Beach Holiday for 10 month old - any advice/warnings?

[Libby's Mom]

I will be taking my dd on an extended beach holiday & was wondering if anyone had any experience &/or advice to share on the matter.  We will be gone for almost a month (visiting family), so I am unsure how much & in what way she will change while we're away & therefore I'm not sure how to prepare.

Did you ever get to your destination & wish you had brought some crucial item?  Was there something you didn't anticipate that you wish you had been prepared for?  What toys did you pack that you couldn't live without?  What did you pack that you should have left at home?  How much sand is ok to ingest?  Any advice for airport/airplane?  I will be the only accompanying adult & am worried about being able to manage.

Any advice at all would be great, as I have really no idea what I'm in for!

[Heather]

We live 5 minutes from the beach so have spent a lot of time there with the kids when they were little. 

Is your 10 month old mobile?  I would suggest making sure that you have a large blanket, large enough that your baby can still have some mobility and yet not always be right next to the edge of the blanket.  That is, unless your baby is fully mobile in which case, watch out!!  :lol:   Also, if you are going to be somewhere hot, have a beach umbrella along too unless there are a lot of trees where you can sit in the shade.  Also, sunscreen is a must and a good sunhat of course.  Beware that sand sticks to sunscreen and is really yucky and gritty to clean up but of course sunscreen is worth it!

Our kids have ingested a lot of sand in their lives :oops: , it just comes back out the other end but just make sure you're not where there's any animal or bird poop around, that can be a real problem at a lot of beaches and you need to watch out for that.

That's all I can think of, but it's a bit different for us as we live so close to the beach if we forget something we can always go back home and grab whatever.

Have fun!!!! 

[ktmum]

We found that the beach tents were great - You can store your stuff in the shade and have loads of space for your lo.
Just check the area you are sitting for litter and poop.
Get loeads of sun screen and i found that a rash vest/sun suit helped DD keep covered up as well
We got her a wet suit for the sea too just to keep the chill off ( well we were in the UK after all :wink: )

[becca24]

Hi Libby,

We have just returned from a week camping at the beach. I second what the others said about the beach tent and the sunscreen. My dd also wore a suit that covered all of her body and half of her arms & legs plus a hat. (Harsh sun here in AUS  :lol: ). She is not crawling yet so it was easy to keep her under the beach tent.

One thing that came in handy was her baby bath. I had it packed away but took it camping and kind of 'dipped' her in it when returning from the beach and that got all the sand out of her bum  :lol:  (rather than having a few showers a day). BTW the 'swimming' nappies collected HEAPS of sand in them so I just put her swimsuit on with no nappy.

I didn't take many toys, she was happy to play with plastic cups and some shells we collected on the beach. I also took a large muslin wrap to hang over the pram to keep the sun of her.

She ate a bit of sand but everything was ok  :lol: