Guest Post
If you’re traveling with your infant this holiday season, you’ll want to be prepared before you embark on your road trip. Finding items that soothe, comfort and keep baby happy can make for a smooth and peaceful ride. Whether your family or friends live nearby or you’re navigating over the river and through the woods, you’ll find the following four infant-friendly items ideal for your next holiday getaway.
1. Carry A Baby Play Mat
An activity play mat for your baby has a host of benefits. In addition to it being an educational form of entertainment, you’ll also find it to be a germ-free environment to change your infant’s diapers and clothing.
An activity play mat comes in a variety of styles, textures and designs that are beneficial in your child’s growth and development. The various toys and objects are sewn into the mat to encourage your child to crawl, grasp and roll over. It’s also an ideal location for “tummy time” activities. The child-safe mirror makes self-discovery fun and captivating.
The play mat is also perfect for germy hotel room floors and carpets. This allows your baby to crawl around in a safe and clean environment. The mat is also machine washable, so you can easily clean up any messy spills and spit-up. You can search for play mats online on sites such as http://www.kidsii.com/brightstarts/c-11-play-gyms-and-play-mats.aspx for example.
2. Play Interactive Family Games
Long car rides can be time consuming and dull. You can implement some age appropriate games for your child to pass the time away. Games of peek-a-boo, singing and chatting can make the time go quickly. You can also put on their favorite songs or nursery rhymes and have fun singing along.
When you’re on a driving break, you can sit in the back seat with your child and read them their favorite story. Get them involved by teaching them how to turn the page and interact with the characters in the story.
3. Have Plenty Of Healthy Snacks
Your little one is bound to get hungry on a road trip. So you don’t have to stop at unhealthy fast food eateries, you can pack healthy snacks to sample while on the road. You can also pack a picnic lunch and stop at a scenic location for a bite to eat. This allows everyone to stretch their legs and play before you embark on your trip again. Depending on the foods your child can eat, you want to make them healthy and nutritious.
4. Make Time For Nap Time
To alleviate any cranky moods, you can schedule your trip to coincide with your infants nap. Soothing music and lullabies can put them in the mood to relax and rest their eyes. You can also select comforts from home such as a baby blanket, pillow and comfortable clothing.
When you get to your destination, you may want to bring along a play yard. This unique gadget is easy to transport and allows your infant to sleep anywhere comfortably. This also helps you keep an eye on them while you enjoy spending time catching up with the family.
Traveling to visit friends and family over the holidays is a great way to introduce your infant to vacations and getaways. Having the essential items such as a road safety checklist to help you navigate safely and essential items for your infant can make your trip pleasurable.
Her own memorable travels inspires Nadine Swayne to present these tips to make the trip a smooth one. From baby play mats to healthy snacks and activities, these great ideas are sure to help your family ease on down the road to your holiday destination!
I sure wish we had some of these things when my kids were little. I remember travelling with my baby on a Greyhound bus. That was a (hellish) adventure, believe me! :o)
My Mom traveled by bus and by train with me and my two siblings when we were babies/toddlers and I know it must have been tough on her.
Nap time or quiet time is a HUGE one. I would also add in bringing snacks from home something familiar and you know they will enjoy.
Don’t forget to take a few toys for your children especially if you are staying in a hotel or non kid friendly place.
That’s great advice, Christy!
I remember packing all kinds of stuff for the kids when we hit the road. My goodness it was like going on a long road trip.
Now that they’re teens, first they hardly go with us anywhere now and second when they do, they have their headphones on listening to music…and finally I have quiet time in the car :).
Great tips for moms with little ones!
LOL! Corina, since I have an only child it’s never been to big of a deal traveling with him. I can imagine with siblings a lot of bickering on long trips, though. 🙂
Good suggestions! My kiddo travels ok, but doesn’t sleep well in a new place. I’m hoping that once she transitions from the crib to a bed that will improve.
This is such an awesome advice for us with kids who loves to travel during holidays. Thanks for sharing!
I’m glad these tips will help for holiday travel! Enjoy your holidays!
You need either a built in, or portable DVD player so that you can play movies for the kids.
My kids get motion sickness when they look out the windows, but when they look forward, no issues.
I absolutely love playing car games like that, and I still do it with my kids. I have tears running down my cheeks from laughing so hard when we play!
we love to travel since my son was born, driving is always our way of going places and this are great list for parents to follow.
This is a good list!
I think the healthy snack one is super important. If we don’t have healthy snacks handy, we end up buying and eating a lot of junk.
I agree! I got used to taking the essentials with me after a while, but every once in a while, a trip without toys or activities to entertain the kids would remind me how important they are.
Car entertainment is a must!
Great tips! We just took a 4 1/2 hour road trip last week and prepping to keep the kids happy was crucial to our peaceful travels.
These are great tips and I’m happy to see we already do some of them.
Nap time is HUGE when traveling with little ones! Heck, it’s nice for adults to have nap time during family travels too 🙂
Great tips! Nap time is very important.
Snacks and games definitely saved my sanity on our huge summer road trip!
These are great tips. We are fortunate to have all of our family live close by so no traveling for us.
It’s so important to plan ahead when you have little ones.
It’s extremely important to plan out your holiday travels, especially when you’re traveling with toddlers. When the kids become fussy, it’s no fun. I really like your idea of playing soothing music to get them to go to sleep, it seems like it’ll work well.
We do a lot of our major travels at night when the kids can just sleep. It isn’t “fun” but it’s easier on them.
Packing snacks is always a must, especially while traveling.
These are tried and true tips!
We use to play games on trips until the boys got older now they just plug in their phones and watch a movie.
Making time for naps is so important. That way you avoid the meltdowns.
Thanks for this list! I’m not traveling this season, but I will likely be traveling with a baby in the summer so I’ll have to keep these in mind.
We always made sure to have plenty of ‘paper’ games with us when we road tripped and our daughter was younger. Now she occupies herself with the Nintendo, iPad and her phone 😉
We always try to travel during nap time or even overnight. Makes mommy and daddy tired, but it’s so worth it to have a drama-free trip.
Oh these are such great essentials.
Car games are always fun on road trips.
These are great tips! I think I have done them all at one time or another.
I never travel with my children without healthy snacks! It’s a must-have for us.