Like many countries, we have recently been going through what the meteorologists have been calling ‘A Cold Snap’, roughly translated, it’s been really very cold with lots of ice and snow. Nice to look at yes, but yesterday our newly acquired winter wonderland almost pushed this mammy over the edge!!
At 4pm, Lollipop and I piled into the car (I thought it was too cold to walk…..what an error of judgement that proved to be!) to go collect Mr Moo from creche. We returned home at 8pm….yes 8pm!!! Creche is less than 2km from our house and on a normal day (horrendous city centre traffic notwithstanding) this would be a 40 minute round trip with around 15 minutes of that time spent in the creche itself.
Unfortunately, yesterday was anything but a normal day with unusually low temperatures (-7 °C in places), ground frost and widespread compacted ice. The road conditions were horrific and the result was utter chaos. While I somehow managed to reach creche in 25 minutes, due to numerous crashes, breakdowns and cars unable to traverse the ice ahead of us, the return journey took us over three hours.
Having not in my wildest dreams (or nightmares!) ever imagined that the journey would take so long, I was not prepared for this and had no food or drink in the car for my two babas. Fifty minutes at a standstill in one particular location with both babas screaming means that I will NEVER allow this situation to repeat itself.
I finished weaning Lollipop last week so I was no longer able to feed her myself (how great it was to be able to feed her whenever and wherever she needed it) and two hours into the journey she was very cross at not having been fed. So, what’s the answer?….A few clever additions to my changing bag which I would recommend to all – you just never know when you will find yourself stranded with a hungry child:
- Pre-sterisiled bottles are my new best friends. I used to look at these in the pharmacy and wonder what environment-hating mothers actually bought these…how wrong I was to judge. Having seen the purple-with-anger face of my darling girl screaming with hunger, I now know the value of these handy little miracles. There are several types to chose from but these Tommy Tippee ones are good value at £5.49 for 10.
- Cartons of pre-made formula. Combine these with the pre-sterilised bottles and you have a happy baba in even the remotest location. They last for ages so you can keep them in the changing bag for a long time.,
- Packet of organic rice cakes – these have a number of advantages, they can be enjoyed by babies as young as 7 months buts are also loved by older kids, they are healthy (as far as snack foods go), they are relatively clean to eat (well, there’s no point in adding a mess to clean up to your emergency feeding session), like the pre-made formula, they have quite a long shelf life and will keep your baba going until you reach your destination. At one point in the journey we simply abandoned the car to walk to the nearest shop to buy a pack of these – the babas made short work of the pack and it was a complete godsend.
- Small bottle of water – it sounds so obvious but also so easy to forget – I had been meaning to replenish my usual stocks for ages and just never got round to it.
Ok, so this isn’t rocket science and many of you may already have these things tucked in your change bag but if this post saves even one mother from enduring the ear-drum perforating screams of their baba (by preventing one poor baba from being upset in the first place ) then its worth putting it out there!
ps: you will be relieved to know that both Lollipop and Mr Moo survived their ordeal though they both tucked into their breakfast this morning with unusual vigour.
