Child Safety and Comfort for a long car ride

[hollierae]

In 2 weeks we will be making the 15 hour drive from Houston to Orlando. This will be our first trip driving.We always fly, but we are headed back in June and wanted to save money on this trip.

We will be leaving around 10 pm and take turns driving through the night. I have a 5 year old and I am trying to decide what is the safest and most comfortable way for him to travel. He will be sleeping most of the time. He currently sits in a backless booster, but I am thinking about getting him one with a back and head rest for this trip. I am also looking into traveling pillows for kids and a footrest to go with the booster, so that his legs do not hang the whole time.

I am looking for everyones advice on how they travel with their older kids. I want him to be comfortable, but safety comes first.

 

[mom2meiko]

In 2 weeks we will be making the 15 hour drive from Houston to Orlando. This will be our first trip driving.We always fly, but we are headed back in June and wanted to save money on this trip.

We will be leaving around 10 pm and take turns driving through the night. I have a 5 year old and I am trying to decide what is the safest and most comfortable way for him to travel. He will be sleeping most of the time. He currently sits in a backless booster, but I am thinking about getting him one with a back and head rest for this trip. I am also looking into traveling pillows for kids and a footrest to go with the booster, so that his legs do not hang the whole time.

I am looking for everyones advice on how they travel with their older kids. I want him to be comfortable, but safety comes first.

our bff's drove down last year w/ an 8 yr old and a 3 yr old. the 8 was just in a regular seat w/ seatbelt and the 3 was just in a backless booster with her regular pillow. they are both big for their ages though. if it were me, i'd bring different options if you have the space because what may seem comfy at the start may not be after a few hours, etc.

i'm sorry i don't actually have good advice to offer you but your post did make me think back to my childhood (1970s/1980s) when we didn't have to worry about things like safety when traveling. My family had a van and when we went on road trips they would set us up in the far back with sleeping bags and pillows on the floor - toys in a swinging toy hammock - and plenty of snacks and drinks. It was a great adventure for us and I honestly can't imagine how we would have handled long car trips if we were confined to our seats as children are now. it's amazing to me that we survived! thank god we never had any accidents along the way!

 

[Jacksmom99]

What kind of car do you have? The reason I'm asking is that we used the high backed booster in our van for several drives. What worked for us was to be able to recline the seats slightly. Not enough to cause issues with the seat belts, but just enough so that when the kids fell asleep, gravity kept them tilted back and resting against the headrest. If you just have a regular car, or don't have the ability to tilt the seat, I would stick with the backless booster and bring a couple of pillows so your child can rest against the side of the car and sleep.

 

[NotUrsula]

For their feet, the simplest option is to put your overnight bag on the floor and let them put their feet on it; it should be just about the right size. (On a long car trip where you need to allow for the option of stopping at a hotel en route; packing an overnight bag or two for the entire family means not having to take the majority of your luggage out of the car.)

A nice cheap pillow option is to buy an inexpensive king-size pillow that is kind of floppy, and deliberately squish the filling toward the ends so that the center is kind of flat. If possible, sew down a few lines in the center to make it stay that way. Put it behind the child's shoulders/head, and it will support the head if he falls asleep.

In cars with an uncovered cargo bay I've also used a combination of a regular bed pillow and a really large blanket that matches the interior of the car (a length of 3 yds of plain fleece from a fabric store works great for this.) The blanket may be wadded up to support any body part you need to while the car is moving, then used to cover up the cargo area while the car is parked.

Personally I always advise against driving that long overnight with young kids in your party (and IMO 5 is still young in this situation.) The reason is that when you arrive, the adults are absolutely wiped out from the stress of driving, but the children are bouncing off the walls from having been sleeping a long time and being confined to a car. You then have to stay awake to supervise them when they are wired out of their little minds -- it's hell.

 

[Tissa]

We did that overnight drive last June and it was horrible because we were ready to sleep once we hit WDW. We normally drive to Tallahassee then stop for the night which leaves only 3-4 hrs to WDW.
I do realize some people are better about the overnight drives than us so whatever works best for your family.

We just bring pillows and blankets. Kids can fall asleep in almost any position.

 

[CarolA]

(Pulling on flame retardant suit)

The OP wants to know the "safest" way to transport thier child when they drive through the night???

Studies have shown that "drowsy" driving is dangerous. So the "safest" would be to have well rested alert drivers. Unless you work the night shift and are used to sleeping all day then you are NOT going to meet that criteria.

