometer on it!
• Happy Nappy wetsuit – I took the full wetsuit in case the pools were cold, unfortunately when we got there after one wear I realised he’d grown out of it and it was too small! I would recommend this though as the pools weren’t as warm as is recommended for babies. Here’s him wearing it on that first day:

• Sun protection swimsuit – SPF50, this was fab. I actually only bought it for the hat as I couldn’t find one by itself that was small enough for a 3 month old baby but the suit was great and gives you good peace of mind.
• Lamaze Pelican – we took the octopus in the hand luggage, didn’t really need to take this one too
• Playmat – for tummy time. Just took the mat not the arms and dangly bits. We didn’t use it though and just did tummy time on the bed instead.
• Baby towel
• Sunhat
• Socks x 2 – it was a bit warm for socks so I’m glad I only took a couple of pairs
• Story books x 3 – for bedtime
• Tommee Tippee baby grooming kit – contains nail clippers, hair brush, thermometer etc. Worth investing in.
• Breast pump – to express in the morning in case I wanted a cocktail. Didn’t use it.
• Bottle, teat & cap – for expressed milk, also went unused.
• Breastmilk bags
• Washing up liquid – for the pump etc
• Steriliser Bags – we knew there was a microwave in the room so these would have been great if we’d used them!
• Inflatable baby float – this was FABULOUS, Theo loved floating about in it!  We practiced his swimming every day as we’ve been going to lessons but it’s tiring for him so a little rest in this floaty thing was great fun for him – ignore his grumpy face, he was laughing and smiling away in it (just not for the camera!)

• First aid kit – you can never be too careful
• Spare batteries and screwdriver (for MyHummy) – alright, you got me, I didn’t have this on my list and the bloody batteries went while we were there. I won’t forget it again!

Hand luggage:

• Changing bag kit –  the usual nappies/muslins etc.
• Sun hat – you don’t get the pram back until the luggage claim so if you have to walk from the plane your little one will need protecting from the sun
• Happy Nappy wetsuit – someone told me to always pack a change of clothes and some swimwear in your hand luggage in case they lose your case and so I always do!
• Bag for buggy – lots of people buy a cheap pram to take on holiday but it was too early to get a forward facing one for him so we took our main pram. We bought a bag for it from Amazon to keep it safe. It folds up really small and you can just shove the pram in before you get on the plane.
• Toys (fox rattle, Lamaze octopus, wrist rattles, baby safe mirror) – we took all of Theo’s favourites to try and keep him happy and entertained!
• Tula carrier – because you have to give the pram up and don’t get it back right away it’s a great idea to take a carrier with you. Keeps baby safe and means that you can use your hands for your luggage and using the rails getting on and off the plane. Here we are in the airport waiting for our luggage – I was bloody grateful for this carrier!

• MyHummy – another just in case sort of thing but we did use it!
• Snooze Shade – essential for the sunshine waiting for a coach or whatever, you can read my review of the Snooze Shade here.

Ordered to Boots at the airport (airside):

This is a bonafide life hack, Boots have a store on the other side of security so you can order items online for collection that count as your duty free bag – saving case space and weight! Genius! We ordered:

• Nappies – obviously an essential for any sort of baby travel!
• Disposable swim nappies
• Baby sun cream (Soltan) (and our own suncream) – this photo shows how daddy applies the sun cream!

You can download the printable baby travel essentials checklist here, I’ve cut out the things that we just didn’t need.

I hope that you’ve found this post useful. If there are must-have baby travel items that you think I’ve missed leave me a comment below!