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What is the minimum age you can bring a baby on a ski holiday

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
So Mrs Monkey is expecting at the start of February which is nice and all but it doesn't half muck up my(our) ski season.

Early season is going to be out of the question cos she'll be fatty-boom-boom.

Late season she'd (we'd) be dead keen to get away if it was possible to share childcare between us. We could maybe even bring one of the grannies to help out with childcare.

I have concerns though that flying/travelling/ski accommodation and all that faffing would just be a nightmare with a newborn (say for the sake of argument 6-10weeks old). Also, whilst she appreciates that even if we did get away, she'd only be spending a limited time on the slopes, i think she underestimates just how bored she'd be in a ski village all day on her own with a screaming ninja.

Has anyone been on a ski holiday with a young baby? Any suggestions (apart from lads holiday - i already suggested that and it went down like a fart-in-spacesuit)
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
monkey, if it were me I'd write off next season unless you can sneak off for a "business trip". Also, I've never squeezed a baby out but I can't imagine feeling much like going skiing so soon after.

Quote:

and all that faffing
not half.
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monkey wrote:
We could maybe even bring one of the grannies to help out with childcare.


^ this.

Not *quite* as young as yours, and I realise that's a different hill of beans, but we took a 5 month old last year, and a non-skiing friend who very kindly agreed to do a lot of babysitting in return for a free sightseeing trip up an Alp.

Formula milk, lotsa warm clothes, a sling/papoose thing for walking around, bish bash bosh, done.
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Oooh - is this the sort of thing grannies can do? Little Angel Little Angel
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Leave the baby at home with grandparents and get away for some "you" time.

You could also take Mrs Monkey Toofy Grin
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cathy wrote:
Oooh - is this the sort of thing grannies can do? Little Angel Little Angel

Granny Outlaw, he said a non-skiing babysitter...
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mmm. difficult one. we've done with 9 month old.

during pregnancy/birth, there will be a lot of a hormone called relaxin (purpose is to relax the pelvic ligaments to facilitate the birth process) flowing through her body. In some (but not all) women, the secretion is systemic, which leads to excessive joint laxity. So if Mrs Munkie is a bit wobbly in the postpartum period, she may struggle on skis; encourage her to do some strength and balance training. This may or may not be "bad for your health", though...

She may also want to spend all her time with BabyMonkey; you will have to play by ear but I would think anything before April is unrealistic. Also, unless you live at high altitude (and guessing from your location you're not), you may want to think about area as we have found high altitude (1850 in Les Menuires this year) to be problematic for our 9 month old's sleep (and she is a REALLY "well-sleeping" baby - much better than most friends').

Of course this doesnt quite fit with going late in the season, so you may want a relatively low base with high mountains: perhaps try somewhere like:
- Finkenberg or Mayrhofen in Austria - both of which have resort at <900m but slopes up to around 3000m, and with Hintertux glacier nearby
- base yourself in Interlaken (at <600m) and ski in nearby resorts e.g. Wengen or Murren (at around 2900m)
- Chamonix (resort at 1050m, slopes up to 3000+)

Hope this helps.

ps - taking a granny (HER mum) is highly recommended anyway. If Mrs M doesnt feel like skiing she and granny can spend all day playing doll.
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rob@rar wrote:
cathy wrote:
Oooh - is this the sort of thing grannies can do? Little Angel Little Angel

Granny Outlaw, he said a non-skiing babysitter...

Well of course grannies don't go skiing Confused I think it's important they have some time to themselves though, especially if there's lots of lovely fresh snow around..... Madeye-Smiley
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Both my girls were born in September so that they were old enough to come skiing in the following March. For the first one we were lucky enough to take my Bil's non skiing Nanny Very Happy
For the second one we took Granny. We skied in Avoriaz which was useful as Granny had plenty to see from a Sunny restaurant terrace and we could ski in circuits passing the restaurant and stopping off if 'drinks' were required Toofy Grin
After that we used TO's with a free Creche/Nanny service.

http://www.skifamille.co.uk/have in the past offered a Granny stays free special offer. I'm not sure if they are doing that for the coming season. Probably best sign up for their news letter for special offers.¬


Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Thu 2-09-10 15:44; edited 1 time in total
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Considering taking our wee poppet next Jan. She will be 5 1/2 months by then. Self catering, bringing 1 Granny to babysit, short transfer etc. Maybe Avoriaz?

