Keeping 1 year old busy on long road trip, during restaurants, etc.

bklynbridecesh

Hi Ladies- What are your must haves for a long car trip, and good travel toys? 

tothemaxx04

We just took LO on a long car trip. 

I got a bag and put every little toy that I could find in it.  Nothing new, just his toys that we have here at home.  During the trip we'd pull one toy out at a time.  When he got tired of that toy he'd throw it down or start to fuss I would pull out another toy!  This worked all the way there and back!

We always made sure we stopped for bathroom breaks, gas, etc just before he was going to fall asleep. That way once he was asleep we had a good peaceful hour to hour and half that we could drive uninterupted.  I knew if we stopped once he was asleep, he would wake up and be really grouchy!

Also, I brought lots of snacks and a sippy.  When he got tired of playing we fed him a snack.  He did great!  Much better than I thought he would!  We actually enjoyed the trip.

Hope this helps!  Good Luck!

 

groovygrl

1 is a tough age for car entertaining I think? We did 4.5 hrs with ours at 1 & I think I may have sat in the back with them to hand them toys & stuff when they weren't sleeping, I can barely remember... at about 16 months we did 10 hrs and that was the first time we introduced a DVD player in the car, which worked wonders but of course it depends on how you feel about videos & TV. We only use it in the car for multi-hour trips so it is very much a novelty for them in the car, but I will say that the 10 hr trip sealed an addiction to yo gabba gabba...they didn't watch a ton of TV before that but came home requesting Elmo and "yo" regularly...eek.

For restaurants, my key has always been to bring a few books & some small snacks to entertain them while waiting for the meal. Cheerios, goldfish, yogurt melts, etc- things that are not messy and I can give just a few every couple minutes to hold their attention but not totally fill them up on it before the meal.  I also always pack paper plates & those antibacterial wipe things in my bag b/c you never know the condition of hte table/highchair/breakable plates (we've had a bowl smashed by one LO) etc. 

Our fave car toys since around 1 year are the B phone & car keys (can get at target, BRU/BBB etc), this FP 'ipod' that has a few buttons & plays a bunch of different nursery rhymes, some stuffed thigns that play different songs when they squeeze them,  books... I took leapfrog laptops on a trip once but the didn't really use them in the car & I think it might be hard for a 1 yr old too. some ppl recommend the drawing things I'm blanking onthe names (magna doodles but called something else). They're really big though, I don't even know if my kids would be able to hold onto them for any amount of time now.

GL! 

ETA snacks snacks snacks in the car like PP said. keeps them entertained for sure. Also we had a cooler w/ some stuff we could feed as a meal...one time it was time for a meal and htere was nowhere good to stop & they were content & diapers were not dirty so I sat back there & just fed them the meal so we could skip the 45 minute stop & keep going... 

Oh & always gas up when you stop for food, even if you have a half tank or whtaever- b/c if htey fall asleep or are content, you don't want to risk having to stop and mess it all up  

justme04

I dont know how long of a trip your talking about but my older boy is content just sleeping or looking out the window during the 2.5 hours it takes to go see our families.

Sometimes he plays with a stuffed animal or his little cars that he loves.

wnk1029

We just did a 14-hr-one-way car trip this past week and our little guy was the most FABULOUS traveler.  I went to a thrift store a few days before the trip and picked up a bunch of cheap little toys -- some Chunky Tonkas, some lift-the-flap books, a toy camera, things like that -- all for under $5.  He loved having new toys to play with, and they held his attention really well over the long trip.  We also planned out stops about every 2.5-3 hours, including some parks and a petting zoo.  It added time to the trip, but was so worth it to get the little guy out and let him run around.  We also made sure he had his no-spill bowl of snacks and his sippy cup somewhere that he could reach it