Vacation/pool

[StephanieFTM]

I'm a first time mom and my son will be here June 6th when would it be okay to take him on a vacation (like to the beach) or even take him to a pool?

[AnnieBrooke]

You'll be glad not to have to tote a mountain of baby junk across the sand dunes from the car, also.  lol

If you're off to a cabin somewhere for a week, where the baby can safely be contained in the house the same way you would at home, and walked about outside the same way you would at home, hey, go ahead.  We went to a vacation house when my son was 3 months old and it was fun (though we did have to take a crib, stroller, and immense suitcases of his diapers and blankets and stuff.  But it didn't involve water, sand and sun exposure.  That takes much more vigilance and a lot of prep.

[StephanieFTM]

Thank you :) I never really realized all the steps I'd have to take. So I guess I'll hold off in vacation for a year or two. Definitely don't want something harming him.

[AnnieBrooke]

You'll have several concerns to address:

One is to figure out a way to keep him cool and shaded, I've actually seen people with a cotton blanket over the entire baby including his face to keep him out of the sun, and can't imagine that is safe or does anything but roast the poor baby.  If you're out in the sun, the baby is going to be hot.  You'll need to work out some kind of reliable shade that doesn't tip over or fail to cover the baby if the sun moves.  (A giant beach umbrella pushed deep into the sand, so there is only maybe three feet from the sand to the umbrella, would be protective and also keep people from stepping on the baby if he is sleeping in his little seat.)

Another issue is just general safety ... he needs to be in a place where he can't be run over by kids, hit with a stray ball, tripped on by a guy getting a beer out of the cooler, licked by a dog, etc. and you'd need to make sure he can't put his hands into the sand and carry it to his mouth.  So you would need to work out reliable protection or else simply carry the baby with you all the time. This ever-vigilant posture means you don't get to flake out and work on your tan unless you have built sort of a castle around the baby (the beach umbrella over a play yard might work), but it doesn't rule out taking a nice walk down the beach with the baby in a Snugli (as long as he is protected from the sun.  Though you kind of have to wait until the baby is past the bobble-head stage before a Snugli works well.  You wouldn't want to have him in a sling because it would be too hot.)

Also, people are attracted to small babies:  no matter what you do, babies in public are exposed to people's germs.  You'd need to figure out a way not to have him be the center of attention of a lot of people who want to goochie-goo him.  (My pediatrician warned me off taking my child to a family event when he was about 6 weeks old, for that reason.)

Finally, you would need to protect his head with a sun hat, and (especially at the beach) his eyes with sunglasses.  They have little soft baby sunglasses that hold on with velcro (they look like Robin's mask except with dark lenses in the eyes) but it's anyone's guess whether the baby will put up with wearing them.  

We never went to the beach with our son when he was an infant; he obviously didn't care at that age if we were there or not, and it seemed to be just a lot of work.  He was a winter baby and so that meant he was a year and a half old when we first went.  And frankly, it was kind of boring for us when we did finally take him, because we had to be 100% on the alert and simply follow him around to make sure he didn't eat a seashell or fall into the water, to the point where we didn't have any fun with each other.  My suggestion for July, August and September would be to leave the baby with grandma and go have fun.  But if you went with a group of friends, maybe it would be more interesting and you'd have more help.