 Poster: A snowHead
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I'm in a real quandary. My son will be 3 months old in February so I had written off this coming ski season. My brother will be going for the first time in six years with his wife, six year old son and two year old daughter, so my sister in law suggested we join them on the basis we can all take turns baby sitting etc. both wives suggested they would be happy taking the majority of baby duties... I'm really torn, sounds like a great idea in principal, but has anyone here taken a 3 month year old skiing before? How much skiing did you actually get to do?? Nothing is booked but we were thinking French alps and driving to allow for all the baby junk.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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dredgey, there's no problem doing any trip with a 3 month old baby - a lot easier than a 10 month old who is likely to be crawling all over the place.
A two-family effort with shared baby sitting duties sounds OK to me. But you'll need to watch dates if you want to avoid big crowds in the French Alps in February - need to go in the first half of the month.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Don't go high altitude. And try to get accommodation with a washing machine, then you really won't need to take much stuff.
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Encouraging comments! Good point about a 3 month year being easier than a 10 month year old! Frustratingly if we do go we'd have to go in half term du to my brothers kids school terms.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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if we do go we'd have to go in half term du to my brothers kids school terms
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then it might be best to avoid the French alps.
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Took my 6 month old to La tania, all good..................
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3 month old babies are exceptionally easy to travel with if breastfed (though that would limit your wife's ski outings to shortish ones, obviously). But even with formula, you only need a supply of the formula you use (best not to change) and the means of sterilising bottles. Far easier than faffing with solid food. You can rent buggies in ski resorts to cut down the stuff you need to carry and a 3 month old doesn't really need a cot.
They will stay where you put them (at that age my daughter slept in the drawer in a hotel in Florida and Washington DC and did a series of flights, including long-haul, being carried in a carrier - we didn't even have a push chair). As long as their familiar people are with them, they won't bother about surroundings whereas a 10 month old can be quite disoriented in unfamiliar places, away from home.
I'd think carefully about whether to drive or fly - pros and cons of both.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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When I was last there Lake Louise Day care took kids from 18 days old, and would ring/page mothers when they needed feeding . So there are places where you don't even need to arrange friends to care. But no personal experience below 10 months.
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What's to think about, book the holiday. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I skied in the Feb after having a baby at the end of the previous October, my baby was just 4 months old. We have also been when she was 14 months and 16 months, just about to go again and she is 26 months and going to have her first lesson.
It is perfectly do-able. I'd advise driving, you can take all you need. If formula fed take your milk with you and if possible liquid feed as the water can taste quite different and will put some babies off their milk. If there is a microwave, microwave steriliser bags worked brilliantly. If you can get it access to a washing machine too. Take a carrier, don't bother with a pram in resort. You'll find lots of useful advice on the route down from this forum and baby friendly places to stop over if needed.
Go for it. Your wife will find a bit of her old self again and the realisation that she can exist for a few hours away from the baby and enjoy herself.
Good luck!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I skied 12 out of a possible 13 days, even if it was just a few hours a day. Only missed the one day as we were up all night - Mr Farry got food poisoning.
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dredgey, I'd go for it if I was you.
We always took ours on ski holidays every year from birth, our eldest was 10 weeks old when he went on his first ski holiday to Verbier. We have travelled both by plane and car and as long as you are well organised it shouldn't be a problem.
He's now working for ski Esprit for the season so he got the bug at an early age. It is also a relief for us as it means we don't have to pay for his lift pass any more 
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You know it makes sense.
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dredgey, We went when our son was 9 months, my advice would be to choose a low resort with easy slopes access, that will give you the choice of walking with baby and toddler round the town and not stuck in the apt all day, without the higher resorts issue of too much ice etc on the pavements. It's not good to take babies too high, we were stopped by the lift staff at L2A, it's can damage their ears I believe. I would look at Samoens, easy access to GVA and the GM skiing area. Use bottled water for the baby may be advisable if on formula. Good luck and enjoy it.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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dredgey, we went when our twin boys were 13-months and Mrs B was pregnant with the next - with planning it can be done.
We went the next year when twins were 2ish and baby was 3-months.
Do it
We had a catered chalet with Creche and left made up bottles - is easily done
The only down side is kids are now 13 and 11 and can all ski better than me 
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Poster: A snowHead
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We did with friend with a tiny about that age and a 6 year old - austria, low pretty village (radstadt in our case). Seemed to work out fine, go for it!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Hi
Go !!
We did Chamonix with a 3 month old and the in laws. Worked great. That was with our now 8 year old. Then we did Jackson Hole with a 8 month old (younger one - now 5 and a half).
