[Life Hacks] Traveling with a Toddler.

SO, I have been inspired to start a new section of the blog. All things nutrition and food freedom and food will still be here, but motherhood is my life now and there is so much learning that continues to happen everyday and I am feeling inspired to share where and what I can!

So this post kicks off all things motherhood with tips and tricks I have learned along the way and things that I wish I knew too!

We are kicking off with TRAVEL. Because the anxiety of travel literally kept me from traveling for over a year with Noah.

The “stuff,” the lack of “schedule” the “sleep anxiety” and the FLYING - I literally couldn’t wrap my head around how it all happens and how people do it and actually enjoy themselves?!

PLUS, the advice of people non-stop “it’s just parenting in another place” or “it’s a trip, not a vacation” - these statements made me feel like, well why the F do I want to do it??

After experiencing my first one, I can honestly say - It is in fact NOT a relaxing vacation that I am used to, but it still felt like a vacation, not a trip, it was not “just parenting in paradise” it was by no means easy, but it was truly worth every moment of anxiety and stress I felt to get there.

FRESH off the flight.

Here is how this blog is broken down for you:

• PACKING

• PLANE/TRAVEL DAY TIPS

• HOTEL HACKS/FOOD AT HOTEL

• TRAVEL HOME BIG TIP

• MISC.

Ok, so we went to Aruba. One of the big positives of Aruba IMO with a little is: no time change. I have no tips for time changes, that still gives me anxiety. But, this was huge for me to go to a beautiful place on EST. Another win was on the way home from Aruba, you clear US customs in Aruba. SAVES SO MUCH TIME once you get off that plane after a long day - huge bonus.

ANYWAYS, I packed like a maniac. Trying to not over pack but have all the things. And I can honestly say, I used everything I brought for my son. (By the way at time of travel he was 16 months). For a beach vacation, less is more with clothes and the only thing I needed more of for him was long sleeved rash guards because the sun is STRONG and he hated sunscreen - shocker.

So, from a clothing perspective, definitely focus on plenty of bathing suits, swim diapers, reg diapers etc, pajamas and maybe 1 or 2 “going out” outfits or something other than pajamas, but nothing crazy (I will explain how meals off campus went LOL), and a travel home outfit. Honestly that’s it.

THE STUFF.

The stuff is key and here are a few things I am so glad I had/prepped for:

• Recreating baby’s sleep routine is EVERYTHING, our hotel had a crib available so we did not bring a pack and play (if you need one I highly recommend renting - we used babyquip this trip and it’s amazing). The crib was smaller than at home but that’s ok, I brought a crib sheet from home that was recognizable to him (whales all over it) and tucked it tight over the smaller mattress, we also brought: stuffed animals, blankie, one million pacis because that’s what he sleeps with at home, and his sleep suit.

• Baby monitor, even though the baby is literally right there, this let me go out on the balcony and read and hang while he napped and slept and It was worth bringing.

• Sleepout shades - these were amazing, I found them shortly before we left and am so so so grateful I did. They were flawless to put on, I checked out the hotel layout before I left and saw I likely needed two to cover the window , so that’s a pro tip for sure. Hotels usually have black out shades for the most part, but for nap time this was soooo key.

• High chair - we rented from BabyQuip - mentioned above, and it was amazing. Overstimulation on vacation happens and bringing our son up to eat lunch specifically, in our room helped him nap so much better. Day 1 we had lunch by the pool and he was so distracted he barely ate and was just trying to run all around. This is not a necessary rental depending on your family and your baby, but I found it helped so much for us.

• Beach toys: I ordered on amazon and then gave them to another family before we left. I got the foldable bucket to save space and he loved them! You can likely buy them wherever you are going, but they are much more expensive, in my experience, on the islands!

• MILK. This I think was one of my most genius packs. My son drinks milk 2-3x’s per day and it’s all around his sleep routines so messing with that was not an option for me. I wasn’t sure how the layout would be and didn’t want to stress over getting milk 3x a day so I found organic valley shelf stable milks on amazon and brought them all in our checked bag. Kept them in the mini fridge when we got there. and made morning and bedtime FLAWLESS.

