Things to Prepare When Taking Your Toddler on a Road Trip

Road trips and taking adventures are memorable activities everyone should get to experience. Having a child shouldn’t stop you from taking the wheel and embarking on a road trip. In fact, it can be a memorable and educational experience for them. You can slow down and let your child immerse themselves in the beauty of nature and satisfy their curiosity throughout the trip.

To start your journey, you must prepare a few essential things.

Invest in a Good Car Seat

The first thing you’ll need to prepare for a road trip is a quality car seat for your child. It is designed to keep your kids comfortable during the whole ride. You can’t just let your toddler sit on a regular car seat because it’s not designed for their small bodies and might make them uncomfortable during the ride. If you prefer to buy something more customizable, you can check out stores near you or look at this website to choose a baby seat fit for your needs.

Plan Your Trip Properly

If you’re planning a road trip with your kids, you must prepare thoroughly, starting from when is the best time to start the journey. Usually, it would be considered to leave after the kid’s bedtime or early in the morning. While it’s good to also drive during their naptime, you risk facing heavy traffic that might make the travel time longer.

If you’re going on a long-distance trip, you should include the pullovers for meals, bathroom breaks, overnight rest, and playtime. You need to prepare to make stops to give them the time to run around and stretch. You can also take this time to eat snacks and rest.

Toys and Other Entertainment Things

While on the road, you must keep your kid entertained to avoid loud cries or tantrums. Now that is going to be impossible if you’re driving. You’ll need to keep your eye on the road and focus on driving.

The best thing that you can do is to keep their toys within their reach. You can fill your storage organiser with their favourite books, toys, or something to munch on.

Additionally, it would be good to pack extra entertainment to keep them occupied. You can also bring your device where your child can play online or stock up on some movies or tv shows they like. You can also turn on the radio for a singing jam or tune in to a kid station.

Pack Toddler Care Items

Aside from things to keep them entertained, you should also pack the kid’s care items. Packing these things usually goes without saying, but you might overlook them with everything you’ll need to prepare. To help you pack, here is a brief list of care items you need to prepare.

  • First Aid Kit. Since you’ll never know what could happen on the road, it would be best to pack your first aid kit. This includes band-aids, ice spray, pain medication, and disinfectant.
  • Remember that you’ll be travelling with a toddler that has a small bladder. So, you might need to stop to change the diapers every two hours or so. The amount of extras to bring depends on how long you will be on the road.
  • To keep everything clean, it would help to bring wipes that could clean anything easily.
  • Pillow and Blanket. For a more comfortable ride, you can pack their favourite pillow and blanket so they won’t feel too sore from sitting down too long.
  • Spare Clothes. If you’re going to travel for a long time, consider bringing extra clothes for you and your kid. This is to ensure that you’re travelling clean and comfortably. Also, incidents like spilling water and the like might happen along the journey.

Prepare Snacks and Other Foods

Even if you plan on getting a few stops to eat, it would still be more efficient to pack snacks and something to munch on as you travel. You don’t have to be fancy with it, and a simple car snack that is easy to eat would suffice.

Something easy to munch and eat would be a better choice since it can risk the toddler choking. You can pack fruits as an alternative to the usual string cheese or crackers.

In addition, bring enough water supply that will last the trip. Keeping your own water flask would also help you save money from buying bottled water at pit stops. You’ll even have the option to fill it with water or something else, such as beverages that your child likes to drink.

Final Thoughts

Once you’ve completed your plan, you will have a better version of what to do next, and everything will slowly come together. Instead of worrying so much, you can make the best out of this trip. This might become your child’s best core memory as they grow older!