monkey,

Ours is 6 weeks at the moment and I reckon it would be pretty tough work going on holiday, though not impossible.
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johnboy, Resort choice depends a lot on Granny I suspect, we were lucky ours was happy to push/pull the buggy around Avoriaz and sit in the sun on the Restaurant terrace and watch the skiing world go by, BiL's family was with us as well so Granny had her Daughters and Grandchildren for entertainment as well.
Thinking about it that week was possibly the longest time she has ever had all of us for company Very Happy
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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.
Maybe take a look at somewhere like Kitzbuhel where if she/granny doesn't want to ski there's more to do in the village/nearby 'attractions' (Innsbruck - shopping?).
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monkey, our eldest was 11 weeks old on her first trip (and 14 weeks on her second Embarassed)

Obviously it was different to our usual holidays but it worked fine for us. I probably wouldn't have booked a trip (or trips) that early but my wife was very keen! I don't remember the 'faffing' around being too problematic but I may have just blocked out the memories. We were lucky that she slept very well from a young age - I think a holiday with a young baby waking often in the night would be horrendous (for you and anyone else nearby).
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Perhaps have a look on the mumsnet ski forum, there is loads of advice on there about going skiing with babies and children, best resorts for those not sking etc.

You sound very brave though even contemplating it.
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Boredsurfing, I might wheel out Granny again, you'll just have to wait and see!

The youngest baby we have had clients bring out was seven weeks and we have a few every season in the 3-6 months kind of age group. You don't want to go too high with very yong ones as they could struggle, as flagged up by boardiac. This biggest struggle could be Mum's ability to ski as also mentioned before, all kinds of things going on with the body that could have a real impact.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
ctskifam, Go on get Granny out at least for January and April, they are looking pretty dire at the mo, I reckon wink Toofy Grin
Plus pay before January 4th and get the old cheap rate of VAT Twisted Evil

Free marketing advice, what more could snowHeads give you Laughing Laughing
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My son was born 1st July by c-section and I was horseriding again by mid-August. Skiing would be easy in comparison.

I'm going with Mark Warner in January primarily because of their baby care/nanny service.

Lake Louise take babies from 18 days old - but getting a passport might be a pita.
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Boredsurfing, if it weren't for snowHead s top tips I don't know where I'd be Toofy Grin
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I wouldn't look at mumsnet - there was a thread on this before, and apparently mumsnetters were very po-faced about it all. Personally I wouldn't hesitate to take a 6 week old baby on a ski holiday (I took our third, at 6 weeks, on a trip to Disneyworld and Washington - with a 5 and 7 year old. Absolutely completely and utterly no problem. she was fully breastfed which makes the logistics dead easy. You would obviously not expect to get a lot of ski time in, though a granny is also a great idea (I am now that granny......).

It's probably easier with your 3rd baby than the 1st, and easier with some babies than others. If the baby is bottle fed it makes it easier for Mum to get more hours off - but it makes everything else a lot harder. By 6 weeks things are a bit easier, you know more what the baby needs, you feel more confident in your own judgement about what it needs, etc etc. I don't think being bored would be a big issue for someone used to being at home 24/7 with a baby - it's somewhere new to be bored. wink

It's far harder taking kids away once they can move around under their own steam.

The point about relaxed ligaments is a good one. You'd need to get straight back into post-natal physio (though that's something everyone should do anyway and it would be a good incentive) and do the right exercises, right from the start, under professional guidance to start with. Within two hours of delivery is about right to start gentle holding your stomach in. wink and then take it pretty easy on the slopes. I played squash at 6 weeks, which was a mistake, and my back ached quite a bit for a week or so afterwards.
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Thanks for all the beta guys. So much stuff i hadn't even thought of. Passport for the ninja, mrs M's relaxed ligaments, effect of altitude on the ninja.

Some great suggestions. I think the solution here is to wait until a few weeks after baby is born to make a decision. Then we'll have an idea of how baby sleeps etc. There could be the potential for a very late season mission if all is going smoothly. Bode Swiller, now i just need to get working on some idea for a good 'business trip'...
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Is this your first?

If so I would suggest waiting until next season. Even if not your first it will all depend on what happens at the birth as well. If she ends up in emergency C-section she may not even be able to hold her baby for any length of time for a week or so, and you are not even allowed to drive for a significant length of time etc etc.

My first was a nice home birth but i did have to have stitches (very common) and it was a few weeks before I could sit comfortably. It was quite a while before I was back at the gym (about 3months TBH).

