Wednesday’s post of my highly prejudiced take on the top-5 issues when traveling with a baby brought a number of responses, for which I thank everyone.
What came home to me when following the links to a lot of your sites was that a) there’s not a lot of useful information in the travel writing world about real people traveling with real kids (with the exception of our awesome Sheila at Family Travel!), and b) there are a lot of people, mothers and fathers alike, who are working like beavers to change that.
Have Baby Will Travel wrote in, and on her site I found a mountain of information for preparing for travel with little ones. Unlike the article I mentioned in Wednesday’s post, Have Baby Will Travel’s lists of tips and resources is nothing if not comprehensive, and she addresses issues I forgot to even think of: a stroller can make a useful high chair in a pinch; if you’re still exclusively breastfeeding, watch the extreme hiking — exercise lowers milk supply (albeit temporarily); if restaurants or hotels mix rice cereal for you back in the kitchen, triple-check to make sure they haven’t added sugar or salt (this is something I never would have thought of and have subsequently forgotten, but it was a surprisingly frequent issue during our 3-week trip to Europe). This is only a tiny smidge of the great tips on Have Baby Will Travel.
Debbie at Delicious Baby wrote in, too. I was thrilled to find a recent post on her site bemoaning the fact (it’s not just my imagination) that most travel blogs seem to be written by single young men and lack useful information for traveling parents. Hey, just because we have kids doesn’t mean we’re only interested in package vacations, and it certainly doesn’t mean we want to leave the tots behind with Granny! But Debbie only bemoans for a moment — in the same post she’s got a round-up of some of the best women travel bloggers around, including several who write about family travel.
I also wanted to thank Debbie for her comment about babies sleeping on a plane. She points out that you do not have to worry about the air pressure changes for a sleeping baby. Now that’s some information I could have used a couple months ago! My husband the clear-headed physicist would also like to thank Debbie for affirming that he was right all along.
(Aside: The sleeping baby issue was the one that made me realize I needed to indulge in a Zen approach to traveling. Because if you’re lucky enough to get a bulkhead seat where you can put your baby in one of the cots on the fold-out platform (make sure to ask for one of the cots as soon as you get on board, by the way — supply is limited, as we discovered), and even luckier to see your kid drift off, you will be clutching your forehead in despair when the flight attendants tell you how very, very sorry they are, but when the plane hits turbulence and the seat belt sign goes on, you’ve got to pick your baby right back up. And like hell you’re going to get them back to sleep after that.)
And our own editor, Tim Leffel, pointed to his recent review on the Perceptive Travel magazine of the Rough Guide to Travel with Babies and Young Children, which is something I think all we parents are looking for: in his words, a book “for those who want to move about as real travelers instead of coddled vacationers staying in a walled resort or RVers carrying half their possessions along.”
What really makes all these resources stand out is that they include real experiences and stories from real parents. That makes them priceless, and rare, and I am truly grateful for all you who are pioneering the hard work for us.
Thanks Antonia!
In a way I’m glad I didn’t know all these resources existed before our first trip – in spite of exhaustive internet searches – because then I wouldn’t have been motivated to start my site!
I was lucky enough to be featured in a great article recently for The Canadian Press. It’s refreshing since most articles these days seem to be about entitled parents mowing people down with giant strollers…
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jp7QGSzpKctQDn9fXBqp8tNX_ewQ
Thanks for another great article! You inspired me to go back and make sure that the information I provide about takeoff and landing has enough detail. As parents, there is so much that we figure out after long, hard, trial and error (and then it immediately becomes second nature)
I know I don’t have to encourage you to keep getting out there and traveling, but I will say this… it gets easier every time. At 3 years old my son can take his own shoes off at the security checkpoint, put his bag up on the conveyor belt, and walk through on his own. My daughter (21 months) hasn’t mastered the shoes yet, but both kids know exactly what to do during takeoff and landing. We hand them a sippy cup or a cup with a straw & they decide when a sip will help relieve the pressure in their ears.
Feel free to email me with questions before your next trip. I’m writing as fast as I can over at DeliciousBaby, but I find that I write my best articles when I have a real-world question to answer… debbie AT deliciousbaby DOT com
Debbie
I enjoyed both your posts and the resources the comments directed me to. As someone who spent 13 months on the road with a child between 1 and 2, I agree that there is not a huge amount of information out there.
My children are older now (3 and 6) and I have started my own blog where I talk about traveling with kids; I’d like to make it a place where other parents with real-life experiences and ideas post too. Anyone who is interested can take a gander and drop me an e-mail. The blog is available at motherofalltrips@blogspot.com.
Also note that the blog is in early stages of development – I haven’t even put links to other sites in. I definitely will be working on adding lots more content.
Oops – typed an ampersand instead of a dot – sorry – here’s the link http://motherofalltrips.blogspot.com/.
And one more thing – we have tried to use the carseat on international flights and have had problems, most recently on Air India. We ended up having to check it at the door of the plane – very frustrating, as I feel that it is safer for little ones to be in carseats on the plane. Also helps them sleep better.
HBWT: That’s a great article! And it includes something you don’t see very often–a doctor’s advice. Great tips. Keep up the good work yourself!
Debbie: Great story
And you made me laugh when you mentioned that travel with kids is something we figure out after trial and error, and then we forget about a lot of it as we move onto the next stage. Doesn’t that just describe parenthood in a nutshell? A friend recently said she was worried about starting a family because she remembered my son crying incessantly during the first three months. My response was, “Did he? I don’t remember …” which is, I’m sure, the only reason we ever go for kid #2.
Mara: Thanks for that link, too! Looks like I’m going to have to keep on this topic, there’s such a growing community out there. And I think having parents talk about real-life experiences is a great idea. It can all be so individual — your Air India experience with car seats is a case in point. Airlines are all over the map when it comes to bringing little ones on board.