Traveling with a Baby or Infant: Going Through Local Markets with your Baby or Infant in a Pram/Stroller/Pusher

Pushing a pram or stroller through a busy, crowded local market can be a challenge, as the pathways are narrow and people have to move to allow you to pass. With a smaller stroller, this would not be a problem.

I love going to local markets. It’s one of my favorite parts of traveling in third world countries (although I quite like it even in first world countries, it’s just not usually as colorful).  So this morning the first thing I did was head for the local morning market.  It opens early, around 4 or 5 AM, and closes fairly early, generally by around 8:30 or 9 AM.  You don’t spot many tourists there because by the time they venture out to explore the city, it’s already closed up.  For me, that’s part of the charm, although I love the all-day markets, too, especially since I’m not a morning person!

Of course, in the past I was not traveling with a baby, so now that I have an infant in tow, it’s a totally different experience.  This is especially true since I am now pushing a pram (stroller).  I guess maybe I am a bit crazy to bring a pram/ stroller to a local market, but I just can’t imagine carrying the weight of my Akiva (he’s an exceptionally good eater) and groceries to boot!  So pram/ stroller it was.

This sweet old man was one of dozens of locals happy to stop and play with Akiva - and Akiva loved the attention! Just make sure to pay attention to your baby's signs and cover him/her up when he/she wants a nap.

The first thing I noticed was that because I am using a full-size pram/stroller, it was a bit too wide to get through the aisles comfortably. Most of the time there was just enough space, but it did mean other people had to move out of the way for me to pass. In some places I just could not get through and I had to go around via the street.  With a small “umbrella” stroller it would have been quite easy to navigate.

The second thing I noticed was how everyone responded to Akiva.  Everyone wanted to play with him and everyone wanted to touch him. Mostly they just tickled his toes.  I am a pretty relaxed mom (you have to be to travel with an infant like this) so as long as they aren’t really in his face and he’s not sleeping, I don’t mind them tickling Akiva’s toes. He loves all the attention. Spoiled kid!

When the chaos of the market got to be too much for Akiva, he simply started to play with his toy. Babies older than 3 months know how to focus on one familiar object as a way of "switching off" and blocking out too much stimulation that would have made them cry when they were new-born.

Of course, the chaos of the market might be a bit too much for your baby to handle, so make sure they have a way to “switch off.”  This generally means bringing along a favorite toy.  Then when the surroundings are too much for your baby, he/she can focus on the toy, which is simple and familiar.  This helps avoid overstimulation.  You can also cover the baby’s pram with a muslin cloth or sun shade that stops bubba from seeing too much and stops people from touching and playing with him.

Overall, though, the market is still a fantastic experience!  Some vendors even gave me free tidbits of fruit to give Akiva, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

So if you are traveling, definitely take your baby to the market with you! It will be a great experience for you both!

Traveling with a Baby/Infant: Going Through Customs and Immigration

If you are traveling internationally with your baby/infant/newborn, as we have been recently, you will find yourself having to go through Customs and Immigration.  You will certainly have to go through Customs and Immigration when you enter a new country; you may also have to go through Customs and Immigration when you leave a country. It depends on where you are traveling to and from.

I’ve gone through Customs and Immigration a few times now with Adventuring Akiva and overall it has been a good experience.  As I mentioned yesterday, you generally get to skip the security line when traveling with a baby or infant; it is just the same with immigration.  Entering a new country today, we saw the security line was so long it almost overflowed out of the Immigration area and back into the regular part of the terminal!  It was a huge relief when a security guard spotted us and directed us to a short line specifically for the disabled, pregnant women, or families with infants or many small children.  This probably saved us waiting a couple of hours!

Going through Immigration with a baby is easy because they usually have a "priority" line and other people waiting in line are generally very happy to play with and help entertain your bub!

