Tips for traveling with a baby

We’ve said it before: traveling just ain’t what it used to be. When you bring a baby on an airplane, you would be lucky to get through even a single magazine article let alone a book. So when you walk by that airport bookstore with your sights set on People or US Weekly, just keep on walking.

Flying with baby

photo by jyri

The key here is to have enough clothes and diapers in your carry on bag. I pack pajamas so they take up as little room as possible. And I always bring one diaper for every hour of travel. Better to have too many than not enough. Trust me.

Other tips:

• Pack a pacifier or a bottle of water to help with any ear pain during take-off and landing. Breastfeeding works too.
• Bring along a lovey to encourage napping. And a lightweight blanket and some binder clips so you can make a tent over the baby’s carseat or over a front carrier.
• Carry on a small amount of baby Tylenol or Motrin just in case. I always need it when I forget to do so.
• Miranda reports that if you attach the gogo traveler handle to your car seat it makes getting around the airport easier. For toddlers, you can stop lugging car seats on airplanes.
• CS keeps a ziplock baggie full of wet washcloths for any messes.
• Read my friend Beth’s lessons learned after flying alone with her baby to Australia.

Road tripping with baby

My biggest tip for a road trip is to expect it to take a long long time. If you plan for about 30 minutes of stopping for every one hour of going, you will be pleasantly surprised when you get to grandma’s house before nightfall.

And, no, you cannot nurse your baby while driving. It is illegal, dangerous, and may cause that truck-driver in the next lane to crash too.

Other tips:

• Nicole advises us to to the AAA website and print out a TripTik before you leave. It’s way more detailed than using MapQuest or Google Maps and will mark where rest areas are. It’s always important to know where you’ll find the next one when you’re traveling with little people!
• Whenever possible, Keyla travels at night so her baby will sleep right through it.
• Theresa reminds us not to bring snacks that stain.
• Alison says “The trick with our 1 yo, who still faces backwards, is just to continually replace flung pacifiers and lovies. I also provide a couple of snacktraps of Cheerios which she happily throws all over the car.”

Staying somewhere other than home with your baby

Sometimes I love the challenge of trying to pack light and other times it just drives me nuts. At least my iPhone can double as a white noise machine.

A few tips:

• Travel light. Pack a sheet from home but use a travel crib you can borrow.
• Rent or borrow toys to keep things interesting.
• Babyproof on the fly with a quick kit you bring along.
• Stay calm with 5 mantras for visiting the grandparents.

How do you travel light while also having everything you might want?