My second I got pre-eclampsia, I was stuck in hospital trying to beg my way home which I finally managed on the 4th day provided I agreed to twice daily visits from the MW. However saying that, I did actually have my first hockey match just shy of 6 weeks. I think being my second I was definitely back to my normal self quicker. I also managed to not tear and need stitches which definitely helped.

I think waiting until after the birth before booking anything is definitely a good idea. All going well, you could well make it out there, good luck.
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monkey, we went through the same thought process this past season. Sideways_Junior was due to pop into the world early last December and missus and I were thinking "yeah no problems, 3 months old in march and we'll be able to get a week on the hill at least".... Nah. 2 weeks late and a C-Sec was the first blow. 2nd was lack of childcare - no tame grandma we could take with us, and sub-3 month childcare in the alps is rare to non-existant.

Why not start looking into a summer ski trip - almost went away to Hintertux this summer, but fate conspired against us again...

HOPEFULLY we've got the makings of a pre-christmas week in the offing... fingers crossed.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
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Richard, we were thinking of going last season but the combination of feeding issues - and trying to find childcare for under 6months - a few places do offer it from 4months but you are limited.... meant we decided to wait until this season. We are going with Ski Esprit on the 12 December. Our youngest will be 15months when we go.
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I was 36 the first time I took a baby on a ski holiday, but I've seen people in their mid-twenties do it too.


NehNeh
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OK in all seriousness there's no reason why you can't travel with an 8 week old if you're of the right mindset.
Colleague of myn quit work with his first newborn and set off on a 4 month camping road trip through Europe down to Turkey and back, so anything is possible.

Bear in mind if your wife is breast feeding then she’s probably not going to get any/much skiing in anyway as baby will probably be feeding at least 6-8 times a day (maybe more?), and even if she was expressing for you to feed then she’d need to be pumping the same amount at similar times to stop her supply drying up.

If you’re bottle feeding that’s a lot of faff to be dealing with on a ski trip, bottles/sterilisers/etc. But again it’s dealable with and far from impossible especially if you go with a family company who provides chalets with baby stuff (sterilisers, cots, etc).

If you’ve really worked hard at it with routines and bed time etc you might just be in a position where the baby is fairly reliably going down to bed at a set time and might be getting towards them sleeping through the night. Ours were both about 9 weeks before going through, but lots of friends took months before getting there. So bear in mind there’s a v. high probability there could still be night time feeds and that faff going on. Our second was hard work to get to bed until about 8 (ish) weeks and was taking sometimes an hour and a half to get settled. Can you deal with this in a typical ski holiday environment ? Again not a problem if you are of the mindset – it’s really down to you and your wife.

Basically, if you have the right mind set and attitude and can deal with things and be fleixlbe, there’s no reason you shouldn’t go. Just bear in mind you won’t get as much skiing in and your wife (if breast feeding) might not get any, and you’ll have a very different focus to your holiday!

We’ve been with several friends who’ve had 6-8 month olds. How you deal with an 8 week old will really depend on how the birth goes and how well you and your wife deal with and adapt to the new arrival !

Oh and don’t forget if you wife is due early feb she could be up to 2 weeks late taking you to the end(ish) of Feb, so your baby might only be 6 weeks come early April.

Don’t forget that as it’s late season you are talking you can leave things and book or DIY it at the last minute, so no rush to book (given you aren’t booking childcare). Wait till the birth, see how things go, and see how you get on with life once the baby has arrived. You’ll have a better outlook on things then.

G
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monkey wrote:
effect of altitude on the ninja.


I think this is sometimes overstated. Someone on here (stoaty it might have been) pointed out that the effective altitude in the cabin of a normal passenger aircraft is in the order of 2000m+, so worrying about having to stay in a resort below 600m seems a bit of a horse-has-bolted when you've already sent them to the top of a mountain and back just to get there.

We took our 5 month one up and down a cable car to over 2000m every single day, and he showed zero signs of distress - he either just looked around happily or simply had a kip. The local lifties raised their eyebrows at us a few times, and other passengers chimed in "make sure he's wrapped up warm, are you sure you should take him so high!?" etc but we just laughed in their stupid interfering faces.
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monkey, that'll teach you to get her pregnant at the right time of the year...

You can take a baby of any age to a ski resort. As far as I recall the hill at Lake Louise has a creche which will take sprogs from age 18 days who are still being breast-fed...

But:

1) Do you want to travel a long long way with a small baby?
2) You must be prepared for childcare to go titsup, for your sprog to be barred from nursery if they get the runs/a cough/a rash and we certainly regarded it as a victory if (when we took ours from 9 months or so onwards) if we each got to ski more than 75% of days.

