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Road Trip with a Baby: Five Tips to Keep Your Cool

This is my husband’s first Father’s Day so we’re creating our own family traditions. Sure, there are a lot of things my 10-month old baby and I could give him—ties, t-shirts, a coffee mug, or that watch he has been eyeing. But one thing we never seem to have enough of is quality time together. So we are planning a road trip this summer to celebrate. This will be our daughter’s first road trip so I’ve been reading up on tips for traveling with a baby. Here are the five that I plan to use to make the time we spend together in the car as enjoyable as possible.
Travel during naptime. Our daughter takes a morning nap around nine so we plan to hit the road just before then and hope that the drive lulls her into a deep sleep. She then usually naps from 1:00-3:00 pm so that should be on the final leg of our road trip ensuring she will be well-rested when we arrive. If this naptime plan doesn’t work, I’ll be resorting to tips #4 and #5 on this list.
Stop frequently (unless your baby is napping of course!) Hopefully a few stops will keep the road trip interesting and allow us all to stretch our legs. I’m planning on timing our first stop for when our sweet baby wakes up from her nap around 10 or 11am (fingers crossed) so that we can all eat lunch and walk around. Second stop will be right before her afternoon nap.
Maintain a comfortable temperature in the car. Our daughter gets hot quickly in her car seat. Luckily, we already have window tint on our car otherwise I’d be scheduling an appointment to get it installed ASAP. I work for a window tint manufacturer so I know that it helps reduce heat and glare, and I feel the difference firsthand when I ride in cars without it. Speaking of appointments, I did just get my air conditioner serviced too. I’m not taking any chances on this one. Comfortable baby = less fussing!
Bring new surprise toys to occupy her busy hands and mind. Make sure that the toys are soft and lightweight as hard and heavy objects can quickly become dangerous during a sudden stop or accident.
We’re going to try this "toe time infant car toy" as well as a few random, age-appropriate dollar store finds.
Pack extra pacifiers and keep a couple handy in the front seat for whoever is riding shotgun. According to some of my expert road-tripping friends, this will save emergency pacifier-retrieval stops and possibly help soothe a bored or tired baby.
Do you have any other baby-friendly road trip tips? Share your story!