Tots -- Long Travel Days and Hotels (21 Months Old)

Tots and Long Travel Days...

After our Hawaii trip, I wrote about some of our survival methods for traveling with a toddler. Here are a couple of more (also useful for car trips):

I realized Eli sometimes gets "spun up" from watching his parents repeatedly rush past during last minute packing. Getting as much packing done as possible the evening before while Eli is asleep helps the travel day start off well.
We now schedule time to visit a playground or play spot early in the travel day. This past trip, we went to Studio Grow for an hour on the way to the airport. So worth it! It normalized the day somewhat for Eli, helped him burn off energy, and gave him our undivided attention during a day when his parents were often preoccupied. (...And tots know when you're preoccupied. Oh, yes, they know!).
Using night time diapers during travel days can be a big help. (I saw a lady trying to get through security with a baby who had a diaper blowout. Uhhhh!)

Some of my mama and papa friends shared some more ideas. (Thanks! What would I do without my tribe of parent friends?!)

Four people wrote in suggesting a portable DVD player. (One dad said, "I'm not worrying about giving them a learning and cultural experience the whole way. I just want some peace!") One smart mama also suggested picking shows that are viewable without sound as kids sometimes either don't want to wear headphones or have trouble hearing over the hum of a plane/car engine. (She suggested old Tom & Jerry cartoons.)
Plastic farm animals
Finger puppets
Indestructibles children's books by Workman Publishing Company. These books are much thinner and easier to carry around than board books but are tear-proof and chew-proof. Although they feel like paper, you can even drop them in the dishwasher. (Search for authors Kaaren Pixton or Jonas Sickler.)
A fabric carry-all or purse with lots of pockets that you can fill with tiny surprises
One mom suggested candy. (Wow! Shocking for a Berkeley mom!) She has a son almost three years old and said, "It's something we normally don't do, so it is exciting. I'm not worried about bad nutrition if it is an occasional thing."

Tots and Airplanes (shared by my mama friends)...

When you get on board the plane, ask for a cup of ice right away if your kid likes it. Cubes in a cup make a good toy and the drips do dry fairly quickly. Melting ice can help with swallowing to keep ears clear on takeoffs and landings too. (I break Eli's cubes so they aren't choking size.)
Another mom suggested getting a to-go cup with a straw in the airport to carry on board. Getting to drink from a "adult" cup is exciting for tots and also helps keep their ears clear.
One mom swore by letting her kid pick out a toy in a gift shop during layovers.

Tots and Hotels...

One mom with a new crawler asked about tips for not just transporting your baby but also staying in a temporary location. (Here you go, Karla! I made a blog category called "Travel with Kids" so you can find the posts I wrote about traveling before Eli was a toddler.) There are a lot of parents who have more experience with this than we do, but here are a few things that have helped us...

We carry a homemade "Hotel Safety Kit." It has a night light for dark bathrooms, plastic zip ties to bundle up electric cords or tuck away drape/blind cords, electric outlet covers, a packet of Clorox wipes, and a small flashlight with both a regular bulb and a red bulb. (Red light is a lot less likely to disturb a sleeping child.) We also carry clothespins -- 1,001 uses from hanging up wet clothes to sealing snack bags to pinning shut that bright gap in the hotel curtains.
We always do a complete check of a new hotel room. Even a well-cleaned room could have an overlooked dropped pill or a choking hazard like a dropped penny. (We've found both recently!) Using a flashlight, we search under furniture, in all the drawers, behind doors, and beneath cushions. Think that's over-reacting? Check out this news story.
Many hotel doors are heavy. To keep Eli from severely pinching his fingers with the bathroom door, we keep a folded towel thrown over the top so it can't shut completely.
We carry a sound machine with us. Yes, it takes up space, but we are oh-so-thankful for it when other hotel guests slam doors, yell in the hall, etc. We use one at home, so it helps make the hotel feel familiar too.
Bring as much of your bedtime routine as you can -- a couple of familiar bath toys, the same bath products as usual, a beloved storybook, favorite lovey (or at least a familiar one of your kid doesn't seem attached to any specific soft toy).

A Few Words About Hotel or Portable Cribs...

Their days are numbered with us, but right now we still use hotel cribs when we travel. But they are smaller than standard cribs, so we take Eli's crib bumper if we can cram it into a suitcase. We had some bad nights with hotel cribs until we realized Eli was stretching out in his sleep and hitting hard bars in the middle of the night. His bumpers are very soft and squish down if he steps on them, so he can't use them to climb on and we just loosely tuck them around the mattress rather than tying them so he can't use them as a foothold.
If your kid is a climber, be aware that most hotel cribs have shorter bars and your child may be able to climb out more easily.
We also use clothespins to put a towel around the outside of the crib bars so Eli doesn't see us when he's trying to drift off to sleep and so we don't accidentally shine a flashlight his way.
We also carry a crib sheet and baby blanket for Eli. Many hotels only offer a full-sized flat sheet for cribs and that rarely stays tucked in well enough.
We've got our eye out for a good toddler travel bed. (A web search comes up with quite a few designs.) If anybody has feedback, we've love to hear it.

The game is never won. As soon as you find travel tricks that work, your kid grows and changes on you. Ah, it makes life interesting, doesn't it? And we're oh-so-thankful to other parents for sharing their know-how!

Comments

When Lauren was crawling, I would travel with one or two of our own sheets to put down on the hotel floor during playtime. Of course, you could also just ask the hotel for an extra sheet. I just felt better if she wasn't crawling directly on that floor - at least not all the time. :-)

Posted by: Tonia | 13 September 2010 at 10:32 AM