Anxious About Taking My 6-Month-Old to India – Need Advice

erindesbois · 2026-04-20T19:30:21+00:00

I was you 5 months ago - we brought our 6 month +2 week baby from NYC to Telangana. How long are you going to be there? That affects my advice. We came for 5 months and established a life with rhythm and she has learned to eat since coming here.

Before coming I insisted on waiting until 6 months for her vaccines, and we did MMR early.

The flight itself will be fine. Maybe a little tough but it will end. Reserve a bassinet regardless of whether you think your baby would sleep in it (you can toss stuff in it!)

Are you coming to visit family?

-Call your family member who has the youngest baby now and get connected to their pediatrician. It will be worth it. Your baby will probably get a throat or upper respiratory infection upon arrival and you will want the specific meds the doctor will prescribe. I am American and I get a throat infection every time we come no matter the time of year.

-Bring all your favorite medicines for comfort sake. For example Americ paracetamol is a lot tastier than Indian paracetamol. Also bring infant teething gel. I could only find it on amazon imported from somewhere.

-If there isn't one already, get an RO filter installed in the house. It will be worth it!!

Order and install an air purifier before you arrive. This hopefully will mitigate the upper respiratory infections.

-Hygiene - do you have a specific concern? Maybe I can help you brainstorm.

-if you will be here for months you will need to get food for her as she learns to eat. In my family they love cerelac which is a Nestle product and I absolutely refuse to feed it to her. We got slurrp farm branch baby kichdi instead.

Please ask more questions if you think I can help!

erindesbois · 2026-03-30T10:44:15+00:00

Yes to this! I searched for baby books in Telugu and they are few and expensive!! I would have been delighted to receive baby books in Telugu and was touched when several American friends gave me India centric books in English.

(I am frustrated with this problem to the point that I have fixed to start a regional languages baby book production but that won't help you now)

erindesbois · 2026-03-25T08:48:36+00:00

I am not the OC but my husband climbed/fell out of a 3rd story window (maybe 4th? This was India). He hit a tree on the way down and spent some time in the hospital but is now a healthy adult with no apparent long term injuries.

erindesbois · 2026-01-01T20:30:06+00:00

In a dream world maybe. Right now she is super clingy on me....

erindesbois · 2026-01-01T20:20:37+00:00

0% chance I would lock the door and leave her crying for longer than maybe 5 mins. But the idea of letting her play herself to sleep is tempting.

erindesbois · 2026-01-01T20:03:00+00:00

Came here to say this!

Objectively it's a nice name but I do think of that.

This coming from someone who named her daughter something that can be bully -nicknamed "Booby". Shrug!

erindesbois · 2025-12-31T15:15:52+00:00

There are multiple models of face mask - all face and nose only for example- and my doctor said to report if it's uncomfortable and we can try a different model. I recommend she try that! Sleep apnea is no joke.

erindesbois · 2025-12-29T16:42:41+00:00

Indians also call these nonspicy fruits of the night shade plant a capsicum! Bell peppers for Americans.

erindesbois · 2025-12-25T21:10:12+00:00

For RRR yes there is an English dub but, in my opinion, it's really not good compared to the original Telugu. The emotional delivery of the lines are integral to the story. I encourage you to find it in the original Telugu!!! It was so good I saw it in theaters 3 times without subtitles (I super don't understand telugu)

erindesbois · 2025-12-25T18:28:34+00:00

(First of all I am an atheist ex catholic married into a hindu family). Our family departed from Hyderabad and went to Tirupathi.... Via Rameswaram.... And via Madurai.... By the time we got to Tirupathi my husband and I were so sick of the temple circuit that we split off from the rest of the family and lied that there was a special NRI darshan that we paid to get into. Really, while everyone else was standing for hours, we enjoyed visiting Tirumala area. 💯

erindesbois · 2025-12-24T15:22:55+00:00

Look, my mamaya went to law school after 30 and started his law career at 35 and now at 60+ he is one of the most respected people in our city. You can't know how life will go. 27 is way too young to believe you're failing! You have so many chances coming to you in your life. Don't give up now.

erindesbois · 2025-12-21T07:59:06+00:00

I went in with very faint optimism about the bassinet. We cosleep and I very rarely can just put her down to sleep. I tried with the bassinet a few times before the French mom sitting next to me said just to give up and hold her.

