Tips for long drive with toddler?

[KrazeeK120]

We're headed to Disney next May with our son, who will be 18 months old. It's a 16 hour drive for us. On the way down, we're doing a 2 day drive, 8 hours/8 hours. On the way back, we're also doing a 2 day drive, but 6 hours/10 hours. (We want to visit a park on departure day.)

We did a 6 hour road trip 2 months ago when he was 8 months old. He did fine for 5 hours, but the last hour was kind of a disaster (more so on the return trip).

I know frequent breaks are a must, but does anyone have other tips?

One other item to note is that the vehicle we'll be taking is a 4-door sedan, so some of our "stuff" has to go in the back seat...no one is going to be able to sit in the back with him.

 

[kwdw]

One strategy parents try with kids that age is driving at night when the kid is normally asleep. I've known a couple of folks who have had success with this approach. It's not fool-proof - my co-worker had a VERY cranky 17 month old for about the last 6 hours of a 14 drive when she woke up at 4 am and just did NOT want to be a car seat any longer.

At 18 months - the back of seat car videos can help. At that age most folks don't like their toddlers to have a lot of screen time - and it depends on the kid how long that will work anyway - but toddler friendly videos can help. I'm not a parent - but too much screen time vs screaming toddler in the car - I'd vote for as much screen time as makes the kid happy!

Snacks and special toys can help - make sure you establish a way that if the toy gets dropped - it doesn't fall out of reach on the floor! I played a game with my niece - with her getting ONE pretzel at a time. It was just something made up game regarding funny faces and toy and looking out the window. It managed to spread out the pretzel consumption long enough she wasn't going to get sick from eating too many - but it made the snack time last MUCH longer. I think we made the snack break last 45 minutes.

And while I wouldn't recommend it until you are desperate on the last stretch headed home - the stuff on the back seat might fit on the front seat so one of you could be in back with him. But I'd leave that idea as a last resort on the trip home. Also - on that first day home - since you mention a park earlier in the day - exhaust the kid by letting him run around ALOT - so by the time he hits the car - a long nap is in order!

 

[sam_gordon]

To quote a knowledgeable fella...

"To not to"

 

[KrazeeK120]

To quote a knowledgeable fella...

"To not to"

That's not really very helpful.

 

[anonymousegirl]

If you are driving in the day time, make sure to have one of those sunshades for the passenger window. They can help reduce the heat in the car and shining on baby, plus help cut the glare.

 

[lilly6]

Dollar store toys. When our son was little, my mom would buy a big bag of cheap toys to take along so every now and then she could give the baby something new to play with.

 

[3Gsandme]

Tablet. Tablet. Tablet.

I'm sure someone will make sighing noises at that, but seriously if you have to do long drives they are a god send and I don't care if people think that makes me lazy.

My girls each have their own. My teen manages her own, but the little two have kindles full of movies and games and it entertains them for hours. Period. Just make sure you have the ability to charge it easily. That's the only complaining we get.

Also, be accepting of needing to make more and longer stops. We'd stop at a rest area and bring a ball or bubbles for playing. Bonus points if the rest area had a playground.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Know your car seat. I have seen some that have very little padding. No way I would be able to travel 16 hrs in some of those car seats. If yours has little padding perhaps you could swap with a friend for a while.

 

[dreiwhit]

We used to travel a lot when my son was an infant an a toddler (we actually had discretionary income back then.)

What we did was to keep driving when he was sleeping and stop when he woke up. Suprisingly, we could get pretty far doing this. You will have to coordinate your food stops, bathroom breaks and gas stops around your child's sleep/awake schedule.

Also, my wife would sometimes sit in the back to entertain him or feed him his baby food or cereal when he was awake and we needed to get a little farther down the road.

Both my kids were actually happier when we could switch them to front facing seats. They could see more of where they were going and I guess that made them happy.

Portable DVD players and tablets are also a big help entertaining the kids. You'll need to find a way to swap out DVDs or videos for them.

 

[crazymomof4]

Four kids and did a lot of car travel with them when they were infants and toddlers.
I would always be in the seat next to the baby so I could keep him/her occupied. So if there's any way possible, could you move your "stuff" to another seat in the car so you could sit next to the baby?
I second the Dollar Store toys. (age appropriate and safe) I used to call it the "parade of toys". Once baby tired of one, I pulled out another.
Also, get some type of cushion to have as a head support for when baby is sleeping. They sleep much longer if their head is not bobbing around.
I did much of this travel before the hand-held electronics age! It got infinitely easier once we had portable dvd players, and other small electronics (game boy, etc) to occupy them!
Now our youngest is 16 and oldest is 27 (doesn't travel with us). We fly!

