I don’t know about you, but we do a lot of car travel… especially over the holidays! We live about 2.5-3hrs away from both sets of grandparents (by car), so our Christmas break typically turns into a bit of a travelling road show! We pack my husband, myself, all the presents, the dog and the baby in the car and set out for 2 weeks of fun (and mayhem) on the road!
So needless to say, we’ve developed some serious car travel hacks to help Emmett (and us!) survive the long trips. So today, we’re sharing a few of our toddler travel tips AND some of the awesome products we use!
Let’s kick things off with our Tips and Tricks for Toddler Travel:
- Dress comfortably – that means both you and the babe! On a 3-hour car trip, something crazy frustrating is bound to happen… a screaming session, a food fight, or some sort of milk fountain shooting from your kiddos mouth. The only thing that makes this even worse, is if you’ve dressed in your very best for the trip, and now have to think of a second emergency festive outfit to change into once you arrive. So, don’t sweat it. Dress cozy, and leave yourself time to get changed for the festivities when you arrive!
- Schedule the journey around nap time! If your kiddos can nap during part of the trip you’re going to save yourself a LOT of headaches. We almost always schedule our long trips around Em’s naps, even if it means getting there a bit earlier (or later) than we would have liked!
- And last, but not least… in fact, I would argue this one is most important… pack snacks and drinks! A LOT of snacks and drinks! We try to bring one cup with water and snacks in a variety of textures and flavours! That way, if Em gets tired of something crunchy, we can swap in something softer… or if he’s had enough snacks, he’ll sip away on some water… sometimes he just wants something new!
So, we pack snacks and drinks – a lot of them (I’m not kidding… our kiddo eats like a horse!). But how do we do it?
We turn to our favourite brand of healthy snacks, food and drinks for our kiddos – Baby Gourmet! Our typical snack packing list looks something like the following:
- a selection of fruit and veggie pouches – Em’s favourites are the Cherry, Banana and Spinach pouch, or any of the Squoosh snack pouches
- a snack cup full of Mushies yogurt snacks
- a snack cup full of Puffies quinoa puffs
- a Shakers organic whole milk drink – because it’s hard to keep milk cold on long trips, and an extra boost of vitamins/minerals is just the ticket on long travel days
- a sippy cup full of water
Once we’ve got all of these bits packed, we have a full assortment of flavours and textures, and a happy snacker in the backseat!
Happy travels this Holiday season!
Note: This post was written in partnership with Baby Gourmet, and we received product/compensation as part of the partnership. All opinions are our own, and Emmett has been eating these snacks for over a year – so rest assured we’re only recommending what we really use!
