Everything changes when baby arrives. The house is now full of every modern convenience to keep baby well fed happy and healthy. There is a baby changing station in the spare bedroom and a crib in your bedroom. There are brightly coloured toys in literally every corner of the house and strategically placed boxes of tissues and wipes as they need always to be close at hand. There is also a mountain of baby clothes gifted from friends work colleagues and family members – in a seemingly unending and uncoordinated effort to make sure that your baby was never too hot or too cold.
Soon enough you realise that just leaving the house with baby takes so much more planning than you were used to and so many more things have to make the journey with you – even if it is just a trip to the local shops. The decision to plan your first family holiday with baby is easy to make but very quickly baby’s holiday list essentials becomes far longer than the rest of the family’s.
The announcement of baby’s first holiday is guaranteed to start another gift buying frenzy from your nearest and dearest: a selection of sun hats brightly coloured t-shirts tiny baby sandals and cutesy baby sunglasses. Long after you think to yourself that baby will need to have the luggage allowance of a footballer’s wife or girlfriend the question “What can I buy baby for their first holiday?” will still be on the lips of your friends and loved ones. In answer to this question you might want to consider putting in a plea for a baby passport cover.
The passport is right up there on your holiday list essentials but a baby passport cover may not have even entered your thoughts. We know that some of you are thinking “Do I really need a baby passport cover? Isn’t it all a little gimmicky?” but let us try to persuade you that it is more than just a novelty.
Baby’s passport will be crammed into a shoulder-bag along with the rest of the family’s passports and at some point baby will almost certainly manage to grab their passport and give the corner a quick chew before you can retrieve it. How long will it take before it too looks as battered as your own passport? Baby’s first passport might not need to last as long as yours but it will still have a hard life. If it is protected in a baby passport cover it will stay looking brand new and later become a special keepsake for its owner.
A search on internet trading sites like eBay and Amazon will reveal just how many styles of baby passport covers there are. They are made from an array of materials offering different levels of protection including real leather PVC and fabric covered products. Well known gift retailers like Hallmark baby related products retailers like Mamas & Papas and department stores like John Lewis all have offerings to suit different budgets. Some covers have an handy extra space inside that can be used to hold items like baby’s European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) whilst others come as boxed sets with a matching luggage tag.
Why not have a look ahead of time before the “What can I buy baby” question comes along? Then you can say in reply “Baby would love their own passport holder and this is the one they like best.”
