I’ve had several people ask how we survived a car trip where we spent 6-8 hours a day on the road for 3 weeks with a toddler.

It is true that Addy is an easy baby. So that helps a lot. But she isn’t THAT easy, she requires pretty constant attention and entertainment to stay happy and she is SUPER active.

A few things we learned when we road-tripped to Columbus in May and successfully applied to this road trip:

• Making frequent stops just prolongs the agony. It significantly increases the overall amount of drive time and it just frustrates the baby who thinks, every time we stop, that we are done for the day. Better to drive as much as possible. Better to keep the baby in the car seat, even at necessary short stops.
• Provide human entertainment. For us, the entertainment was big brother, Dalton. He sat next to her, read to her, set up her DVDs, played with her, fed her, gave her bottles, etc. On the way to Columbus, it was either Tony or I who traded off sitting back there with her.
• Drive when it works best for baby. Does your baby sleep well in the car? If so, consider driving at night or very early in the morning. If your baby doesn’t sleep well in the car, drive during daylight hours and try to drive during the longest stretch of awake time for your baby.
• Pack a “surprise” box or buy stuff along the way. Change and newness is your friend when it comes to entertaining a toddler in the car.
• Baby Einstein. Even if your toddler hates tv in general, like mine, don’t discount the power of Baby Einstein. The only place Addy will entertain video is in the car. I think she has decided since she is stuck there, it is an ok option. And it buys us an hour break when used sparingly. We have lots of DVDs but the only other thing she would give her attention to besides Baby Einstein was Pokemon, of all things.
• Dress baby for car travel. No dresses, they just bunch up. No jeans, they are uncomfy. Go for nice, light cotton shorts/pants and shirts. Skip the shoes.
• If the car seat gets wet on the road, lay down a diaper, absorbent side down, and replace baby in seat. The diaper is thin enough not to cause safety issues, absorbent enough to help soak up water faster and water proof enough to protect baby from getting wet too
• Bring familiar bedding. I’ve found that even if the bed changes, it is comforting for Addy to have her familiar blanket. Some people religiously bring along a pack-n-play but we usually just put Addy on the floor under a nest of blankets. She sleeps great - better than at home in her crib - and we don’t worry all night about her falling out of bed. Plus it saves a TON of room in the car that the pack-n-play would take up.
• Eat healthy. It is easy to hit up every McD’s you pass in order to save time but you will quickly feel like crap and so will your toddler. It doesn’t actually take much more time to stop at one of the “Faster Food” chains and get something closer to real food. Quiznos, Subway, etc. If you have to stop at fast food joints, they have a lot more options now than they used to. Yogurt “parfaits” and apples at McD’s, Mandarin Oranges at Wendys, Green beans or Mac & Cheese at KFC. This stuff is still processed junk devoid of most nutrients but it is a lot better than fried processed crap
• Be flexible. Nothing will go as planned. If you are a very regimented personality, this can be a challenge but having the mental attitude, going into a road trip, that things will unexpected change on a dime will make it easier to go with the flow. If you have a schedule, as we did, realize that it is a ‘loose’ schedule, not set in stone. Don’t book hotels any further than 24-36 hours in advance or you will be playing with fire
• Most of all, have a sense of humor. If you don’t, you will end up very frustrated, very quickly and your memories of your vacation will be tainted by the struggles of controlling an overly-energetic toddler who wants nothing to do with the car.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 8:00 am and is filed under Holidays & Vacations, Parenting. 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.