As a parent, you may have to travel with your baby on short and long trips. This would means taking your baby away from cozy, familiar surroundings in to new places with which your baby is not familiar. This can turn out to be a stressful experience for you as well as for your baby.
While traveling with your baby, plan early. Gather as much information as possible and try to cut down the inevitable uncertainties that go with any most travel plans.
These simple guidelines can make travel an enjoyable and pleasant experience for yourself and fun for your baby:
* Try to plan your trip well in advance. This will minimize hassles such as arrangements for boarding, lodging, destination breaks etc.
* Make a checklist of the baby items you will need to carry with you on the trip and stock up on these in advance.
* Carry diapers and wipes. You may need more of these than you think.
* Have a back up plan in place, in case you are not able to stick to the original arrangements you made while planning the trip.
* Schedule your trip to avoid inconvenient travel timings. Your baby will be most comfortable when its routine feeding, sleeping and waking time is only minimally disturbed.
* Avoid traveling to destinations where medical help may not be readily available.
* Avoid long-drawn out trips. Try to stick to the most comfortable modes of travel available.
* If possible, avoid traveling with your baby to places you are not familiar with.
Showing posts with label traveling with babies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traveling with babies. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Traveling with a Baby on a Plane
On the plane
Babies under two years still travel free on the lap, though there are rumors that this perk may soon be coming to an end. Most airlines charge a hefty service fee ($100 on United) for overseas flights for the same privilege, of traveling with babies. Before you even consider buying that extra seat until they are over two, remember that the baby will probably be on your lap anyway during the entire flights. So, unless you need an expensive place to keep your unread newspaper and magazines, take advantage of this free ride for as long as possible, while traveling with your baby. Don’t forget the sippee cup, bottle and binkey. If you do, the plane ride will be a descent into hell, because little ears often can not handle take-offs and landings without sucking on something. If mom is there and still nursing, you're in luck; you can read the paper in peace. If not, you'll be playing hot potato with the baby for at least a half hour up and a half hour down. We lost the sippee cup one time on the way to the airport and were able to get one at Travelers Aid at the last minute.
One gadget (and we love gadgets) you may want to consider sticking at the bottom of the diaper bag, while traveling with babies, is a water bottle adapter. This small piece of plastic allows you to use a soda or water bottle as a baby bottle and includes an extra nipple. At $.99 on eBay, its value to you, while traveling with babies, as an always prepared dad, would be immeasurable.
While often harried, I’ve always found airline service staff to be very good at warming bottles or fetching hot water for formula, when you're traveling with your baby. Don’t expect them to wait on you, but they can be very helpful.
A word to the wise on diapers for the plane: carry many extras while traveling with babies. Planes get delayed or cancelled, and some end up sitting on the tarmac for hours. Don't become a horror story of a panicked parent down to the last diaper with a diarrhetic baby leaking all over you and your neighbors. We have asked strangers to borrow a diaper when really stuck, but wouldn't want to start bartering for one in a closed market environment where demand might really far exceed supply.
Dining out
We’ve eaten at dozens of great restaurants over the years, sometimes with a dozing child on our lap. However, the biggest caveat here is that kids will behave in a strange restaurant the same way they will behave at home. If you know your child will never sit through a dinner at home, don’t do as we do. We’ve never been afraid to finish up a dinner quickly if the kids have really had enough, but we’ve also never shied away from having a full meal. Go to eat as early as possible, while the staff is fresh and accommodating. We’ve always found wait staff to be super-understanding and welcoming to our kids.
A day with baby
Finally, you’re now traveling with a third person who has input into the activities of the day. Luckily, babies enjoy many things parents do: a walk through the park, a trip to a museum, or just people-watching from the luxury of their stroller. And, unlike us, they can just close their eyes and nod off whenever they get bored or tired. If you time it right, during those moments, you and your wife might even have a little bit of time to yourself to muse about life before children and all the freedom you had.
Babies under two years still travel free on the lap, though there are rumors that this perk may soon be coming to an end. Most airlines charge a hefty service fee ($100 on United) for overseas flights for the same privilege, of traveling with babies. Before you even consider buying that extra seat until they are over two, remember that the baby will probably be on your lap anyway during the entire flights. So, unless you need an expensive place to keep your unread newspaper and magazines, take advantage of this free ride for as long as possible, while traveling with your baby. Don’t forget the sippee cup, bottle and binkey. If you do, the plane ride will be a descent into hell, because little ears often can not handle take-offs and landings without sucking on something. If mom is there and still nursing, you're in luck; you can read the paper in peace. If not, you'll be playing hot potato with the baby for at least a half hour up and a half hour down. We lost the sippee cup one time on the way to the airport and were able to get one at Travelers Aid at the last minute.
One gadget (and we love gadgets) you may want to consider sticking at the bottom of the diaper bag, while traveling with babies, is a water bottle adapter. This small piece of plastic allows you to use a soda or water bottle as a baby bottle and includes an extra nipple. At $.99 on eBay, its value to you, while traveling with babies, as an always prepared dad, would be immeasurable.
While often harried, I’ve always found airline service staff to be very good at warming bottles or fetching hot water for formula, when you're traveling with your baby. Don’t expect them to wait on you, but they can be very helpful.
