TRAVELING WITH A BABY UNDER ONE: My Tips & Tricks

Gracie flew 15 times in her first year of life–including 8/9 hour flights to and from Hawaii. She also drove from Denver to New Jersey (TWICE) as well as from Denver to California and back again (so if you connect them she has driven from coast to coast twice). Now, don’t get me wrong, Gracie has always been a pretty easy baby. She falls asleep fairly easily in the car, and on planes she loves interacting with other passengers. But when you spend that much time traveling, you need to have some tricks up your sleeve no matter how ‘good’ your baby is! For my full list of tips, head to the end of this post.

JUST GO WITH IT

Whenever I travel with Gracie, I try to go into it with a positive attitude and prepare myself for a glorified shitshow. It’s going to be stressful, people are going to give you funny looks, you’re going to swear under your breath more than you should and you’re probably (most definitely) going to pit out. JUST GO WITH IT.

Laugh in the face of mid-flight blow-outs and take photos as you wrangle all the shit you brought with you on your first trip so you can look back and laugh at how ridiculous you looked (you will quickly learn to only bring HALF of said shit next time). In my experience, most strangers are very helpful and incredibly understanding, so don’t be afraid to ask for help! I actually found men to be more helpful than women which kind of sucks–let’s step it up ladies! But back to my point…when you travel with a baby, it’s not going to be perfect (or pretty), but each time you do it it’ll get easier and easier! Unless they are sick..that is a whole different animal. haha!

BE PREPARED

I’d like to pull from the Boy Scouts’ motto for this one, which states: “BE PREPARED which means you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your duty.” Key words–mind AND body! As I mentioned above, you have to have the right attitude. Try to relax and go with the flow. In regards to preparing your body? Be sure to reallly think through how much stuff you’re going to have to carry (for long stretches like through airport terminals!) and think of ways to consolidate. For example: bring the car seat but forget the base–if you’re visiting family, amazon prime a base to their house for when they pick you up and/or watch youtube tutorials on how to safely install the carseat using the seatbelt. It technically is just as safe if you do it correctly. Also, many hotels will offer cribs that they will bring to your room so always call and ask!

My number one tip to be prepared, though, is to STRAP THE BABY TO YOUR BODY. Seriously. Keep at least one of your hands free. Early flight? Drink your coffee in the car on the way to the airport because there’s no way you’re going to have enough hands to carry it (speaking from experience here–I’ll never forget one flight when we were getting ready to board and a woman in front of us noticed that Gracie was sucking on the straw to the iced coffee I was holding…oops. The hot coffee in my other hand was spilling down my arm.)

There’s a 99% chance that you won’t have to take the baby out of the carrier that’s strapped to you when you go through security–but there is a 100% chance that you will have to take the baby out of the car seat or stroller, even if they are sleeping!

One last tip before I move on from ‘be prepared’…wherever you are going or however you are traveling, be sure to be fully stocked with food. Whether that is multiple bottles or a variety of snacks, have a backup and a backup to your backup! I’ll go into more detail next.

TIPS FOR 6 MONTHS & UNDER

MILK

Gracie didn’t start eating solids until 6 months, so our only food option when traveling before then was milk. Many of you have probably heard the tip to nurse your baby at takeoff and landing when flying (this helps their ears to pop because the sucking motion keeps their jaw moving)–which I definitely found was helpful at times. HOWEVER, this didn’t always ‘work.’ There were times when she was too distracted to nurse and a bottle was necessary.

Which brings me to my next tip: traveling with breastmilk. This is kind of complicated because every airport security tends to be a little different, but from my experience I would suggest that you freeze 90% of the milk you are planning on bringing. The TSA does not need to scan frozen milk (they will just open your cooler and check to ensure it’s all frozen). I would take my frozen milk that I had put in storage bags from the freezer and put them in a small cooler with frozen ice packs (these have to be completely frozen as well so be sure to pack all of this last!).

I would also keep 2-3 bottles of fresh milk (SEALED–don’t put the nipple on until you need to use it to prevent spilling) depending on the length of the flight or car ride. If you keep these bottles to 4oz or less, TSA sometimes won’t have to scan those either, however this isn’t true at all airports so be aware this might take a few extra minutes.

Car rides are a little different in that you physically can’t nurse your baby while the car is in motion. When traveling across the country where we were logging 8+ hours in the car daily, I actually brought a hand pump to use and would either give her the freshly expressed milk right after I was done or trade it out for a non-frozen bottle in the cooler. Then at rest stops I’d get her out and give her the boob to make sure my supply stayed strong.

ENTERTAINMENT

This is going to sound pretty ridiculous, but I have had a lot of success with this method: the bag of peanuts makeshift rattle. Seriously, though, when the flight attendants offer you any type of bag of peanuts, pretzels, crackers, cookies, etc. TAKE THEM and ask for extras. They’ll think the baby is actually going to eat them so they will give you as many as you want. Gracie had a BALL shaking around endless bags of peanuts and pretzels, and the best part is if they fall on the ground or between the seat just grab a new bag and repeat. This got me through a 4 hour flight one time when she didn’t sleep a wink!

