Travel with Baby

Travel with a baby goes wrong in predictable places, and almost none of them are the places people pack for. The trick is to stop planning for the whole trip and start planning for its two worst hours.

Pack for the worst two hours

You are not packing for a week. You are packing for the delay, the traffic, the meltdown that starts at hour three with an hour still to go. Work out where you will be at your child's worst moment, and put what that moment needs into the bag you can actually reach without standing up.

• More diapers and wipes than the journey needs, one full change for the baby, one clean top for you
• Food and milk for the delay, not for the schedule
• A muslin cloth, a bag for wet clothes, hand wipes
• Two boring familiar things and one small thing they have never seen
• Any medicine you genuinely use, in the cabin bag, never in the hold

The rest is logistics you can solve at the other end. Diapers exist everywhere. Cribs can be rented. What you cannot buy at 2am in an unfamiliar town is the specific comfort object your child sleeps with, so that travels in the bag on your body, never in the trunk and never in the hold.

Pack for the delay, not the itinerary. Most of the rest can be bought at the other end.

The corner shop counts

Short trips are practice, and they are the cheapest practice available. A twenty minute walk to the store with a baby who has just woken teaches you more about your kit than any list. You learn which stroller fold you can do one handed, whether the sling is actually adjusted right, and how long you have in real life between feeds.

Go out on the good days so the hard days are not the first attempt. And leave at the boring moment, straight after a feed and a change, rather than waiting for an ideal window that does not exist.

Keep the sequence, move everything else

Sleep away from home survives if the order survives. It is the sequence a baby recognizes, not the room. Same order, same words, same last thing, wherever you are. Wash, sleeping bag, feed, the same two songs, dark, down. That can be done in a hotel bathroom, at a grandparent's house, or on a bench at an airport gate.

Everything else is allowed to move. Naps in the stroller, a late bedtime, a day that looks nothing like a day at home. Trying to protect the whole routine on a trip usually means protecting none of it and enjoying nothing. Protect the sequence and let the clock go.

Look at that room the way you look at the one at home. A travel crib with its own firm flat mattress, nothing else inside it, well away from cords, radiators, windows and anything climbable. Hotel cribs vary a lot. If what arrives is soft, folded over, or propped at an angle, ask for another one or use the travel crib you brought. Safe sleep rules do not go on vacation.

Car seats, and not improvising

The car seat is the one piece of equipment with no clever workaround. Rear facing for as long as that seat's height and weight limits allow, harness snug enough that you cannot pinch a fold of webbing at the shoulder, chest clip or harness height exactly where the manufacturer says, and the seat fitted the way that model's manual says rather than the way it looks about right.

• No bulky coats or snowsuits inside the harness; dress thinly and lay the coat over the top once buckled
• No aftermarket inserts, strap pads or cushions that did not come with the seat
• Never a secondhand seat with an unknown history, and never one that has been in a crash
• Never out of the seat while the car is moving, for any distance
• Break long drives up rather than leaving a small baby semi reclined for hours

Taxis and rental cars are where families improvise, and it is the worst possible place to. Book a car with a seat you have checked, take your own in a travel bag, or use a service that fits one properly. If none of that is available, say so out loud and change the plan rather than holding a baby under a seatbelt.

Flying

Aviation authorities and pediatric bodies both recommend that a small child flies in an approved restraint in their own seat rather than on a lap. In practice that means an aircraft approved car seat, or for an older toddler a CARES type harness. Flying with an infant on your lap is permitted by most airlines and is not the safest option, and it is worth knowing that plainly when you are choosing what to book.

Ears hurt on the way down, not on the way up. Offer a feed, a bottle, a pacifier or a cup during descent, which is roughly the last thirty to forty minutes, not at the moment the wheels touch. If your child has a cold or an ear infection, ask your doctor or pediatric team before you fly rather than hoping.

• Breast milk, formula and baby food are exempt from the usual cabin bag liquid limits; declare them at security
• Strollers and car seats are usually carried free, but check the airline before you count on it
• Board late if you are offered the choice; the aisle is more interesting than the seat
• Bring more feeds than the flight time, because delays happen on the ground

Time zones

Under about three hours of difference, do not fight it. Stay roughly on home time for a short trip and accept that meals land at odd hours. Beyond that, light does most of the work. Get your child outside in daylight during the local day, and keep the local evening dark, dull and uninteresting.

If you want a gentler landing, shift bedtime by fifteen minutes a day for a few days before you leave, later for a westward trip and earlier for an eastward one. On arrival, move feeds towards local mealtimes within a day or two rather than holding on to the old schedule. Most babies take a few days. Do not give a child anything to help them sleep, melatonin included, without asking your pediatric team first.

What actually goes in the bag

• Diapers, wipes, a changing mat and two bags for wet clothes
• One full change for the baby, one clean top for you
• Feeds, plus one spare feed
• The comfort object, in the bag on your body
• Sleeping bag and a travel blackout blind
• Thermometer, and whichever infant pain or fever medicine your own clinician or pharmacist has told you to use, at the dose on the bottle
• A sling, for the airport and anywhere a stroller will not go

Rules on car seats, airline restraints, liquids and infant medicines vary by country and by carrier, so check your own national body and your airline before you travel rather than relying on a general guide. Anything involving illness before or during a trip, flying with an ear infection or after surgery, prematurity, or any medical condition is a conversation with your doctor, pediatric nurse or pediatric team.

Where this comes from: the American Academy of Pediatrics.