Traveling with a toddler?
I don’t think I know a single person that looks forward to flying with a toddler/infant. I had a lot of experience traveling with small ones before having my own, and as we embark on our second trip with Luke I wanted to let you know what I bring on board with me to help make the journey a little less stressful.
Our first trip was over the holidays (hence THAT photo of us masked up and with face shields…including a stupid cute face shield for Luke) when he was not walking yet, and he was surprisingly AMAZING-even with a 3:30am wake up time to return to Los Angeles. I brought my Solly Wrap for when it was nap time and just rocked and hushed him persistently with the wrap covering his face until he couldn’t help but succumb to the mama contact. Now that he is even bigger, I’m going to bring my Wild Bird Sling instead and use that as needed when it’s time to try and force a nap. This is the part I always have anxiety about -as even in a dark room with a sound machine my son is a pro at refusing to sleep. He does LOVE the Wild Bird Sling though-every time I put him in it, he smiles and cuddles his face onto me and my heart explodes. So I’m hoping it’s just as efficient as the front carry face covering Solly was months ago.
Medicine. Always. Have. Medicine. In. Your. Bag. Every. Time. You. Leave. The. House.
Is that clear?
I always have Tylenol and Motrin on me for him because you never freaking know what’s going to happen.
Diapers and wipes. Duh. And a change of clothing. We traveled in December in footie jammies, as they kept him completely covered and were cozy and easy. Now that he’s mobile I’ll probably do a comfy long sleeved shirt, sweats, socks and shoes so if he wants to walk we can slip on our shoes. As a back up, I’ll pack a pair of footless jammies in our bag to take up less space.
Food!!! Whatever he loves the most-I’m packing. Pouches. Puffs. And cut up berries. The only puffs he has are Serenity Now as they’re the only ones that actually are as clean and safe as they claim! Same with their pouches. I will be grabbing a few Once Upon a Farm pouches too. I don’t usually give him any other brand but Serenity-as I make fruit and veggie pouches and smoothies at home. But for the sake of traveling-it’ll be easier to have these on hand and they’re novelty since he doesn’t get them usually.
Books! Luke is obsessed with books. I often watch him just sit there and pull books out of his chest and turn the pages and point at things and I marvel at what his little mind is doing. I’m bringing 1-2 books that he is obsessed with at the time of departure (as he goes in waves of obsession) BUT I also bought 3 books he will only see on our flight to and from Ohio, not before or even during the trip. Luciano LOVES music and dancing and the two shows he dances to the most are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Puppy Dog Pals. So I grabbed these awesome books from Amazon for him to read!
Coloring! I hate to admit this-but Luke hasn’t been exposed to making art yet. I actually JUST ordered a paint bath set because I want him exploring making art. Now any kid drawing or coloring or painting is a mess, so you match that with a 14 month old and being in an airplane...no thank you.
So what I ordered instead was an awesome magic marker set-it’s coloring pages and markers that ONLY show color ON the page! This way if he draws on the airplane wall or tray or himself...I won’t be stressed!!! We are big fans of Super Simple Songs over here so I got the Baby Shark pages.
And finally...really hate to say it but: a tablet. His uncle got him one for Christmas and I remember thinking “what the f*ck? He’s not even 1 and I’m a psycho about screen time...” but instead I said thank you and my husband actually took it to replace his old kindle. Luke gets to look at a Daniel Tiger episode maybe once every 2 months because he accidentally sees the tablet lol But, if the food and the books and the coloring and music and mama and dada and walking and ALL THE THINGS don’t work for some reason and he wants to be THAT baby on the plane screaming and crying...I will be THAT mom and give my kid his Amazon kindle tablet with preloaded Daniel tiger episodes and Mickey and videos of trucks...driving, so avoid all that stress and drama.
So-whether you’re going on a long car ride, or a plane ride…whatever your kid loves-bring it (and order yourself a drink even if it’s 10am)