Tips for Preparing for a Trip with a Baby

The first trip with a baby is a real challenge for parents. Especially for those who want to travel with a baby for the first time. It is when preparing for the first trip with a baby that parents face the problem of how to prepare for such a trip. And those traveling with babies often face a problem. The problem is related to the question how to keep the babies occupied during the trip? What activities should we offer them that would be interesting, engaging, but also provide added educational value? These tips for preparing for a trip with a baby will be useful for all parents. It doesn’t matter whether you are preparing for your first trip or have already traveled.

Preparing for a Trip with a Baby

We have repeatedly written about preparation for traveling with children. In this article, we want to share tips for preparing for a trip with a baby. These eight tips for preparing for a trip with a baby are sure to make your trip go more smoothly.

1. Plan your travel route and the time of stops, which you have to combine according to the baby’s sleep and breastfeeding or feeding. We recommend you plan stops according to the meal schedule. But be flexible and ready to change your route if something unexpected happens. When traveling with a baby or child, the best plan is no plan.
2. Place the baby’s most important items in your hand luggage. In order not to have to unload the entire car if necessary, it is advisable to always have a couple of things. Pack a baby toy or educational contrast cards, a pillow or a roll placed under the neck. Also pack a light blanket, diapers, wet wipes and a change of clothes. In the car, a roll of paper towels can also help in various situations;
3. Provide window protection from the sun. Even if you are not going during the summer – a darkened window helps the baby to fall asleep faster with less distraction.

On the Road

1. Car seat. It is very important to choose the right one for the child according to weight, height and age. It ensures not only safety, but also comfort during the trip.
2. Backup road. This is what we call the extra route that we choose if the main road is congested. This is very relevant if you are going to travel during long weekends or on Fridays.
3. Travel clothing. The most important thing is that it is comfortable and does not restrict movement. If you are going to a celebration, change your child’s clothes as soon as you arrive at the place. Do not dress him up immediately because the child will be uncomfortable. He may change, and there is a chance that he will get dirty. In addition, always have spare clothes. If you are going on a longer trip, have a couple of clean sets at hand, that is, in your hand luggage inside the cabin.
4. If you are already feeding your baby, food, snacks and drinks are part of a successful trip. They not only fulfill the function of saturation, but also perfectly occupy time.
5. Remember that the right temperature in the car is extremely important. Most people turn on the air conditioner in the car and this is a huge mistake, especially when traveling with children. In summer, the temperature in the car can differ from the outside temperature by only 5 degrees and no more.

Keeping the Baby Occupied During the Trip

IMPORTANT – an interesting toy or other tool that will ensure the baby’s occupation should appear among the most necessary items. In our opinion, the baby’s occupation should always be combined with the baby’s education. Do you think that it is too early to educate a newborn or a baby? Absolutely not, it’s never too early to start raising a child. We chose the one created by a mother in Lithuania for her daughter Rusne for her first trips and raising a baby. These are contrast cards “Aikiu”. These cards are not only simple, but also specially adapted for travel. We bought these cards before Paula’s first trip to Poland, when she was only three weeks old.

“Aikiu” Birth Story

Educational “Aikiu” cards are created with great enthusiasm by a young Lithuanian family. And although at first the fruits of their creativity reached only clients and friends, the birth of their daughter Rusnė brought a lot of changes.

“When Rusne was born, we created for her: contrasting cards, toys, carousels, stimulating sensory activities and other baby activities. We did everything ourselves, with love and passion – after all, we wish only the best for our child.” This is what the founders of “Aikiu” say. They add that when the daughter grew up, the idea was born to use the already available knowledge and experience to create a wider circle of young families.

The creators assure that “Aikiu” is unique in that it is a contrasting card. The contrasting card is tested by themselves, friends and friends of friends, created specifically for babies. However, it is not only a creation inspired by love and personal experience, but most importantly, it is a product based on the findings of scientific research. Therefore, the creators of “Aikiu” created a blog that provides parents with important information about the development of babies, shares the latest scientific research, and tells how to properly develop the baby’s skills.

When and How to Train a Baby?

Think it’s too early to train a newborn? They say that a good start is half the battle. And a particularly good, educational start can help the little one better understand the world around him. The baby will learn new things more easily, and at the same time, help him cope with future challenges.

In order to contribute to the early development of the baby, the main task of parents is to ensure a sufficient variety of sensations and experiences and their repetition. But let’s move on to the scientific arguments.

