Baby gear to travel with

The Wise Baby
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The official start to summer is upon us – Memorial Day is THIS weekend. Holiday weekends and summer time brings on road trips and fun travels with littles. For some of you, this is you first season stepping out with a babe in tow. I definitely suggest starting, here, after all it is road tripping with an infant. But here’s our recommendation for gear to bring on your travels. We’ve traveled pretty extensively with both of our girls and learned from our mistakes along the way – I hope you all find this info useful as you head out for all your fun summer adventures. We’ll be traveling quite a bit this summer and I am ALWAYS looking to learn new tips – so please share yours!

1. Sleep devices. For us, it is the Sea Dreams Soother (I don’t put this in the crib) and Graco Sound Machine

. I literally will not go anywhere without them. The first trip I took with Eloise, I did. It was disastrous. She has always been a good sleeper and we had the toughest time getting her down. So therefore, I pack these puppies in my suitcase or road trip bags (love these, from Landsend). I know it may seem silly because they take up a good amount of space but please trust me on this, do not leave home without whatever helps your child sleep at night.

2. Bath cup and bath towel. Bring your Bath Cup Rinser

. Believe me, do it. Again, learned from my mistake here. We love this one from Skip Hop and while it takes up some space in your bag/luggage it is worth it. If you are feeling especially fun, pack the cup with a few of their favorite bath toys. Also, bring your hooded bath towel – in my opinion it just helps your little one feel more at home. We are big on routines in our house and the hooded bath towel just helps keep it up. The aden anais

ones travel nicely.

3. Video Monitor. Okay, I know you guys are thinking, lady, do you bring an entire other suitcase for all this stuff… NO because luckily the girls have small clothes (wink, wink). It should be expected that your little one may have trouble getting to sleep the first night or two in new surroundings. Having a video monitor is invaluable to see if they legitimately require your attention are just up, looking around. I have found the latter to be true most of the time but without a video monitor I probably wouldve gone in their sleeping space every time. Even if you are sharing a room, you may want the video monitor for before you are in bed yourself. We bring our Motorola Video Monitor

(Mallory’s review, here).

4. Travel crib/Playard and sheets. Depending on where you are going you may be able to leave this off the list. I have talked a couple times before about renting from a local Baby’s Away and every time we have been very pleased. They have full size, wooden cribs which is super nice. Most hotels often have cribs although, don’t hesitate to call and ask questions about what their cribs are actually like. If you rent a crib: bring a crib sheet. Germaphobe reasons aside, sometimes the crib sheets haven’t fit the mattresses as well as I would like. I have found this far less with Baby’s Away but definitely the case in hotels – they have usually brought up actual bed sheets which are obviously way too huge.

If you are bringing a pack n play, I love the 4Moms Breeze

. It is what we bring on all road trips. If you are traveling by plane though, I would go the Baby Bjorn travel crib route. It is SO much lighter and easy to travel with. I love it quite a bit, too (ps, here’s my video review).

Another note about staying in hotels with kids, if you ask, most hotels will bring you a mini fridge to store your milk, some snacks, etc.

5. Entertainment. I know this really doesn’t classify as “baby gear” but it is an important piece of successful travel with little ones. If you are road tripping, get this car this car mounting case for your iPad (we have put Kindle’s in it too). Load your tablet up with some NEW episodes of favorite shows and some old favorites. Our girls have these Kindle Fire’s

and these days, Eloise (3 years old) loves Dora and Margaux (17 months) will sit still to Bubble Guppies and both love, Frozen. If your little one isn’t in to shows or movies Elmo or Bubble Guppies both of my girls loved those early on. If you are flying you’ll want to make sure you have your charger in your carry on in case of delays. For road trips, my techy husband doesn’t leave home without a fully charged external battery which basically allows you to charge electronics remotely. It has come in handy for charging our phones, too.

Other than electronics, bring a couple great board books

and if you have a smaller infant who tummy times, rolls around, consider a playmat like this one, from Skip Hop

to use at your destination. A picnic type blanket like we talked about last week would also work great and do double duty for outdoors.

We have a more detailed list of entertainment options in our tips for traveling with an infant post.

6. Stroller. This is probably a no brainer but bring a lightweight stroller that can fold compactly but still be fully functional at your destination. My #1 go to is the Baby Jogger City Mini GT Stroller

. We use the double for car and air travel. This is also one of our favorite everyday strollers, depending on your lifestyle!

So there you have my thoughts on baby gear you shouldn’t leave your home without, what about you? What is on your must have list?

Some other helpful travel posts:

Baby gear to travel with
Lindsey

Lindsey Krummenacher

Baby gear to travel with