Plus all the ages in between ! Never missed a year. So we did a combination of childcare and parents / us taking turns. All went well. Millie got sick on the Chamonix trip and we did end up at the hospital as she had breathing problems, but that happens with her lost here in the UK. Same solution and it was solved in 1 hour easily.
Main advice is take the products you use in the UK and not rely on buying locally. Milk etc... as its all different.
But get them going as soon as possible in the mountains and don't let kids change your plans too much Ours have now done 11 and 9 weeks on snow and we can ski all over the mountain as a family. Re altitude. We kept Millie below 2000m, but Evie we didn't worry and never had an issue.
Alex
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Yes skiing with a baby is fine - like others have said it is best to avoid staying in high altitude resorts - you can always stay a bit lower down and go up to ski. And take uK formulae etc as suggested by Alex
But if you really want to ski rather than queue then avoid half term ( especially in France ) - you can get a lot of skiiing done in a few hours when there are no queues. And consider either taking grandparents for childcare or using a family friendly ski company ( Mark Warner, Ski Beat, Ski Esprit, Ski Magic, Family Friendly Ski Company all have in house UK nannies - and there are other companies too) or a private nanny - try T4 or Merinannies. We had a super nanny from T4 last week who looked after our youngest after ski school in our self catered apartment.
Skiing is expensive and it seems a shame to go in school holidays when you have no child of your own at school.
Going with a company that offers childcare ( and maybe a catered chalet too) will mean that both you and your wife will actually get a holiday/rest.
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Worst part of our trip, was Mrs B was only 9 weeks pregnant so we hadn't told family and friends we were with. As such at the meals I had to sneakily drink all the free wine Mrs B was being offered - it was hell I tell you
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Yeah go for it. I've taken a 5 month old - admittedly that's quite a percentage older than 3 months! - but we had him up and down cable cars to the caf and all sorts. It might grumble a bit, but it'll be fine.
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Use bottled water for the baby may be advisable if on formula.
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Ehh? Where do you think the tap water in mountain resorts comes from? Mountain springs, the same place as the bottled stuff comes from. Maybe even better if you buy cheap bottled water which is just filtered tap water anyway.
To the OP - I'd say don't underestaimate the child care element and don't assume that one person will just do it each day as then its not much of a holiday for the kids (more relevant for a 2 yo than an 3 month old) and the nominated person will go stir crazy that day (most ski resorts are dull places if you can't spend too long outside), I'd be more worred about entertaining the 2yo than the 3 month old. But if people are willing to devote some time to non-skiing things togther then go for it.
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Flet©h, use bottled water on the basis that there have been frequent reports of water born bugs in ski resort tap water, a couple of which I have been hit by, it's not great losing a day with a dodgy stomach as an adult, far more serious for a young baby. The bottled water is tested for quality.
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Flet©h, I may be paranoid, but I never drink water in resorts from tap.
Have seen reports, possibly here, about the chemicals used for snow making getting into water supply and making people ill.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Our youngest was born 2nd November and we went skiing with her in the following feb, Driving non stop overnight to Andorra, village altitude 1800m, no problems, overnight driving is the best with kids, they sleep most of the way. PS she was skiing from top to bottom of the mountain by 4 yr old
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Flet©h, use bottled water on the basis that there have been frequent reports of water born bugs in ski resort tap water, a couple of which I have been hit by, it's not great losing a day with a dodgy stomach as an adult, far more serious for a young baby. The bottled water is tested for quality.
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I've never seen such a report, definately not from a repuateable source but not even some hearsay posted on here. All the information I have seen is that mountain tap water is very high quality, maybe it varies by resort and I've been lucky.
The risk of getting a dodgy stomach in a ski resort is due to the number of people coming though the resort with all their bugs, the confined warm spaces to incubate all of the germs, the dodgy cooking by cooks more focused on skiing time than kitchen hygene and the tired (and emotional at times) people being less equiped to ward of the bugs.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I'm in a minority of one here, but I'm not sure I'd take a baby skiing if I could avoid it. Others have obviously done it and it seemed to work well, but I can't say I'd fancy it.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I'm in a minority of one here, but I'm not sure I'd take a baby skiing if I could avoid it. Others have obviously done it and it seemed to work well, but I can't say I'd fancy it.
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Obviously this is the best "practical" solution IF you are able and willing to leave a baby in the hands of others for that time, we weren't able and Mrs T was definitely not willing!.
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tangowaggon, By this I meant that I would probably not have skied that year. Not that you should have abandoned your baby 
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You know it makes sense.
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One other thought to chuck in. If you can, I suggest you go for truly ski-in, ski-out accomodation. That way you can make the babycare shifts half days or even less and have a lot more flexibility about the rota (e.g. in our case Grandma opted out of any afternoon with poor light and did the babysitting instead).
