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January 2020 Moms
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Product Spotlight 10/25: Travel Accessories

kbrown2385kbrown2385 member
edited October 2019 in January 2020 Moms
What are your must-have items and accessories for traveling with baby (whether it’s by car, plane, train, two-person rowboat, or spaceship)?

Please use the prompts below to try and share as much relevant information as possible.

For S+TMs:

What items did you love?
What items did you hate?
Additional thoughts?

For FTMs:

Please post any products you are considering and ask any questions you may have.
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Re: Product Spotlight 10/25: Travel Accessories

  • stashattackstashattack member
    Other than her car seat and her pack n play I can't think of any other travel-specific items I can think of that I would need to bring with me. So I look forward to hearing what the S+TMs have to share. We go on a weekly vacation every year by car in august.
    PG #1: 36w5d 12/25/19
    PG #2: EDD 8/15/23 Miscarried 9w1d 1/11/23
    PG #3: EDD 12/15/23
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  • kbrown2385kbrown2385 member
    @stashattack I can’t think of anything we specifically needed for travel. Maybe other people posting will help jog my memory lol.
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  • leprechaunladyleprechaunlady member
    We had a mirror that attached to the rear head rest which was great for the car when theyre rear facing as it can be positioned so you can look in your rear view mirror and see theyre ok.

    flights with an infant are relatively easy - feed on take of & landing to help their ears equalise.
    flights with a toddler are whole other story! Take all of the snacks, then double the amount you thought was enough! Sticker books (we have the melissa & doug reusable ones) & a tablet got us through a 10 hour flight to mexico when dd was 1.5.
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  • marebear15marebear15 member
    Good point about the mirror @leprechaunlady . That was really helpful and I still find myself glancing back even though my DD is now front facing and I can't see her in the rear-view mirror. 
    I always thought I was going to be opposed to DVD players in the car, but around 13 months my DD developed baby trich (a condition where babies pull out their own hair). The car seat was one of her triggers and the only way we could fight this was by having a DVD player as a distraction. We just borrowed one from my SIL. But it was just one of those things that you do the only thing you can do to keep your sanity and keep you safely focused on the road while driving.
    We took DD on several long road trips, 10 hour trip when she was 8 months old, a 12 hour trip at 11 months, and another 10 hour trip at 15 months. They each had their own struggles, but what I found helped was to bring a huge duffel full of books and toys and trade them off about every 15 minutes. The variety kept her from getting too bored, and she really didn't sleep any more than normal. 
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  • kbrown2385kbrown2385 member
    I’ll agree with the mirror. That was key until ds was turned forward facing and I’ll be getting one for each baby this this time around too.

    The DVD player has been huge now that ds is older. We aren’t tablet users but renting some new to him dvds from the library when we are taking big trips is a game changer. I also love the color wonder stuff for him now. They have a travel case to hold the paper and the markers with a hard surface to color against. Ds loves that. 

    I agree with @marebear15 and the big bag of toys and books. Keeping them entertained with lots of new things was a must.
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  • c1kc1kpol1cn1kc1kc1kpol1cn1k member
    We traveled a lot when DD was a baby 

    For S+TMs:

    What items did you love?
    •  I loved this one because it's almost completely lay flat / it has an extendable umbrella so you are covered from the sun / it has a good sized basket for an umbrella stroller and it can close and open with just one hand (so important for me since when I travel far it's alone and you never have a free hand). Also someone literally ran over my stroller with a car and it work's perfectly to this day (so very durable)!
    • When we went to Edinburgh for Advent we bought the 7am Enfant (Le Sac Igloo) DD just snuggled right into there and it completely wraps them in their umbrella stroller
    • JuJuBe insulated lunch bag - large enough to fit food/waterbottle/snacks/milk etc
    • When baby is small I found that the stroller / bassinet was the easiest thing. If you go to family's house you can just unclip the bassinet portion and baby can lay there sleep and do whatever in a safe environment. We rarely used our "pack and play" for this reason

    What items did you hate?
    - can't really think of anything 
    Additional thoughts?
    nope!
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  • MrsJessSMrsJessS member
    DS and I have done a lot of traveling and mostly we just use the same things we use at home. I’ve actually never had a mirror for him. This past road trip we did use a portable DVD player which was a huge help!
    If you are flying, babywearing is great. Also wait to gate check your stroller and car seat (if you are taking one.) If there are empty seats the airline will sometimes let you use one of the seats for the baby and the car seat can really help them be comfortable. Also it’s super nice to not have to hold them the whole flight. 
    The stroller is a big deal if you get delayed and want to be able to walk around! 
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  • c1kc1kpol1cn1kc1kc1kpol1cn1k member
    I have a different perspective on the car mirror's, I found that if I would put one up all I would do is look at it, also driving with another new mom all she did was look at the mirror to see baby and you can never fully focus on the road in front of you when you are doing that, mix in sleep deprivation and I find it dangerous. It's also not approved road safety wise to have that in case of an accident etc.

    What I did do, is became very in-tune with the sounds DD make's and how she breathes/ what would be normal vs not. This meant I couldn't play music loudly in the car for quite some time, but it also allowed me to really hone in on my other senses (Smell/ Hearing) in case anything was happening. 

    For the DVD that is a good idea! I find it does the opposite for DD though. If I give her enough activities or we are talking during a long ride. We just did a 6 hour car ride and on the way we gave the iPad for a movie, since that she had mini metldowns the entire way there. On the way back we never gave it and had a good ride. On airplane's again different story, she can pick a movie to watch but get's bored with it quickly
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  • marebear15marebear15 member
    @c1kc1kpol1cn1k - That's an interesting perspective on car mirrors. While I'm only recently starting to drive without one, I find that I turn around a lot to see what she's asking for or talking about, rather than a quick glance at the mirror. But I can see how it can be distracting. 
    And yeah, I never thought about it, but it's probably dangerous in an accident.
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  • c1kc1kpol1cn1kc1kc1kpol1cn1k member
    @marebear15 not just that but it’s similar to just glancing down quickly at your phone etc. The distraction of just looking can cause an accident. I think it’s all about habit and how you start with it or how to avoid it even 
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  • persnickitypersnickity member
    @c1kc1kpol1cn1k we didn't use a mirror for the same reasons. 

    I'll second having the baby carrier for airline travel or travel in general. We just got a new one that's more hiking geared as DD is getting bigger.

    The other thing for is having the Pandora app with an offline station of DD's music. We discovered that singing soothes her. We were at hour 8 of a 10 hour drive and she started crying, was done with all of the toys. I started singing kid's songs from memory and she immediately settled down. Every time I stopped, she'd cry. After that, we made a station for her that we can sing along to that helps.
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  • persnickitypersnickity member
    And we got precheck for flying. Not dealing with long lines and all the other hassle had made it so much better!!
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