Babies at WDW in July/August...

[DVCRSheridan]

It's hot, potentially real hot, no 2 ways around it! With that said, I know a lot of people have done WDW with babies <4 months or younger in the summer months. What tips/tricks do you have for dealing with the heat/sun? Is it doable? Enjoyable? Would you do it again if given the chance? Curious...

(I more so want to focus on the heat/sun related stuff here, not everything else that comes along with traveling with babies lol Every baby is different, so that other stuff can fluctuate so much.)

 

[Shanti]

It's hot, potentially real hot, no 2 ways around it! With that said, I know a lot of people have done WDW with babies <4 months or younger in the summer months. What tips/tricks do you have for dealing with the heat/sun? Is it doable? Enjoyable? Would you do it again if given the chance? Curious...

(I more so want to focus on the heat/sun related stuff here, not everything else that comes along with traveling with babies lol Every baby is different, so that other stuff can fluctuate so much.)

I wouldn't do it, personally, and I love Disney in summer.

 

[DVCRSheridan]

I wouldn't do it, personally, and I love Disney in summer.

Have you done it in the past? We usually do 2-3 weeks in July/August. So we're pretty familiar with that time, but not with a baby lol and that's a big BUT lol We don't have anything planned currently (until December), but we've considered taking a quick 3 or 4 day trip.

 

[Shanti]

Have you done it in the past? We usually do 2-3 weeks in July/August. So we're pretty familiar with that time, but not with a baby lol and that's a big BUT lol We don't have anything planned currently (until December), but we've considered taking a quick 3 or 4 day trip.

If you're set on it, go for it and have fun. I've never taken a baby to WDW, but when my son was a baby I avoided exposing him to strong heat and sun (we're Texans), and wouldn't have been physically comfortable myself carrying him around in the heat. It also rains a lot in summer, which adds to the difficulty. But if you want to work around that, go and I'm sure you'll have a blast.

 

[DVCRSheridan]

If you're set on it, go for it and have fun. I've never taken a baby to WDW, but when my son was a baby I avoided exposing him to strong heat and sun (we're Texans), and wouldn't have been physically comfortable myself carrying him around in the heat. It also rains a lot in summer, which adds to the difficulty. But if you want to work around that, go and I'm sure you'll have a blast.

I wouldn't say we're "set on it". We were just considering it, but like you said because of the heat/sun there was some hesitancy. Granted, if anywhere has enough places to escape the heat/sun for a bit, it's WDW.

 

[HopperFan]

I have traveled all times of year, I would not take one that young in summer due to hydration.

Took #1 in summer for first time when he was 15 mos old.
Took #2 for first time when 3 years old.
Took #3 for first time at 4 mos in Oct, then again at 10 mos in April, 14 mos in Oct.
Trips were deliberately planned to avoid summer younger than 1 year old.

They dehydrate very fast, and difficult at times to force feed liquid.

At any of the young ages they were great to travel with, but I did avoid hot sweaty months.

 

[Crystal824]

I just had a baby at the end of May. Although we have points to use (DVC members) and airline miles and could take a relatively inexpensive trip this summer while I"m on maternity leave, I just can't do it because of the heat. I know others do it, but I would be a nervous wreck about keeping him hydrated potential sunburn, etc.

 

[DVCRSheridan]

I just had a baby at the end of May. Although we have points to use (DVC members) and airline miles and could take a relatively inexpensive trip this summer while I"m on maternity leave, I just can't do it because of the heat. I know others do it, but I would be a nervous wreck about keeping him hydrated potential sunburn, etc.

I completely feel ya! That's where we're at. We wanna go. We have the points. Flights are cheap....we just can't bring ourselves to do it. Can't help but feel like we'll just constantly be worrying.

 

[1GoldenSun]

I live in Florida and when my kids were babies they were just a couple months older than this in July/August. Sometimes it was unavoidable to have them outside for extended periods of time, but it always worried me. They can't tell you how they're feeling, can they?! But we still spent time outside in the summer months--beach trips, festivals, etc. I would breastfeed or bottle feed more often to keep them hydrated.

I agree with previous posters that if you can schedule the trip for a later date, that would probably be best. But if this is the only time and you really want to go, I do think it's doable. You'd just have to be conscientious about taking breaks from the heat very often. There are lots of air-conditioned places to duck into periodically. Those clip-on fans for the stroller work great, and you can drape light blankets over the stroller to block sun from coming in. Those canopies aren't always enough.

Maybe you could ask your doctor's advice. He/she might be able to give you advice about how to keep baby hydrated, or if you should even go at all.

I just read over what I typed. I guess taking them out WAS avoidable, we just chose to do it anyway and be careful about it.

 

[DisneyOma]

I wouldn't go in July/August. Prime hurricane months, and it rains pretty much every day so you'd have to keep the stroller covered most of the time. Forget to cover it once and you have a soaked stroller you can't put the baby in. If you got stuck in a hurricane, baby supplies could be tricky to get. I'd also worry about how the baby would handle going from extreme hot to extreme cold (AC) over and over, day in and day out. Plus, it's an international destination, and the infant immune system isn't quite ready for a hit from multiple countries at once, is it?