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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pam w and others here have suggested there is a problem with infants and altitude.
The problem is what is meant by "altitude"
If you google "young children and altitude" you will find a number of articles that seem to suggest you need to be careful with infants.
However, if you read the articles carefully, they are usually talking about 3000m and above.
There are no European resorts at that level.
The most sensible advice i found was from Childrens Health Network:
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Newborns and mountain travel
Destinations and staying overnight in locations above 8,000 feet are a concern if you have a newborn. However, brief travel over mountain passes (10,000 to 11,000 feet) is safe. In general, travel to elevations above 8,000 feet are best postponed for the first month of life, unless you live at that elevation and your pregnancy took place there. If you are coming from sea level with a newborn, you should avoid mountain vacations above 8,000 feet for the first 1 or 2 months of life. Travel to the mountains shouldn't cause any problems if the destination is less than 8,000 feet. |
8000ft is 2438.4m
We took both our children skiing at the age of 3-4 months. Rosie went to Obergurgl (1930m). and Tom to Zermat (1600m, but occasionally taken up to Trockener Steg at 2,939 metres).
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Poster: A snowHead
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I'm in a minority of one here, but I'm not sure I'd take a baby skiing if I could avoid it. Others have obviously done it and it seemed to work well, but I can't say I'd fancy it.
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I've done it (9 month old) and I'm not going to repeat it. It's not particularly bad, its certainly not difficult but I can't really see the point.
Either you miss skiing time or someone else looks after the baby until you get back when you have to feed it, bath it and put it too bed. You then have the same evening you would have had anyway. If the parents do the childcare then you go on holiday but never get to spend time with you partner.
If spending time with you baby is the main priority then skiing isn't the holiday for you, babies can't ski. If you are worried about leaving the baby then its no solution either as you will be doing this anyway just in the resort, rather than at home with grandparenets where the kids can play with their toys, go to the park, be spoiled etc.
Ovioulsy it is possilbe to do a completely different skiing holiday with family/other people with kids, somewhere which isn't just a ski resort etc. but bringing a baby on a regular skiing holiday... I'd say "easy enough but why?".
That said I can't wait till mine are old enough to start skiing. Then they are definately coming, finances pending!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I'm not sure I'd take a baby skiing if I could avoid it. Others have obviously done it and it seemed to work well, but I can't say I'd fancy it.
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Depends what the alternative is. For most families the alternative is no ski holiday at all. I don't know why people are so bothered about the person responsible for child care going "stir crazy" if they have to spend all day at it! I have just Skyped my daughter, at home with an 18 month old and a 3 year old and it has rained solidly for days. My son in law took the 3 year old out for a 3 mile ride on her new Christmas bike today - he jogged. It rained, they got v wet. A 2 year old can be entertained for some time with a small beach spade and a couple of buckets full of snow on the apartment balcony. And having a stick to poke into the walls of snow where paths have been cleared is fun, too. With a few toy cars you can make a helter skelter. And a stack of favourite DVDs - for when your imagination runs out of ideas.
I do agree that it's a shame to go away at half term when you have a tiny baby. Finding another family with a similar age child and going in January or the last couple of weeks of March would be preferable.
I also agree that skin in/out is a good idea, from all kinds of points of view, with small kids and sharing child care. The person on child care duty can also prepare lunch for everyone else. Time flies when you're busy.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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pam w, I'm not saying you can't do it, it's more a question of the fact that a skiing holiday is not cheap and bringing a baby along is likely to reduce the enjoyment in some respects. i.e. will one parent have to stay in the chalet much of the time? Can the parents ski together as much as usual etc. Personally, I'd rather save the money and spend it a better summer holiday that, arguably, works better with an infant. OR, just toss a coin and one of you goes with friends.
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foxtrotzulu, I don't disagree. My daughter and son in law can't afford the sort of holiday where other people get paid to look after their kids and though both are very keen skiers they wouldn't go if one of them had to be child-careing all the time. So they come on holiday to my place - I bring their bulky stuff out by car, I pick them up from Geneva airport, I look after the kids without being paid and I organise the food. That sound more reasonable? 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| dredgey wrote: |
| I'm in a real quandary. My son will be 3 months old in February so I had written off this coming ski season. My brother will be going for the first time in six years with his wife, six year old son and two year old daughter, so my sister in law suggested we join them on the basis we can all take turns baby sitting etc. both wives suggested they would be happy taking the majority of baby duties... I'm really torn, sounds like a great idea in principal, but has anyone here taken a 3 month year old skiing before? How much skiing did you actually get to do?? Nothing is booked but we were thinking French alps and driving to allow for all the baby junk. |
Do it! Don't be in a quandary, just take your son and get your wife out on the slopes as well. Suggest a Nanny service (expensive but worth it) for at least part of the time so both you & your wife can enjoy the trip as well. I suppose it depends on your feelings on leaving your baby with someone you don't know.