Of course, waiting in line with a baby is extremely unpleasant if your baby is crying, both for you and for others around you.  Fortunately, Akiva is a real adventurer and has never cried at Immigration (and only once at Security, for that matter!).  This is great because then the other people in line are happy to help entertain your bored baby and everyone around you is full of smiles.

It’s also nice going through Immigration with a baby because it tends to cheer up the immigration officer; well, at least if you have a cute, happy baby!  I like to make jokes with the Immigration officer and make Akiva “say hi” or smile at him/her.  It’s nice when you see a stony guard crack a reluctant but unsuppressible  grin.  Going through Immigration with a baby has been very easy for me!

I actually do not know much about going through Customs with a baby because, although I have gone through Customs a couple of times with Akiva, I have never had anything to declare and they have never randomly stopped me.  Maybe they think randomly stopping a tired and harassed mom dragging luggage and pushing a pram is not worth the hassle!

Anyway, at least you do not need to worry about going through Immigration with a baby.  As long as your visas and documents are in order, it’s a breeze!

Traveling with a Baby: Going Through Security Checks

Our Adventuring Akiva is now 7 months old and has taken 7 flights.  That should make me a qualified expert on going through airports with a baby.  One thing you will experience when traveling with a baby, especially if you are traveling by air, is the security checks you will have to go through.

I find that actually traveling with an infant has some perks.  In Sydney International Airport today, we encountered an exceptionally long line waiting to go through security.  We bypassed it all and were put in a special line for people with infants or with disabilities.  We did not have to wait in the long line holding an overactive infant.

Usually, people are happy to see a baby, especially if the baby is not crying.   Suddenly the security guards cease to be “guards” and just become “people” – they smile at the baby and will coo at him just like anybody else!  It’s really nice.   And if your baby is crying, usually people will look at you with sympathy and understanding (remember, many of them are parents, too!), and will treat you with kindness as a result.  This came as something of a surprise to me because I expected a crying baby to be greeted with annoyance, but that has not been my experience at all!

Generally, security are very understanding and supportive.  They will help you with the baby, almost always supplying you with a portable “change table” style bed to lay the baby on while you fiddle with your other belongings.  This is incredibly helpful, especially if you can convince someone, whether security guard or fellow passenger, to play with the baby while you get your other belongings in order.

Of course, going through security is still something of an inconvenience, no matter how you look at it.  This is again especially true when you are traveling with a baby.  Often when I travel with a baby, I put him in a carrier (like a Baby Bjorn) or a sling just to make things easier.  In small airports with few people going through security, the security guards will sometimes be very understanding and let you just “wear” the baby through the metal detector, especially if it’s a simple sling made only of fabric.  On the other hand, if you are going through a busy line, are in a big airport, or are traveling internationally, the security guards will be apologetic yet strict.  You must remove the baby and the carrier, sending the carrier through the scanner and carrying the baby in your hands through the metal detector.

If you are traveling with a stroller, you must remove the infant (and anything else that may be hiding underneath the pram or in its pockets), fold up the stroller, and put it through the X-ray machine, while carrying your baby through security.

As for baby food, I have had security ask me before about food for the baby.  When Akiva was very young (he first flew at age 2 months), I brought bottles of expressed milk for him.  Security never said a thing about them; they did not even check to see if they were more than 100 mL (they probably were).  On today’s flight, security asked me if I had baby food for him.  I make my own baby food, so I simply brought “solid” foods for him, like red lentils and roasted pumpkin and sweet potato.  These foods are “solid” enough not to be considered “liquid” (like a puree), yet are soft enough that I can mash them up on the plane for Akiva to eat.  It’s the perfect solution, plus it keeps me in line with my person desire not to feed Akiva premade or processed baby foods.

So I did not find going through security with an infant that difficult at all! Security guards love babies just like everybody else and more often than not they understand how challenging it can be to travel with a baby, so they try to help you out as much as possible.

Happy travels!

