Vacation With Your Baby? Read These Ten Tips First

by Jen Stoddart

Planning your first vacation with you baby is essential to the success of your trip.

Our list of 10 things to consider will help you plan a successful vacation for you, your partner and your baby.

1. Food and water. If you are going to a popular, well-developed location like Cancun, or a major European city easy access to water and food for your baby will not likely be a problem. If your vacation entails travel to remote areas, or even on a cruise make sure that you know how and where you will get water and food for your baby during the trip.

2. Medications. Anticipate what small ailments may occur to your child during the trip, and pack a small kit with the medicine that will help you to easily treat an upset tummy, a slight fever, an ear-ache, any rashes and so on.

3. Accommodations. Think about reserving a room with a balcony that you can comfortably sit on viewing the ocean, or overlooking a mountain range. You can count on spending more time in your room as your baby will need their regular nap times. If your room has a balcony you and your spouse can still enjoy your time together - sitting on the balcony - while your baby gets their needed sleep.

4. Don’t plan on being as busy as you were on trips before baby. You can’t just go-go-go. Take time to stop periodically, and play with the baby. If there are some sites or adventures that one of you just has to see - agree up front that there will be times when one parent heads off on their own to see or do what is important to them while the other parent tends to the baby.

5. Guard against too much time in the stroller for the baby. Taking a comfortable stroller with you on vacation is important - just make sure that your child doesn’t sleep too much during the daytime. Many babies love to fall asleep in their stroller - which might cause them not to sleep well at night. Make sure there are plenty of opportunities during the day to take the baby out of the stroller and play with them.

6. As much as possible avoid connecting flights when air travel is part of your vacation plan. Taking off, landing and rushing through airports to get to your connecting flights is never easy and is even more difficult when traveling with a baby.

7. If you plan on bringing a travel bed with you on your trip don’t wait for the vacation to get the baby accustomed to sleeping in it. A couple of days prior to your trip let the baby start sleeping in it to get them used to it.

8. If you are renting a car during your vacation consider bringing your own car seat. That way you will know how to install the seat in the rental car and you will know that is a safe and comfortable seat for them to ride in.

9. Vaccinations. Check with your baby’s doctor 6 to 8 weeks before the trip to ensure that your baby has all the necessary shots before they travel.

10. Check list. Write a list of the items that you will carry with you as you travel and a list of the items that you will pack for your baby to be used during the trip. Check the list a week before the trip and then check it again the day before the trip to make sure that you have everything.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2008 and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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