My view is that life is way to short to miss these kinds of opportunities.
We personally went to Val D'Isere when my daughter was 4 months old (having just done 3 weeks with her in a camper van up the East coast of Australia) and left her with a nanny during the day. We boarded all morning, had an early lunch, did a couple of hours in the afternoon and then went to collect the baby mid afternoon to take her swimming or to the farm or something else we could do as a family.
I'm so glad we did it.
Although she can't remember either trip, we now have pictures to show her and she now 'loves' the mountains and now aged 4, she is looking forward to her 2nd set of ski lessons in Jan - get them there early and create a ski monster!
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As a father of 3 I speak from experience taking all ours as babies to Valmorel in the french Alps. We always drove as this makes carting the baby gear easy. The best advice I can offer is treat it as a family holiday, time for sharing with the kids rather than burning up the miles. Make use of the lift system and meet others for lunch, taking a baby up a gondola is no problem provided the weather is good and you can shade the baby from the sun at the restaurant.
What we used to do was take it in turns to go skiing, made an hour or two at a time, then meet up. Depending on the resort you can take pushchairs but in general I found a sling was better. Of course sometimes it gets stressful...like the time I was carrying a 6 month baby, whilst walking with my 6 and 3 yr olds, carrying skis, when the 3 yr old managed to get her head stuck in some railings! But that just prepares you for later years when you try to get them all out skiing in the morning!!
One very important thing though. Don't take very young babies to high resorts. One year our youngest had accident and we ended up in Albertville hospital with a lady who was staying in Courcheval with her 4 month old baby who had problems and had to be hospitalised. We always stayed at around 1200m and had no issues at all.
Now all the kids are teenagers, and totally relaxed on snow and travelling. Not to mention the years of precious memories we have. So don't angst about it, just do it!
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like the time I was carrying a 6 month baby, whilst walking with my 6 and 3 yr olds, carrying skis, when the 3 yr old managed to get her head stuck in some railings!
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You are right about treating it as a family holiday. I drove into our village today, for a cross-country ski lesson, earlier than I normally do and saw lots of families taking kids off to ski lessons, walking to the meeting areas, parents often in ordinary shoes and clearly not gagging to be off skiing. Lots of toboganning goes on, and building igloos, and generally mucking round in the snow. Also lots of three-generation families. It's a winter holiday in the mountains, not exclusively a "ski holiday" for lots of French families (and the overwhelming majority in my area are French).
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| Flet©h wrote: |
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Flet©h, use bottled water on the basis that there have been frequent reports of water born bugs in ski resort tap water, a couple of which I have been hit by, it's not great losing a day with a dodgy stomach as an adult, far more serious for a young baby. The bottled water is tested for quality.
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I've never seen such a report, definately not from a repuateable source but not even some hearsay posted on here. All the information I have seen is that mountain tap water is very high quality, maybe it varies by resort and I've been lucky. |
Yep that's absolute horlicks. Tapwater born illness is something that may have been true in Europe in the 70s, but not now. Complete nonsense.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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My son was a March baby which was bad timing from a skiing point of view. However, we went just before his first birthday and it was fine. The hotel owners had kids so we borrowed a pushchair off them. We had a kettle in our room for sterilising (although as he was 11 1/2 months it wasn't as important). European supermarkets sell huggies and pampers. We even bought some local baby food in jars. We took the ready measured sachets of formula (I assume they still do those - he's nearly 10 now  ) We took him up to the top lift for the obligatory photo which was at 2800m. The resort was at 1700m. Don't recall even bothering about altitude. We flew and then hired a car so we could stop as often as we needed to. Really don't remember any issues at all.
However, when he was 2 1/4 we went to Majorca. Now that was a bloody nightmare! Little so-and-so was into everything, had to watch him like a hawk!
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Don't hesitate, I took a 7 week old to Morzine for a week without any difficulties a few years ago and was grateful for encouragement from several folk on this forum at the time.
We chose a lower altitude resort to be cautious, although surely babies must live at higher altitudes. No cable cars, chairlifts. Watched for effects from more dry air in resort or any breathing difficulties. Didn't downhill ski with infant obviously.
Feed or have a bottle for take off and landing if flying there, or even just a dummy to help reduce ear pain and don't fly if baby has an ear infection.
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FAQ