I posted a link to studies in the past but folks trashed me. I also used to post a link to a story about a football players family from my University. The family was "driving through the night" to get to his game. Apparently the driver fell asleep, lost control and three family members were killed in the accident. Something tells me that player would have rather then missed the game!

Now I know the OP is going to come on and tell me that (A) THIS IS NOT THE QUESTION I ASKED (B) I WOULD DO NOTHING TO ENDANGER MY FAMILY and (C) BUTT OUT....

So.....

 

[DVCisME]

Anyway...
We just did the drive from NJ with a 4 year old and a 2 year old. I put a cooler unfer where my 4 year olds feet were so he could rest his feet. I brought with us a neck roll and a blanket. He was comortable the whole time. He also sat in a backless booster.
Have a great trip!!

 

[LollipopPanda]

When we go on vacation, we usually drive long distances. I purchased a Britax Regent for my son for long trips. It has a 5 point harness, and it is really big and comfortable. Children can fit in the Regent up to 80 pounds. My son sleeps really well in it.

My son uses a booster when we are driving around town, but for long trips on the interstate, I feel much safer with him in a big seat.

I am not sure if that is an option for you. If you lived near us, I'd let you borrow ours.

Good luck on your trip!

 

[KristinU]

Remember that (regardless of the length of the drive) the "safest" thing is to ensure that children are positioned correctly within any restraint in the event of a crash...which means that slumped over on a pillow, etc. would not be the ideal position if there was a crash. You want to ensure that even if they are sleeping, they are in the most ideal position for that restraint to work properly. For that reason, my DS 5 is still in a full 5 point harness in both cars and did really well on two long trips (CT to MN and CT to FL) in his Graco Nautilus. It was comfy for him and has a great cupholder and some little cubbies in the armrests for his little junk. A great traveling seat IMHO.

As for driving through the night: I'm an early morning person, so what works best for us is to get up at "o'dark-thirty" (around 3:00 am) and hit the road. We still get the benefit of him sleeping through a good chunk of time while allowing a good night's rest for us before the drive.

Best of luck!

 

[hollierae]

Thanks for all the post and tips.


CarolA ... My husband will be coming off of the night shift and sleeping all day the day that we leave. His body will still be in night mode. He plans on driving through the night and I will take over sometime in the morning. We would never attempt that otherwise.

 

[LisaNJ25]

I would go with a high back booster for comfort. My kids will turn 4 and 5 during our trip this summer and the will both be in a 5pt harness seats. We will be doing the drive from NJ.

You can get the travel pillows cheap at walmart.. around $2

 

[2disneyboys]

Xtra pillows & Blankets seem to work well for my kids - key is they are positioned correctly that the seat belt holds them correctly.

I also use the ideal of our overnight bag in the floor, it gives them something to rest feet on.. side note, if you do this, you may want to bring a small dish towel of bath towel to lay over the overnight bag. Last time we didn't and we encounted some rain/mud... I didn't then twice until we arrived and went to get the bag out & it was covered in icky mud from bottom of ds's shoes... I will use the bag as a foot rest again, however, will NOT forget a towel to cover it

My husband also drives for a living, all hours of day /night and sleeps like a log when he needs to... As a result when I say we are Driving to WDW in Fl, it means that DH Is driving and I am resting or something just keeping him company.. he always jokes that I offer to drive some on the last 10 miles of the trip and it's true.. I don't mind driving at home or on short (2-4 hours) trips, but I am a terrible long distance driver... I am a GREAT long distance passenger though I understand about the kids being wide awake when you arrive, but that's the point in switching drivers. the one coming off the last drive duty gets to nap while the one coming off the last rest duty is awake enough to deal with the kids. DH & I perfer to stop when we can, but I grew up for years w/ parents who would drive from Va to Mn (the top of MN) with only meal, gas and mininum bathroom breaks, so you can do it both ways, just do it safely. HAVE FUN!

 

[KristinU]

FYI - the Graco Nautilus I recommended is in the Target ad this week (at least it was in mine)

It harnesses to 65 lbs. (or until the shoulder height is exceeded - which looks nice and high to me), then it's a belt-positioning booster or backless booster to 100 lbs.

 

[Storm632]

We haven't traveled through the night, but my DS would complain of his legs hurting and falling asleep when he was in his seat. We bought a rubbermaid 3 drawer holder that was just the right width to fit on the floor of the van. We put a small piece of carpeting on it for comfort and he would rest his feet on it. The drawers would give us storage space for games, DVDs, or toys. Helped keep play things organized too!