• SOUND MACHINE: I use a Hatch at home, I thought it was so smart to get the travel Hatch and bring it. When I got to the hotel, I tried to connect it (I hadn’t yet) and realized it couldn’t connect to the hotel wifi. PANIC STRUCK. But I remembered I had the yogasleep one for the plane in the diaper bag and that was perfect. I was so proud of myself for being an overpacker in that moment. HOWEVER, if you are using a hatch - just make sure you have your settings all ready to go before you leave, and maybe bring a back up.

• Car seat : We chose to get Noah a seat on our flight, and I liked that. NOT a requirement, but he was definitely more comfy for the almost 5 hour flight and it was a good way to keep him still for a little bit. I like this car seat a lot, and I highly recommend the travel belt to attach it to your roller bag to get through the air port!

• STROLLER: either rent one or bring your own, but don’t travel without it. We almost left ours at home and when we were leaving Aruba we both said to eachother that this was the one item we wouldnt have survived without LOL. You just are always carrying so much stuff and if you want to see any parts of where you are traveling at all, ya need it. Plus it helps de-stimulate the babes and taking walks is the best way to explore a new place and give the toddlers some rest too! I love our Yo-Yo that is the only one I have experience with - It is an investment piece but one you will certainly get good use of!

• FOOD. I love to pack snacks for myself and made sure to pack plenty for Noah on this trip. From puffs to bars and everything in between, I found that the more things that felt like home for him, the easier all transititioning would be! There was a mini mart at our hotel that had plenty for him to eat, but I was glad to have my safety net too.

• Bottle soap! I only brought 2 of Noah’s drink cups and just kept washing them and using a travel drying rack was so easy and great too!

rental high chair for the win!

What I didn’t need to bring honestly, any toys for “inside” - he literally wanted nothing to do with them and just wanted to explore the room and a new place and that was fine by me!

Shop this image HERE!

Moving on to TRAVEL DAY:

The one thing I really learned - every toy or activity will buy you about 5-20 minutes. That’s it.

So like, the toy that is marketed to keep a toddler busy for hours, sure it’s great, but it lasts about 20 mins tops and then it’s def not as cool as the person sitting behind you or standing up on the chair to look around.

But, this toy was fun for like 20 mins and I do recommend it: TODDLER TOY

I have no issues with letting my son watch screens or have screen time, but I do try to engage him in other things - however, on travel day we went HAM on screen time, Cocomelon was the one thing that held him for more than those 20 mins, but he did refuse to wear the headphones so we kept volume low and apologized to the row behind us for hearing Old MacDonald 1000000x’s. In between the screen time he did activities, we walked around up and down the aisles and we played with the water and papertowels in the bathroom so long that we came out smelling like the really strong scent they pump into airplane bathrooms - honeslty my diaper changing pad smells like the airplane bathroom, does anyone else know that smell??

The fun snack box that I featured on TikTok (vid below) really did its job. Our flight on the ride down was during lunch so I had the snacks and his lunch food in there, a fork and lots of options for him and it served as a grazing box that he picked at while watching Coco, and then also his lunch! It was worth it!

Post its and stickers were also a huge hit.

If you can I do recommend a window seat for the babe because looking out the window, pulling the shade up and down and putting post its on the window was also a fun activity!

Lastly, I bought a custom travel play dough box from a mama who is local to me and I saved it for the ride home. Noah had never really played with play dough before so this was so fun for him and me!! I used this travel tray by the way and it was really helpful since I had him set up rear facing and he couldnt use the regular plane tray! To get your own travel box contact Erin from @raisingsunshinellc

Random Tips for the Hotel/Feeding Baby:

OVERSTIMULATION is so real. There is so much new to look at, so much to explore and so many meltdowns possible LOL, just being honest. We found that asking our toddler to sit at restaurants 3x a day was just NOT HAPPENING. We tried on day one and not only was dinner an absolute nightmare, he barely ate anything for lunch and dinner that day. So we filled him up on snacks and learned our lesson.

Breakfast seemed to be easy so we made sure to get the good stuff in him during breakfast each day and then this is where that high chair really came into good use. For lunch pre-nap, we would get a little sandwich to go at the market in the hotel and bring it upstairs to our less stimulating hotel room for him. He def ate more and cooled off and it set him up for better nap time! We rented the high chair from BabyQuip and truly it was worth every penny!

