Holiday Accommodation with a baby

Kynthia

LilElvis wrote: »

Ok - for the hard of thinking:

Most family bedrooms don't have things like kettles in them

Bathrooms connecting to the bedroom (often without a door) - hot water. Drowning, scalding.

Pull cords on curtains - handy for swinging on ... and hanging yourself on.

Furniture not bolted to the wall - risk of toppling over.

No covers on electrical sockets.

Fixed hairdryer - another "toy" for a child to strangle themselves with.

Perhaps I just place my child's safety above my desire for a drink and a spot of "me time". And I'm sure the McCann's thought they were being good parents too.

Small places/b&bs don't tend to have connecting doors.

Bathrooms without doors?!? Where have you been staying as I've never seen this? I wouldn't leave a child not in a cot to have access to a bathroom but it sounds incredibly rare.

Pull cords on blinds should be fixed to the wall and child safe but most places I've seen have curtains.

Furniture not bolted to the wall. Again most places I've stayed don't have unfixed furniture that could fall but should be checked, especially in a b&b which doesn't tend to have the standardised built-in units.

Covers on electrical sockets are not recommended and interfere with the function and safety of BSE certified plug sockets. I don't use them at home.

Fixed hairdryers don't tend to be in the smaller places/b&b, if they are they're out of reach of small children, don't get very hot so I wouldn't consider them unsafe, and are behind the closed bathroom door.

If a parent doesn't believe the room is safe then they shouldn't do it. However in many cases it's no different to staying at a friends house and being downstairs after putting the child to bed and many large hotels offer a child listening service which is no different although it's not the parent listening and tge parent is even further away.

The McCanns left the building and went down the road to a restaurant They didn't even have a child monitor as they weren't near enough.

TBagpuss

OP, what do you plan to be doing in the evenings? If you plan to be going out, then getting the baby ready for bed and then popping him/her back in their buggy makes a lot of sense. If you envision staying in the hotel and reading / watching TV then maybe you could consider being noiser / having more light on at home as you put baby to bed so that they get used to sleping through noise/lights.

picklekin

LilElvis wrote: »

No covers on electrical sockets.

I'm about to adopt and have been baby proofing my house and have been doing some reading. Just wanted to point out that experts do not advise using socket covers which actually undermine the inherent safety features in plug sockets:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5039454/Electrical-socket-safety-covers-are-absurd-and-dangerous-say-engineers.html

lady1964

When my youngest DD was 8 months, we stayed at Butlins for a week. We had two older ones too so wanted them to have some kind of evening so we got youngest into her sleepwear, had a bottle made up in a bag along with a light blanket & went to the clubhouse. she usually dropped off to sleep in her buggy so we simply lifted her from that to her cot when we got back.

Kynthia

My daughter is 2 and takes an age to fall asleep so we don't stay in hotel rooms with her any more and she doesn't fall asleep in her pushchair. I'm happy to have her stay up late when we're so out but we arent ones for the 'evening entertainment' in many places so we prefer at least one bedroom and a lounge or a seperate child's sleeping area. We've done Centre Parcs a few times already and we did a lovely gite in Brittany last summer. This summer we're giving the Butlins hotel a try as she's big enough for tge bed in the seperate area.i would consider a small b&b with a lounge we could go to that was nice and laid out in a way I was comfortable with.

As your child is so young at the moment I'd take them out to fall asleep in the pushchair. Next year, as you're restricted to school holidays, abroad might be better value and North France has many places ideal for families. Check out Tots Travel type sites for ideas. Or do you have friends or family you would consider holidaying with as it's cheaper to split the cost of a lodge/holiday home. Air b&b could be an option but I've not used it myself. Plus caravan sites for mini breaks if you don't mind going after work Friday and coming back Sunday evening, as it is handy having seperate bedrooms and a kitchen.

Spendless

As a generalisation. Half terms tend to be cheaper than the main summer holidays. The last week of the school holidays tends to be cheaper than the other weeks, but check your area. From time to time, some areas are out of sync with most of the others and are cheaper because of it. Still gutted I didn't realise this about my areas Feb half term this year, that was a week earlier than everywhere else. By time I'd realised, DH was booked on a business trip!

If you look at the week/s available first you might find you've got a week that is more affordable for you to get say a 2 bed SC accommodation.

Also if the one of you who works in education, works p-time and not across 5 days you may have term-time dates to play with when commencing/ending your holiday.