Any Tips or Tricks for a Road Trip

hotcocoa07 · February 2014

LO is almost 6 month and not the biggest fan of the car seat though it is getting better. We are traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles tomorrow. It's a 6 hr trip. Any suggestions? Must haves to bring?

Ffrey1119 · February 2014

Leave during nap time! So you get a stretch of sleep, stop a few times more than usually to get baby out of car.

Bring toys to distract lo, I ended up sitting in back for a ten hour drive just to occupy lo attention.

amarissa85 · February 2014

Make plenty of stops. We drove to Jersey from Alabama over Christmas. Try to drive when LO will sleep best if you can. For example, Jr sleeps the longest early morning and later in the afternoon not so much. I also found that riding in the back with him kept him calm. DH and I traded out driving and sitting in the back. For the most part he was okay as long as someone was back there. Other than that I don't have too much advice. We packed him a bag of toys to be entertained with when he was awake.

PB102012 · February 2014

When LO is awake we bring a ton of noise making (crinkly) toys.... but I agree with PP's, leaving during nap time is always helpful.

ELauren88 · February 2014

We always leave right before nap time. For us, it works better to have a longer stop in place of more frequent. So, when we travel 3 hours, we stop halfway for about an hour. LO gets to play and eat, so by the time we get back in the car, she'll usually fall back asleep.

BelhurstBride · February 2014

Be flexible. That's about all there is to it.

Michelle N · February 2014

Don't go! haha. Try to plan your trip that will allow LO to sleep the longest. Plan on a 6 hour trip turning into an 8 hour trip. At this point, my LO hates the car so much I don't think I could do it. When he was a few months old though, we did a 10 hour drive and it was better than expected. Maybe plan for the worst? Bring his favourite toys, and maybe a new one that will keep him occupied.

MommyBolty · February 2014

Travel early in the morning or during nap time. Plan to sit in the back with LO. We did a trip from Alabama to Texas - 12 hours very successfully at Thanksgiving. Plan your stops arounf LOs feeding schedule.

TrueBeliever925 · February 2014

We drive back to MA to see my family about once a month, sometimes more, and our LO has almost always slept through the whole car ride (just under 3 hours). We've only had one poopy diaper during our trips and we've only had to stop and feed him twice. We've been super lucky. I assume it will get worse, so we figure we just leave earlier, make more stops, and just be flexible. Family and friends should be pretty aware of the fact that traveling with a child is difficult so that should rule out any annoyances for running behind on time too.

Good luck and have fun!

HermansWife · February 2014

We just made an 8 hour drive this past weekend (twice - 8 hours there, and 8 hours back). What worked for us was leaving after his MOTN feeding (3 am) and driving, so that most of the trip would be while he would be sleeping anyways. We then only had about 2.5 hours of actual awake time, and part of that he napped.

We just made sure to stop along the way and get out and do stuff so that he could have a change of scenery. The car makes him sleepy though, so although I was dreading it, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went.

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