My only other “feeding” lesson was, keep the bar low LOL. My husband and I decided after the messy dinner on day 1, that we would do a happy hour with Noah, get him some dinner while we enjoyed a cocktail and then do room service for us after he went to bed. This way we didn’t push his bedtime, this is a choice we made because Noah really just does better with better sleep, and we got to enjoy dinner on the balcony attached to our room (the hotel was set up where he had a space then our room and the balcony was attached, it worked really well! (This is where I started my trend of #trappedonabalcony )

But friends of mine have mentioned that if that is not the case, you can use the bathroom for baby if it is big enough!) We were able to watch the sunset and watch wedding guests party on the beach LOL. Plus, we went to bed early which was amazing because Noah woke up extra early each morning LOL. We honored our schedule as much as we could but made adjustments where necessary and overall it was the best of all worlds. Flexibility is key of course.

BIG LESSON FOR TRAVELING HOME:

SAVE A FEW TOYS AND SOME FOOD FOR THE RIDE HOME.

Our travel day was hectic and LONG. The morning was mayhem trying to repack and get all our ducks in a row. But, I made sure that I didn’t show Noah all my tricks while we were there and had a few fun things that were “new” for the long ride home! PLUS, with thanks to the market in the hotel and the snacks I saved, I was able to recreate the snack box for the ride home and it gave me those same 30 mins of peace on the ride home too.

This is something I saw someone blog about and I never would have thought about this, so I hope it helps someone out there!

ALSO, Noah’s nap time was while we were at the airport waiting. Instead of trying to push him to nap on the plane - which I know would have backfired, we did a stroller nap in the airport just to help easy some of that overtiredness. It sucked because he woke up after 45 mins and was still so tired but it was time to board AND he did not fall back asleep at all, but I do think it helped a little bit vs. trying to keep him awake. It’s survival honestly so do what you need to for your babe but this is what we did.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I really and honestly hate the stigma around traveling with kids. The people that are annoyed by it on your flight, they can Fork right off. The meltdowns are going to happen, I just think about how exhausted and cranky my husband and I get from travel days and can’t imagine what it feels like in a tiny body that can’t tell me what he is really feeling!! It is exhausting following them around and not “resting” on vacation, but this was the best week of my life. While we were away we were 10000% focused on each other. No work distractions, no division of labor at all - it was all hands on deck at all times. It was so just, special. And where as I know Noah won’t remember it, I will literally never ever forget the look on his face running into the ocean for the first time, the way he played with little kids at the beach so well, the way he explored, the way he chased lizards, the way someone told me he was the cutest kid on the beach (I CRIED LOL), the way he sat on my lap at happy hour and just watched Coco and the sunset with us. It was so much more than just “parenting in a pretty place.”

My husband and I also took turns during nap time being #trappedonthebalcony day 1 I took nap time and just read and watched the people at the pool and on day 2 I made myself a spa appointment that lined up perfectly with nap and it was incredible. If you are able to do this with your partner, I highly recommend! It gives you a little time to refresh and just enjoy the relaxation of vacation that may not be existent other times.

This trip taught me so much. And I cannot wait to hopefully take more and create endless memories together. I also do want to add we had plenty of imperfect moments - like when Noah had a poosplosion all over us both on the beach to the point where we had to throw away a bathing suit and he spent the rest of the day in a wet diaper and was as happy as can be (pictured below LOL).

but again, it was ALL worth it and I would 20000% do it all again!

I hope this helps someone and eases any and all anxieties. YOU CAN DO THIS MAMA! And DADA!!! Happy and SAFE travels to all.

the poosplosion day, that led to a loss of a bathing suit.

Part two will be coming soon, all about how my personal recovery also made this trip so special so keep your eyes out for that one!

XOXO!

Jenna

✨Shop my vacation looks HERE ✨

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Written by Jenna Werner

Hey there, I’m Jenna! I'm a Registered Dietitian, online nutrition coach and serious food lover. I'm ready to help you quit dieting forever and fall in love with the way food makes you feel.

Learn more about me and the HSH offerings here.