 

[KrazeeK120]

We used to travel a lot when my son was an infant an a toddler (we actually had discretionary income back then.)

What we did was to keep driving when he was sleeping and stop when he woke up. Suprisingly, we could get pretty far doing this. You will have to coordinate your food stops, bathroom breaks and gas stops around your child's sleep/awake schedule.

Also, my wife would sometimes sit in the back to entertain him or feed him his baby food or cereal when he was awake and we needed to get a little farther down the road.

Both my kids were actually happier when we could switch them to front facing seats. They could see more of where they were going and I guess that made them happy.

Portable DVD players and tablets are also a big help entertaining the kids. You'll need to find a way to swap out DVDs or videos for them.

Unfortunately, at 18 months, he'll still be too young to be forward-facing.

Many of you have mentioned a tablet. I don't currently own a tablet, but am considering getting one. I'm totally not opposed to using it in the car! My concern though is that at 18 months in a rear facing seat, I won't be able to help him if he actually swipes or touches something and turns the video off. Any thoughts on this?

His seat actually looks really comfortable to me. We switched him from his infant seat to the convertible seat a few weeks ago and he's seemed very happy. It's a Diono brand (RLX I think).

Putting some of the "stuff" in the front seat is a good idea, in theory. Unfortunately, I do suffer from motion sickness and it's worse when I'm in the back seat. Perhaps I could get hubby to sit back there for a bit while I drive though.

Some people have also mentioned driving while he's sleeping. Problem is, when he's sleeping (at night anyway), so am I. I don't want my husband and I to be too tired because we're driving when we are normally asleep. We will probably try to leave really early in the morning though, so at least maybe we'll get a little bit of time in before the kid is too awake.

 

[crazymomof4]

Putting some of the "stuff" in the front seat is a good idea, in theory. Unfortunately, I do suffer from motion sickness and it's worse when I'm in the back seat. Perhaps I could get hubby to sit back there for a bit while I drive though.

.

I also suffer from motion sicknes (as in, started when I was just 6mo old, driving in a car- so def not "all in my head"). Anyway, what I would do, is place the carseat in the window side of the back seat and I would sit in the middle so I could look straight out the front windshield. When not tending to the baby's needs, I had to make a conscious effort to spend a good deal of time staring straight ahead, at the road, just like I would if I were in the front seat. Also, ginger capsules help with nausea from all different sources. Dr's are even starting to recommend it for chemo patients and preg moms w/ morning sickness!

 

[StirlingSilver83]

we traveled with our 20 month old and he had our old ipad and we just played movies on it the whole time for him. At that point in time he was OBSESSED with Frozen...we also had a portable DVD player that we got a case that had velcro on it that we could attach that, yep you guessed it, could also play Frozen, LOL, so when 1 thing died we had a back up. It was Frozen 24/7 from NJ ALLLL the way to FL...by the time we got to Disney we were so Frozen out that when we got to Disney and saw the Frozen take over we were not impressed, LOL. Although my son also had his big brother in the back seat to help him if he needed help. But at that age he was pretty handy with the ipad. He had been watching his big brother with his ipad since he was 1 so when we handed him his own ipad he pretty much new what to do when we showed him. He's now 3 and he's a total pro on his ipad lol. He really only uses it to watch videos though, lol. I say if you are going to go the tablet route that you get something soon so you can work with your toddler on how to use it so by the time you leave for your vacation your toddler will have no issues with it. If you do go the tablet route I would look into getting the subscription to ABC Mouse. I got it for my toddler when he was around 20 months and he now knows how to count to 10 and knows his ABCs and he just turned 3! It was very helpful for him! It's also a ton of fun and they have lots of stuff to do for kids of all ages on it not just for older kids. Anyways thats another useful thing to keep a toddler busy as well.

 

[jtopp]

DVD player--God's gift to travelers with children. Buy a new movie that he wants and hasn't seen. Dollar store toys for when the movies get boring.
Small, finger sized snacks (cheerios, grapes, not chocolate chips) that he can eat by himself. Stop at some point when he is awake for a fast food meal, and allow a few extra minutes for him to play in the play area and run around. Try to travel at a time that he would normally be napping/sleeping. Have done this many times, and most trips turned out better then I hoped. Of course, your experience may vary. Good luck.