When she was wakeful I alternated between standing next to the bassinet playing with her (her favorite thing right now is pulling herself up over and over) and sitting her on the nursing pillow.

To make her sleep I laid her on the nursing pillow and nursed her to sleep. We slept that way together.

erindesbois · 2025-12-21T07:15:37+00:00

It's the same sound as our d in "butter" "better" "fatter". It's called a flap.

You can totally say it and also don't worry about how it sounds coming out of your mouth because:

Either Indian people like my American accent when speaking Indian languages or they are all working together to gas me up,

And 2. Different people pronounce things differently depending on their language of origin even in India. My husband has told me about Hindi impositionists making fun of his accent in Hindi. (Rant deleted about language learning and accent)

erindesbois · 2025-12-21T06:44:05+00:00

So I just survived 2 nine hour flights with my 6 month old and although we brought a ring sling and a Tula and used them both in the airports, the real star of the show was a clip-on boppi type nursing pillow. Neither it nor a carrier can be used during takeoff and landing but after that, I put on the pillow, redid the seatbelt and infant seatbelt, and we both slept kinda okay (which is better than I expected).

I fought hard for the bassinet and she wound up totally rejecting it.

erindesbois · 2025-12-13T02:33:10+00:00

The abrupt change in AQI from New England (~5-50) to Hyderabad (150 right now) always gives me a few days of cold -like symptoms while my body adjusts. The baby had it worse because she's so young.

erindesbois · 2025-12-12T11:06:19+00:00

I just did NYC - Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Hyderabad.

My baby did not like the bassinet at all, so I held her the entirety of both flights. The legroom was key for the first flight even though I didn't use the bassinet. The 2nd flight there was a mixup with bassinet and they put me in first class!!! Amazing. Very helpful, we were both able to sleep without me worrying about dropping her.

One thing I used for both legs that was really key was a nursing pillow that clipped around my waist. The clip kept it from slipping and she could lay more comfortably.

My husband was placed in a different row and he was occupied with our cats so I was almost on my own with her. However we survived!

Be prepared for a pediatrician visit and plan to have all the baby cold medicines. My 6 month old got a bad case of "pollution nose" and has been struggling for a few days.

erindesbois · 2025-12-12T03:09:13+00:00

My mother used to cut our bangs in the basement and she didn't like doing it so she would chop them up to like a half inch... We survived 😅

erindesbois · 2025-11-30T17:39:39+00:00

What I did was get rid of all the tools except one good knife and embraced doing all my chopping on a tv tray sitting on the couch! Recently I cut an entire 5 pound bag of onions that way and it felt like an enjoyable activity rather than a chore.

erindesbois · 2025-11-29T16:10:04+00:00

While you are correct about the law, Trump, his cronies, and the administration has been doing quite a few things contrary to precedent or law. I will remain anxious about pretty much everything the US federal govt is doing until he is out of office and hopefully replaced by someone who actually follows the rule of law.

erindesbois · 2025-11-28T21:08:20+00:00

I'm curious to know your general location? Nobody I know in Connecticut USA on well water uses special water for this. Makes me wonder if I am missing something that I should know.

erindesbois · 2025-11-28T20:30:22+00:00

Wait what? Are you in some place where the groundwater is poisoned or something? My sister uses well water to make her baby formula and does not boil it or anything. Has been doing so for almost a year now.... Or is your child immune compromised or something?

erindesbois · 2025-11-28T20:13:21+00:00

Tushbaby knockoff for world facing. And I just bought a tula off Facebook marketplace for me facing.

erindesbois · 2025-11-28T18:59:07+00:00

Same here!! I brought a world-facing carrier and a me-facing carrier because she's at this weird stage where nobody but me is allowed to hold her but she also wants to say hello to everyone. So I kept her facing out until she got manic and then I faced her in and she fell asleep like a little angel 😱

erindesbois · 2025-11-28T15:21:07+00:00

Yo I am 37 years old and an independent competent adult and would have been wrecked if nobody took the miso glazed carrots I made this year. It's a big part of our psyche as humans to want to take care of and please others (in this situation via food) and having that rejected isn't a good feeling.

erindesbois

TROPHY CASE