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

We go in summer a lot! That being said, our kids never went in summer until they were over 12 months. I have seen people with almost newborn looking babies there in August and always wondered in my head why the parents would choose such a thing. In my opinion it's just too hot with days too long in the sun to make it okay for a small baby.

I even saw a very tiny baby once in August who was sleeping in a stroller and the parents had a light blanket on it. I couldn't believe it.

 

[margot31]

We took our than 6 month old in April and it was hot enough. We live here in FL and if we do things that are outside we go in the morning and that is all. We might do something in the afternoon but generally at our house in our back yard.

I fed her on a pretty strict schedule to keep her hydrated but July and Aug I would avoid it. We are going at the end of Sept into Oct and she will almost be 1 which I know can still be very warm at that time.

The weather has been very hot the past few days with the real feel above 100 and I am in Jacksonville.

 

[Megara5115]

We took our nine month old in December and I would say that was about my limit for babies in heat, so obviously a big difference from summer. I just think it is way too hot for a baby that young to be out for long periods of time. My husband and I wore him in the baby carrier a lot on rides and even walking around and there is no way that would have been comfortable in summer.

 

[TOBS2010]

I think that it might be more of a challenge. We refrained from taking our youngest last summer and still again this summer. Last year it was more so because he would not have been fully vaccinated and didn't want to chance it with being around so many large crowds of people. This year it has been more so that he is mobile---but not mobile enough if that makes sense that it would be tougher to have an enjoyable vacation. It wouldn't be fair to him not being able to get down and crawl and play like he needs and wants to be able to do.

More importantly, I think you need to decide how you want to spend your vacation. If its a really hot day, maybe that means going into the park for the early morning--leaving at lunch and coming back for a few hours in the early evening. Going with a young baby will really change up your travel plans on how you think you might be vacationing. We took my oldest at 2.5---had a blast, but had to keep our expectations lower than what it used to be like when it was just DH and I in Disney. The well-being of your LO will be more important than everything else and I think as long as you go in with those expectations and be willing to make sacrifices in your plans you could pull it off. Having a baby doesn't make the world stop---but for us spending the kind of money we would on a Disney vacation tips the scale in us holding off till our youngest is at least closer to 2.5-3.

 

[anjalee6]

We took our now 15 month old last summer at 4 months. We breastfed a lot and spent time sitting in the air conditioning in the baby care center while my DH took our older kids on rides. We kept her in the stroller with a stroller fan when she was in the sun. She was very easy to transport. We went out in the evening a lot. We took lots of breaks and spent more time at the resort, but we still enjoyed ourselves. It was a much slower trip but everyone still had fun.

 

[lthiesfeld07]

I have a 3 month old and we considered taking him this summer. I ultimately decided against it and i'm glad he did. My DS HATES to be hot! We've spent most of our Illinois summer indoors because he just doesn't like the heat.

We are, however, planning to take him September 30-October 4. He will be 6 months at the time. Hopefully since he will be a bit older, he will be alright. We are staying at BLT, so if we have to go back to the hotel earlier than planned, it won't be that big of a deal. I'm going to ask my doctor about everything I can do to keep him cool.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Personally, we avoided that. We took DS in April when he was 3 months old and 15 months old. This year we are going in August and he is 2.5 and I'm STILL worried about how he will do in the heat, but our schedules only allowed for an August trip or nothing this year, so off we go!

 

[DisneyOma]

I have a 3 month old and we considered taking him this summer. I ultimately decided against it and i'm glad he did. My DS HATES to be hot! We've spent most of our Illinois summer indoors because he just doesn't like the heat.

We are, however, planning to take him September 30-October 4. He will be 6 months at the time. Hopefully since he will be a bit older, he will be alright. We are staying at BLT, so if we have to go back to the hotel earlier than planned, it won't be that big of a deal. I'm going to ask my doctor about everything I can do to keep him cool.

Yeah, if you're at Mk it's easier to get back to BLT, but not if you are at any of the other parks? I don't know why people always say staying at an MK resort makes it easier to get back - it's a long, long haul from AK, that's for sure! Doing the Monorail transfer from EPCOT to the resort rail isn't all that fun either, especially with the increase in monorail issues. I'd avoid the monorail with an infant, just in case it breaks down and you have to climb down to evacuate.

So, I guess if you go all the way to WDW to just do MK, it's easier, but for the rest, nope. I'd rather stay at BC with an infant.

 

[DVCRSheridan]

After reading everyone's experiences I'm glad we decided not to go. We were torn and felt like it was doable, but not worth it. We would've been so stressed about him in the heat that we wouldn't have even looked forward to it. I think we're just starting to go stir crazy lol Especially with my wife being a teacher, the summer is usually our "playtime"! He's really been a fantastic baby too which made us keep going back to considering it, but overall we're glad that we decided not to. On the plus side... we have quite a few WDW trips planned with him over the next year anyway! Dec, Feb, April and then our usual summer trip next year. He'll be 6 months when we go in December for his 1st visit and we can't wait!