The O.S. Addict

Water
Amsterdam, like Seattle has potable water according to the KLM personnel that work there and some blog that Jason found. Jason and Nicholas both drank potable water from the Amsterdam airport bathroom sink. Both of them were fine and did not have any problems. Jason had one drink of water and Nicholas drank about 5 bottles (so 20 oz.) We were told by the locals in Munich that their water from the sink was also potable but we did not test that out. In Czech Republic and Poland we used bottled water. All water that is mineral water is from some spring and the source has a different mineral combo. The water that is the closest in taste to our tap water in the states is “natural from a spring” vs. “mineral”. “with gas” in Poland will tend to be on a red tag “Gazowana” and “not with gas” will be blue “Niegazowana” (similar in Czech Republic), or in German “mit” means “with”, “ohn” means “without”. We did once give Nicholas mineral water without gas that tasted very mineral-y but he did not mind one bit.
Formula
Nicholas still does not have the eating of solid food down so we had to use formula for a one year old. In the United States mostly Emphamil and Symilac, the big two, make toddler formula, and its a good idea to throw in a pound of it in your check in baggage since you don’t know when or where you will find it. In the US its packaged in a round container with a plastic lid, in Europe its in a aluminum bag encased in a cardboard box with a smaller scoop. The ratio is one small Euro scoop for 30 milliliters of water, you don’t have to boil the water water as long as its potable. Most bottles in US have milliliters as well as ounces. In Poland the brands are Bobovit and Bebiko. For a one year old its “3 junior” and on the bottom it will say from what month “od 8 miesiecy” or “od 9 miesiecy” (8 months or 9 months), or “od 1 rok” (one year). In Germany and Austria the main brand is Nestle, which is also available in Poland and it also has a large number on the box to indicate the next step of nutrition as well as the months on the bottom. Nestle 3 was what we used.
If your child is allergic to milk/ milk based formula and you need a special sensitive or soy formula you will have to bring your own supply for the duration of your stay. We did not see any soy milk formula for babies or toddlers in any of the countries we visited.
There is baby food in jars and you can guess by the pictures on it what fruit it is, the various cereals however required cooking the water and we did not experiment in mixing them with potable water.

We learned a lot on this trip regarding traveling with a one year old. Some of this information I wish I knew before we left. Since its 2 am and I can’t sleep because I am not adjusting to Seattle time these next postings will be in sections of “lessons learned” in between naps.

The mythical airplane basinet and the baby ticket:
We called a few months before our flight to reserve a bulk head seat for Jason and I and a basinet that attaches to the bulk head for Nicholas so that he could sleep in it. We were not told much, just that it was all reserved. When we got to the airport nothing was reserved. Lesson one: don’t just call a month in advance, call a second time 24 hours in advance. When we called a month before to buy Nicholas a ticket we gave our credit card information and were told that a ticket was bought for him but when we arrived at the airport there was no record of that and we were holding up the airplane from leaving trying to buy him a ticket. Lesson two: when you call 24 hours before the plane leaves also ask if your credit card was charged for the baby ticket and if they have it on the records that you have purchased a baby ticket not just that you are traveling with a baby, the child needs his/hers own ticket (about a fraction of yours in cost, or half of yours in cost if they will have their own seat on the plane). On the way back from Amsterdam to Seattle we finally got bulk head seats allowing Nicholas to crawl around by us comfortably and us being able to get a bottle ready for him while not standing in a sardine can space. Finally we were going to see the mythical airplane basinet and put him down in it for a nap, until the flight attended said “oh he is big, how much does he weigh?”. Lesson three: the airplane basinet is for babies roughly up to 6 months in age and can handle up to 9.6 lb of weight of a laying down baby. We have not seen one since Nicholas did not qualify for it but were told that its not like a play pan, its not that sturdy hence it can only accommodate a sleeping infant. What surprised me was that once Nicholas fell asleep while sitting on my lap facing out with my hands around him (fingers locked tightly), I also fell asleep for an hour without my hands unlocking, apparently I even snored.