Travelling internationally with a newborn or a toddler requires a lot of work and if you are doing this for the first time, it brings a lot of anxiety to parents. Starting from what I need to pack, how much to pack and balancing this with the constraints on luggage weight, it’s not an easy task.
Through this blog, I am sharing with you my personal experiences from my first trip with my little one. Every kid is different and so are their needs, but atleast this will give you some idea on what to expect.
1.) Diapers: This is a must to carry, however it’s a personal choice on how much you want to carry. Few parents like to take the whole supply of diapers with them to avoid the churn of finding another brand which will work for their newborns. I had heard a couple stories from my friends that the brands they got caused a lot of rashes to their little ones which made me a bit worried and I decided to pack the whole supply (I know, it’s a lot to carry !). If you know the same brand will be available where you are going, you have nothing to worry and maybe you just need to carry 8-10 diapers (based on your journey time). If your kid’s skin is not super sensitive, you can afford to try a new brand without worrying too much. Pampers Swaddlers diapers are the ones I carried for my little one.
2.) Baby wipes: Baby wipes are another must-have for your trip. You need to carry 1 pack (40-50 wipes) and that should easily cover your journey and then you can buy more once you reach. No point carrying lots of these as these add up to the weight pretty quickly.
3.) Tylenol: Infant Tylenol (for less than 2 years) or toddlers Tylenol – Definitely keep this with you when you travel just in case your baby ever needs it.
4.) Baby carrier: This is usually very helpful during airport transits as you want your hands free to either hold any luggage, hand bag, diaper bag etc, so definitely worth taking and the best part is it doesn’t add up to your weight as much.
5.) Baby stroller: This is again a personal choice. Lots of parents cannot imagine travelling without a stroller but my personal preference is to carry a baby carrier rather than a stroller (especially for the newborn) because of the additional overhead that comes with the stroller on where to check-in, and when your newborn is just not ready to sit it becomes an additional burden to carry it as an additional luggage item. For toddlers, it’s probably worth taking a stroller (again, this is just my opinion). Sharing two that I like – this one from Baby Trend is a good one. Another one that I like is this one from Summer Infant brand.
6.) Diaper rash cream: Another must-have item for travel. I like this one from Desitin for regular use.
7.) Diaper Disposal bags: You definitely want to buy this if you plan to take your kid out :). These do work wonders and help with eliminating odor.
8.) Diaper changing pads: Another must-have item are these changing pads. These are really easy to carry around making it ideal to use at home or outside. They make it easy to change diapers at public places where you can place this first to avoid direct contact of your baby with the diaper changing station.
9.) Nasal saline spray: It’s pretty common for infants to have a dry or stuffy nose and this nasal spray comes in really handy to take that mucus out. Strongly recommend to carry this during travel.
10.) Infant and toddler hearing protection: These head phones were very helpful when we took a flight with our 5 month old. Infants experience pain in their ears especially during flight landing and take-off and I wouldn’t say it completely solved that problem but definitely helped a lot, so would totally recommend having these if you plan to travel.
11.) Formula powder: This is must to carry if your baby is used to a specific one. It’s hard to find the same brand in a different country and you don’t want your baby to starve. Also, another tip I have is to carry a few ready-to-feed formula bottles in your handbag for use in a rush situation where you won’t have a lot of time to prepare the powdered one (Do plan for additional time for security checking).
12.) Clothing: Make sure you keep few extra pair of clothes for the journey (diaper leaks are very common in infants). In addition to that, keep an extra Tshirt for yourself too to change in case of throw-ups.
13.) Baby Moisturizer: Do carry a baby moisturizer with you. I would suggest to also keep a mini pack for your flight duration to keep your baby’s skin moisturized.
Another tip for travel is to make sure you call the airline while booking your tickets to reserve an infant bassinet as it makes your travel really easy (don’t assume you will get this by default as different airlines have different rules). Infants tend to sleep a lot and without a bassinet, you will be holding them all the time making your travel way more hectic than it really is.