TIPS FOR 6 MONTHS & OLDER

SNACKS

Once your babe starts eating solid food (or semi solid food), snacks can be a game changer while traveling (specifically on flights as I don’t like to give her anything to eat besides bottles or pouches while she’s in her carseat in case she chokes). My go-to’s for flight snacks are Happy Baby Teething Wafers, any kind of puffs or cheerios, pouches, and more recently soft snack bars. For the teething wafers–break them up so you don’t lose a whole wafer if the baby drops it. Also, bring a snack cup like this for the puffs (the wafers are way less messy than the puffs though!).

ACTIVITY PURSES

This is definitely my favorite tip. When Gracie started sitting up I decided to create what I like to call, ‘a grab bag of crap,’ in which I filled a large zip lock bag with random stuff I found around the house–chip clips, Dr. Brown’s bottle parts, business cards, scrunchies, etc. etc… Gracie loved pulling each item out of the bag over and over again.

So when we traveled to Hawaii (our longest flight yet), I had the idea to create a travel version of the bag of crap, and it worked! Basically all I did was hit up the clearance shelves in the purse section of Target. I have checked several different Targets and they all seem to have this area. There’s a pretty big selection of various purses, wallets, and bags that are usually under $5. I bought a small purse and a ton of little wallets (pictured below). I then scoured my house for any type of old credit cards, hotel keys, and used gift cards and filled the slots of the wallets. (Tip: companies like Hello Fresh, Wayfair, and Carter’s will often send promotional cards in the mail that you can save and use for this!)

I also bought a pack of $1 animal flashcards at Michaels to put in the purse along with some other smaller trinkets (monster chip clips, teethers, a baby toothbrush, and stuff I found in the dollar section at Target). Gracie spent a pretty decent amount of time pulling everything out of the wallets and purse and Tim and I would take turns shoving everything back in for her to do it again. Sounds silly, I know, but anything to keep them busy!

TO SUMMARIZE: MY TOP TRAVELING TIPS

1. Embrace the shitshow.
2. Consolidate your shit.
3. If you’re visiting family/friends, think about how often you will be visiting them and if it makes sense to send items directly to their house to keep there for good. Grandparents might even be open to purchasing pack & plays and carseat bases to have on hand for visits! Friends with kids might already have these items so ask if you can borrow them. Also many hotels offer cribs!
4. Ask for help from strangers.
5. Wear breathable clothing and dress both yourself and the baby in layers (There WILL be sweat. You WILL pit out.).
6. Strap the baby to your body (if they are in their carseat/stroller at security you will have to take them out, even if they’re sleeping).
7. Get to your gate early so you can be the first to board (go up to the desk and get a gate check tag for your car seat before boarding to save time).
8. Bring disinfecting wipes and wipe down everything, especially the airplane tray which is the dirtiest bit!!
9. Freeze 90% of the breast milk you are bringing with you.
10. Keep fresh bottles at 4 oz or less–keep them sealed with a lid instead of the nipple to keep from spilling.
11. Make sure all ice packs are frozen solid.
12. Bring extra nipples/bottle tops in case the bottle touches the ground OR you need to give the baby another bottle and the first one has sat out for awhile.
13. Look for fruit/veggie pouches that are 3.5oz or less–put them all in a clear zip lock bag and pull them out at security (this will save you time!).
14. Pull large packs of wipes out of the diaper bag and put them in a bin so TSA agents can see that they are not bombs (but really).
15. Bring a hand pump for long car rides (and on flights if you want to drink and won’t be nursing ;))
16. Always take the free snacks (bags of pretzels/peanuts) on flights and ask for extras. Use as makeshift rattles!
17. Bring lots of snacks–teething wafers (break them up into smaller pieces to make them last longer) & a snack cup filled with puffs.
18. Create activity purses/wallets (see above) to keep baby busy.
19. Bring lots of little toys and rotate them–baby will get ‘bored’ so don’t give them all the toys at once! Let them play with one toy at a time and when they inevitably throw it, present them with a ‘new’ one (and act like you’ve never seen it before and it’s the coolest toy in the world. HAHA. They will fall for it, I promise!).
20. Bring a travel changing pad, fill it with diapers and wipes, and attach it to the outside of your diaper bag for easy access.
21. Always prepare for a diaper blowout. ALWAYS. Bring extra outfits in the diaper bag. You don’t want to be that person with a naked baby on a plane. Also bring a bag to put it in if you don’t want to throw it out.
22. Bring this bib and this tray for eating out at restaurants/eating in the airport and bring a large zip lock bag to put them in once they are dirty (wipe them down first) and seal that puppy up and clean later.
23. Reward yourself after (or during) long flights and car rides with lots of wine.

In case it wasn’t clear, the ‘tips’ I listed above are from experience. Which basically means trial and error. The first couple of times we flew with Gracie we were absolute idiots. The first photo below is all the crap we brought with us. I mean, WHUTTT. The second photo is the BEFORE of the scene I mentioned above…trying to hold multiple coffees with a baby + car seat while boarding a plane is just plain SILLY.