So with where you are dates-wise I think you should either skip this year - or do lads-only. I also think you are right that your partner may (if this is sprog number 1) be underestimating just how much strain and stress and work it is looking after a baby in the first 8 weeks or so.
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Alexandra,
Quote:

My son was born 1st July by c-section and I was horseriding again by mid-August. Skiing would be easy in comparison

RESPECT!!! Congratulations btw!! Very Happy
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
To the OP, unless you're going by boat or train, the minimum age is 14 years old.
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We took a 10 weeker on a summer holiday last year and then at 5 months she cames skiing as well.

Airports are a bit of a faff but not enough to stop a holiday (esp a skiing holiday). Once you're there the younger the better actually (they don't move much by 10 weeks). Ours was way easier at 10 weeks on holiday than at 5 months
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paulio, I think you missed the point. there is little effect, if any, on the larvae from going up the hill for short-ish periods (or flying for 90 mins or so). The problem comes with sleeping at night at around 2000m - which is a problem even for adults (here's a link for you: http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/1527029041352162).

Myself and Mrs B are both originally from Madeye-Smiley Johannesburg in South Africa (which is at about 1750-1800m with not a mountain in sight), so dont have much trouble acclimatising even though we now live in the UK, but still had poor quality sleep at 1850m.
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I didn't miss any point. I said that the effects of altitude on children are "sometimes overstated".
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I have it on reliable authority that people who live in alpine regions breed (occasionally with non-blood relatives) and have babies too.....I am not aware of them taking the nippers down the valley for the first few months of their lives.

Having said that, I am happy to be proven wrong.....
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Quote:

If you’ve really worked hard at it with routines and bed time etc you might just be in a position where the baby is fairly reliably going down to bed at a set time and might be getting towards them sleeping through the night.

well maybe, but it's a bit hopeful having any kind of "routine" in the first couple of months, and no good knocking yourselves out about it. the great thing about a breastfed baby is it doesn't take long - around 3 seconds? to get a meal ready.

The Voice of Reason, populations who live at high altitude have evolved a different body chemistry. When the Spaniards started living on the Bolivian altipano all their babies died, though the locals had been having babies at that ridiculous altitude for many a long year. Also, practically nobody lives in the Alps the altitude of places like Tignes.

I'd thoroughly agree with no booking anything till much nearer the time. And if you think the performance of a 10 day old baby gives you any guide to what same baby will be doing at 5, 6 or 7 weeks (or even 15 days) you could be in for a shock.

My daughter had trouble breastfeeding her baby initially, and very sore nipples. To give them a rest, and her a chance to sleep, we used to take it in turns to syringe feed. Big faff, and not something I'd want to be doing away on a holiday. But by 6/7 weeks most breastfeeding mothers have it sorted.

Point about babies being late is important - my first two were induced because 14 days overdue. That 14 days felt more like 14 weeks!
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pam w, Hence my point being about Alpine regions, not the Himalayas or Andean Plateaux.....
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The Voice of Reason, whatever the altitude you live at, your body adapts to it - slowly. There are alpine restaurants at the same kind of altitude as La Paz. An adult living in Nottingham can cope with going to stay in Tignes at 2300m though some people feel unwell and many people find their sleep disrupted. Babies under 3 months have immature lungs which can't necessarily adapt so quickly. A baby born to a mother who is lives in an alpine village will have the same ability to cope with it as its mother; a baby born to a mother in Nottingham won't and its immature lungs may not be able to adapt so well to a sudden change. Also, adults with sleep disruption generally keep their problems to themselves....

It's not really too good an idea to suggest that medical advice is mistaken, or that doctors have somehow stupidly overlooked the fact that mountain dwellers sometimes have babies.
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i think wait and see is the best advice, you don't know how this pregnancy will develop and what might happen. You can always book last minute.

i wrote off the seasons i had my kids in, because it was hard work, and i didn't want to leave them at such a young age in creche. My husband went on 2 lads trips.

however you may find (as everyone seems to say) that you are fine. To be honest the baby will be fine, it will be you guys who need to be in a fit state!
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pam w, Yeah yeah, my bad - I had missed the part about taking the nipper up the mountain for lunch rolling eyes
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fair enough, paulio, but you DID then use examples of flying and taking the kids up the hill during day time.
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Quote:

Also, adults with sleep disruption generally keep their problems to themselves....

yes, Pam w, that's VERY true! Lucky for us our flatmates brought ear plugs!
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