Traveling with kids is one of life’s great challenges.
It’s taken you a few weeks to get your baby into a good schedule and sleeping well. Now that you’ve put in the time, effort, and energy to make this big change in your family’s life, that trip you have planned for next month is starting to stress you out!
If you’re like most parents, your biggest fear is that a trip is going to derail all the progress you and your baby have made.
The mere thought of traveling with kids frightens parents so much that they cancel all trips and just vow to stay home until the child leaves for college.
That is how important your baby’s new sleeping regime has become to everyone.
The good news?
You don’t need to cancel all your travel plans and confine yourself to the house for the rest of your child’s life. It is possible to have children who travel really well, if you keep a few things in mind:
1. The biggest mistake parents make is that they over-schedule themselves.
They try to pack in all the fun and adventure they might normally have had back in their child-free days. They forget one important fact: They have a child now.
2. An occasional car nap or slightly later bedtime probably isn’t going to do too much harm.
However, keep in mind, if your baby spends a couple of days taking car naps and having late bedtimes, she may become so overtired that by bedtime on day 2 that she has a complete meltdown! Seemingly “forgetting” all her sleep skills, and just cries the house down.
3. If over tiredness behaviour starts to kick in, you might start to get very nervous
(a) your baby, who has been happily chatting herself to sleep for weeks, is now crying again, and (b) your mother-in-law is standing outside the door repeatedly asking you if you’re sure the baby is okay. You may start to give into this pressure and bend your expectations for your baby’s sleep.
Stay strong.
4. It’s very normal for babies and toddlers to test the boundaries around sleep.
Just because the rule is the rule at home, that does not necessarily mean the rule is the same at Grandma’s house.
This may mean that your baby cries for some time at bedtime or has a night waking or two. The best way to handle it is to not do too much different than you would if the regression happened at home.
You can go in every five minutes or so to offer a bit of reassurance, but other than that, don’t bend your rules. If you hang on tight to your consistency, within the first night or two, your child will be used to the new environment and will be sleeping well again.
5. Make sure you bring your child’s sleeping toy and/or blanket!
This will help them feel familiarity and comfort when sleeping elsewhere.
6. Another big mistake parents make is to bed share with their baby or toddler while traveling.
Even if it is only for a few nights, your baby may decide this is her new preferred location. Most hotels have a cot you can use or hire, or take a portacot along.
7. If your child is eight months or older, my advice is to try to make some sort of a private space for your baby to sleep.
This could be the bathroom (if it’s big enough) or the closet. Anywhere that you can build some sort of a partition between you and your baby.
This way, if she wakes up in the middle of the night she is not so excited to see her two favourite people that she ends up wide awake thinking it’s play time! Of course, getting an extra bedroom for your child is great if that’s an option for you.
Time changes and dealing with jet lag
When it comes to surviving the plane ride, the best piece of advice I ever got about traveling with kids is just to ACCEPT the fact that you’re traveling with kids!
Plan ahead and bring as many things that you can think of to keep your baby occupied and comfortable.
If you have to resort to old ways to get your child to settle down, then do so. When that plane lands, its back to the plan!
Well-rested children can handle jet lag well. With a great schedule leading up to the trip, they should slide into the new time zone without too much trouble.
It is best to adjust to the new time zone as quickly as you can.
Try not to let her nap too close to bedtime. If it’s a choice between a strangely timed dinner hour nap or an earlier bedtime, go with the earlier bedtime.
Sunlight is a useful tool in helping both you and your baby adjust to the new time zone. Light is the most powerful time cue our bodies have
- Plan meals and socialising around the new time zone
- Get an hour or two of fresh air in the early afternoon
- Make sure you do just the opposite when evening rolls around. Use the blackout blinds, and keep light to a minimum a couple of hours before you want your baby to go to bed. This will help stimulate melatonin production, making sleep come easier.
In spite of their best efforts, many parents find themselves reverting back to old, familiar sleep props with their children when they travel. If you find that it’s all fallen apart in just a week or two, don’t despair.
Be ready to work on getting back on track when you get home.
When home, start over.
Speed your plan up to two nights at each step. Hold tight to the memory that your child is capable of doing this! He just needs a push in the right direction from you.
So if you are going somewhere with a child that already has sleep skills, you’ll survive! I promise.
If you are in the position where you child doesn’t have sleep skills yet, give me three weeks of your time before you go anywhere!