A word to the wise on diapers for the plane: carry many extras while traveling with babies. Planes get delayed or cancelled, and some end up sitting on the tarmac for hours. Don't become a horror story of a panicked parent down to the last diaper with a diarrhetic baby leaking all over you and your neighbors. We have asked strangers to borrow a diaper when really stuck, but wouldn't want to start bartering for one in a closed market environment where demand might really far exceed supply.
Dining out
We’ve eaten at dozens of great restaurants over the years, sometimes with a dozing child on our lap. However, the biggest caveat here is that kids will behave in a strange restaurant the same way they will behave at home. If you know your child will never sit through a dinner at home, don’t do as we do. We’ve never been afraid to finish up a dinner quickly if the kids have really had enough, but we’ve also never shied away from having a full meal. Go to eat as early as possible, while the staff is fresh and accommodating. We’ve always found wait staff to be super-understanding and welcoming to our kids.
A day with baby
Finally, you’re now traveling with a third person who has input into the activities of the day. Luckily, babies enjoy many things parents do: a walk through the park, a trip to a museum, or just people-watching from the luxury of their stroller. And, unlike us, they can just close their eyes and nod off whenever they get bored or tired. If you time it right, during those moments, you and your wife might even have a little bit of time to yourself to muse about life before children and all the freedom you had.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Travel Tips for Dads with Babies
Summer is here and time is right for dancing in the streets. Well, maybe not, if you have little kids under your supervision. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a great vacation with kids. In so many ways, time off with kids is more meaningful and enriching than a week on the beach without them ever could be.
The first rule of thumb for planning any family adventure is to figure out what will work for the entire family. Normally, I’m not one for saying that having kids should hold you back from doing the things you love to do. To the un-ending misery of fellow travelers, we took our babies on 12 hour plane trips to the other side of the world where we let them sleep on our laps while we ate long gourmet meals. We refused to let their tiny existence ruin our plans, and they often did not throw up or even break too many things. But now that they are older and have opinions and their own desires, we have to admit that things are more complicated.
Here are a few things we learned along the way:
Traveling with Babies
Babies are cheap and immensely portable. Pushing a stroller is like having a perpetual shopping cart where you can also store extra clothing, purchases and even a snack and bottle of wine. Babies remind you that you need a nap and provide a wonderful reason to stop and sit in a park. They change the rhythm of a holiday in a positive way if you can appreciate it.
As a dad, I traveled with a five month old and four year old from San Francisco to New York. Everyone treated me as if I had accomplished the most heroic effort of my life and I certainly didn’t play down my travails when I met my wife at the other end. Your mileage may vary, but I’ve always found the horrors of travel with babies way over-stated, even when traveling alone. The fact of the matter is that during this time period of “life with babies,” you’re in the baby zone and little that they do can fluster you in the same way as if it were a crisis you had to endure outside of parenthood. Even standing in an airplane bathroom over the Pacific for what I remember as hours holding a baby crying about teeth or congestion, I’ve never regretted bringing our kids along on a trip.
Carefully plan travel with babies, though, making sure you have enough diapers and formula, which are never as easily available as you think they will be. And, think twice about African safaris or anything labled “must-see adventures on a Harley.”
Surprisingly, big cities make good vacations with little kids since you can often walk them around different spots, sticking them in strollers. New York, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago are great cities for walking holidays that provide a lot to see just by wandering from place to place on foot. Unfortunately, most other U.S. cities are too spread out to tour in this way.
The first rule of thumb for planning any family adventure is to figure out what will work for the entire family. Normally, I’m not one for saying that having kids should hold you back from doing the things you love to do. To the un-ending misery of fellow travelers, we took our babies on 12 hour plane trips to the other side of the world where we let them sleep on our laps while we ate long gourmet meals. We refused to let their tiny existence ruin our plans, and they often did not throw up or even break too many things. But now that they are older and have opinions and their own desires, we have to admit that things are more complicated.
Here are a few things we learned along the way:
Traveling with Babies
Babies are cheap and immensely portable. Pushing a stroller is like having a perpetual shopping cart where you can also store extra clothing, purchases and even a snack and bottle of wine. Babies remind you that you need a nap and provide a wonderful reason to stop and sit in a park. They change the rhythm of a holiday in a positive way if you can appreciate it.
As a dad, I traveled with a five month old and four year old from San Francisco to New York. Everyone treated me as if I had accomplished the most heroic effort of my life and I certainly didn’t play down my travails when I met my wife at the other end. Your mileage may vary, but I’ve always found the horrors of travel with babies way over-stated, even when traveling alone. The fact of the matter is that during this time period of “life with babies,” you’re in the baby zone and little that they do can fluster you in the same way as if it were a crisis you had to endure outside of parenthood. Even standing in an airplane bathroom over the Pacific for what I remember as hours holding a baby crying about teeth or congestion, I’ve never regretted bringing our kids along on a trip.
Carefully plan travel with babies, though, making sure you have enough diapers and formula, which are never as easily available as you think they will be. And, think twice about African safaris or anything labled “must-see adventures on a Harley.”
Surprisingly, big cities make good vacations with little kids since you can often walk them around different spots, sticking them in strollers. New York, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago are great cities for walking holidays that provide a lot to see just by wandering from place to place on foot. Unfortunately, most other U.S. cities are too spread out to tour in this way.
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