Parshas Mikeitz: Traveling out of Necessity

So we are hitting the road again, which is kind of a funny statement given that we’ve been traveling pretty steadily since Tishrei.  Of course, it really depends on what you  define as “traveling.”  I mean, is it travel if you move every day? Once a week? Once a month?  What qualifies?  Anyway, I would say we have been on the move since about 3 months ago.

We're on the move again!

Next week, we are planning to go on Adventuring Akiva’s first big international trip.  He’s already been on 6 flights in 6 months (he’s only 6 months old!) so he’s a pro.  He’s traveled more than Rabbi Ben traveled when he was an infant, so maybe one day he will surpass his father.

We are on the move because, for various reasons, we have to be.  We’re not necessarily traveling because we want to (although of course we do want to; you know us!).  Sometimes, circumstances require you to move whether you want to or not.  You’re forced from your place.

We see a lot of forced moves in the Torah. In fact, it seems that we Jews are constantly being forced to move from our homes, like it or not.  It’s partly why we have such a strong tradition of maintaining our own clothing, language, customs, and identity (and even living in our own neighborhoods, or “ghettos”) no matter where in the world we are living.  There’s no point in assimilating to the local culture if you’re just going to have to move on, like it or not!

Recently, I heard a shiur about Parshas Vayetzei that mentioned how Yaakov (Jacob) had to flee his home.  He goes to sleep in a certain place where he has the well-known dream of angels going up and down a ladder.  He had to be in that place at that time in order to have such a dream.  Even if he did not want to be fleeing his home or heading for the home of wicked Laban, he needed to be, for many reasons.  And it all worked out for the best – he got not one, but four, wives, 12 sons, and untold wealth.

So, too, with Yaakov’s grandfather Avraham (Abraham).  As I mentioned in my recent post on Parshas Vayera, Avraham had to leave the land of Israel and travel down to Egypt.  He didn’t exactly want to have to do this.  He was happy in the land Hashem (G-d) had promised him, but he was forced to leave and go down to Egypt.  There are many reasons he did this, but one was that it was necessary for him and Sarah to receive the blessing of having a child.  He had to go – and because he did, he was rewarded with a child.

And so it is fitting that Yaakov’s children should face the same kind of experience.  In last week’s parsha, Yosef found himself heading for Egypt in conditions that were less than ideal, but in this week’s parsha we see the resolution: Yosef finds himself viceroy of Egypt, second in command only to Pharaoh himself.  It all works out for the best.

And Yosef’s brothers find themselves forced to move, too, against their will.  They have to travel to Egypt because a famine forces them there, as it is the only place with grain stored up.  Even when they try to leave their brother Binyamin (Benjamin) behind, Yosef holds Shimon (Simon) hostage and sends them back to retrieve him.  And when Yaakov tries to hold out and not let Binyamin go down to Egypt, he eventually relents because the famine forces him to.  And it’s a good thing, too – as a result, the brothers are all reunited.  Eventually even Yaakov travels down to Egypt and is reunited with his beloved son Yosef.

I guess that if Hashem wants you to change your place, there’s no fighting it.  If He wants to force you to move, He will, whether he does it with a whisper of encouragement or by giving you a big metaphorical whack on the tuchus, so you might as well move while He’s still whispering.  And that’s why there’s really no reason to be upset about having to move, even if you don’t really want to go.  You need to go.  It will ultimately be for the best.  You just don’t know why yet – but Hashem does.

So as we head out on our international jaunt next week, we’ll be updating TravelingRabbi.com and sharing our adventures with you.  I’m sure they will all reveal that this move, too, is for the very best.

Chodesh tov and Shabbat shalom!

Read more on Parshas Mikeitz: How to Forgive… But Not Forget

L’Chaim Slice of Life: Shabbat Wherever!

Recently I had an article published in the L’Chaim newslettter.  Check it out, I hope you enjoy it!  It is all about spending Shabbat in Nepal, how to keep Shabbat while traveling, how to keep Shabbat in a third world country, and all the things that go along with it.  What a great experience. Enjoy!