The baby gets to know the world through the senses, using his senses, so it is the interaction with the environment that allows the baby to get to know it. In order for a newborn to be able to learn, it is necessary to develop his vision first. Newborn babies have poorly developed vision. To encourage its training and development, use educational stimulation cards with highly contrasting figures of varying complexity – that’s exactly what Aikiu is.

These cards for use in the first year of the baby are divided into three sets adapted to the different stages of the baby’s development:

• For babies aged 0-3 months (who see the world dimly, have difficulty distinguishing colors) – black and white cards.
• For babies of 3-6 months (who have started to see the color red and its different tones) – black, white and red color cards.
• For babies aged 6-12 months (starting to see many colors and focus images easily) – colored cards.

With the help of these cards, not only the development of the nervous system of babies is stimulated. The cards also stimulate the concentration of attention, memory, visual and movement skills, and also encourage the curiosity of children.

How to Use Contrast Cards when Traveling And at Home

Just placing toys, books or special educational tools in a visible place for the baby is not enough. Parents should be involved in the entire educational process, help the child and monitor the progress. For example, to strengthen the baby’s neck and shoulder muscles, promote visual development and develop head movements, you can lay the baby on his stomach and not far from his face, at eye level, slowly move the object from side to side so that his eyes and head try to follow the moving object. Contrast cards are best suited for this.

Important Things to Remember

The most important thing is to never put the baby on his stomach immediately after feeding. It must take some time. While you are getting the baby used to lying on his stomach and trying to get him interested with contrast cards, stay close to him, talk to him. If the baby starts crying, pick him up immediately and don’t leave him alone.

When the baby is already used to lying on his stomach and is interested in contrast cards, you can have a minute free for yourself. Simply place the contrast cards in front of the baby lying on his tummy.

When traveling by car, show the cards to the baby while he is sitting in the car seat. In no case do not remove the baby from the car seat while driving – it is extremely unsafe.

You can also use these contrast cards well with older children. When Paulė slept, Matthew, who is five years old, and I created a fairy tale from the pictures shown on the card.

But whatever you do, your presence, attention, voice and warmth are most important to the baby. So, it doesn’t matter if it’s a long car trip or a quiet evening at home – first of all, give your baby a sense of love and security, because this most stimulates his desire to learn, be interested, and remember.

For Those who Want to Stop Time

All parents would like to seal those sensitive and fleeting moments of infancy in a jar and preserve them forever. And although this is impossible, Aikiu offers another alternative – special memory cards that will help you save the most important moments, the first times, the first 12 birthdays.

A deck of cards “My First Times” consists of 15 double-sided cards for pasting photos of a child sitting up for the first time, smiling, tasting a lemon and making other first movements and first experiences. The backs of the cards also have a place to write the date, and you can also write short stories about the first times yourself, mentioning interesting details.

A deck of cards “12 Little Birthdays” – one side of the cards is intended for pasting a festive photo, and the other side is for writing down data about the changes in the child’s height, weight, teeth, achievements and hobbies that month.

Contrast Cards are a Great Gift

Such cards can become a practical and very aesthetic gift for a family that has had a baby or is still expecting a baby. If the family likes to travel, we recommend you get some travel cards.

Don’t be afraid to give contrast cards to your friends’ kids, be sure to tell parents about their benefits. Believe me, you can make young parents happy with such a gift incomparably more than giving an ordinary towel, sandpit or rattle.

Finally, it is important to mention the most important feature of educational cards – they take up very little space, are light, so it is very convenient to use them in a car, plane, train, or wherever you can think of.

By the way, they can also be used for games with older children. After all, there are no limits to imagination!

We sincerely hope that these tips for preparing for a trip with a baby will be useful and will help you prepare for your trip.

The best breast pump for travels

If you are breastfeeding your baby, but sometimes you give him a bottle or feed him with discontinued milk and you are worried about how you will need to do this during the trip – do not be afraid. MOMCOZY is a wireless electric breast pump that is simply designed for active and traveling moms.

The MOMCOZY breast pump, like manual breast pumps, does not have any cables that restrict movement, and at the same time, its operation is fully electric, so it does not require additional effort! In addition, you have both hands free to drive a car, hold a baby, push a stroller, read a book or lie on the beach. It is almost invisible, so no one will even understand what you are doing.

Read about our experience using this breast pump, situations, when it really comes in handy, and why it’s something we totally recommend, even for breastfeeding moms, in the Best Breast Pump for Travel article.