Traveling With Toddler | Baby Trend

We are approaching our long awaited vacation time that we’ve been eagerly excited and equally terrified for. If you’ve ever traveled with a toddler (yours or someone else’s), you know exactly what we’re talking about here. Leaving the house with a small child is a mission in itself, so you can only imagine our anxiety when it comes to taking a flight with our little human. From planning what to pack, finding extra arms to carrying everything through the airport, simultaneously entertaining them so they won’t be annoying others is a cluster of stress. With our experience of traveling with an infant and some extensive research for traveling with toddlers; we’ve put together our five favorite tips and tricks!

Five tips & tricks for traveling with a toddler:

1. Fly During Bedtime

We’ve reamed much success with this strategy. There’s only so long a toddler can fight sleep before they succumb to their bedtime tiredness. Lot’s of kids skip their naps, but what toddler do you know skips a whole night of sleep? A sleepy baby is a thousand times easier to deal with than one that wants to bounce, sing, scream, run, and play the entire flight.

2. Bring New Toys

Kids have the attention span of a squirrel, so it’s best to keep the surprises coming. New toys or new movies keep their attention just a bit longer than their ‘so yesterday’ Buzzlightyear. One fun thing I like to bring with us everywhere is an old tin lunchbox that holds a variety of small toys, paper, stickers, and magnets. She uses the lid to attach the magnets and everything stays in the box!

3. Pack A Heavy Diaper Bag

Layovers, plane delays, missed flights, these are all things parents dread hearing when traveling with baby. We had a long flight where Pia managed to blow out her diaper on the plane. Moments after cleaning it up, Pia chugged her milk (in true Pia form) and threw it all up seconds later. I thought the crew members would seriously kick me off the flight for smelling like sour milk. Luckily I had packed an extra set of clothes for both Pia and I. It was like nothing happened. P.S. bring a FULL pack of wipes and large ziplock bags to hold the dirty clothes… you’ll thank me later.

4. Sit Separately On The Plane

This was one of the best tips I’d ever read! If you’re traveling with your spouse or friend get two aisle seats farther apart on the plane. Each parent gets some alone time to sleep, read, and relax and switch off every hour or so. This makes it fun for the baby too as they get to sit in a new seat and be with the other parent for a little while.

5. Bring A Small But Mighty Travel System

You know how small I am, (I’m reaching if I say I’m 5′ ft. tall) and Matthew, although strong, can only carry so much. With a baby it could feel like you’ve packed your house with you, therefore, small but mighty are the two factors I look for in a travel system. We’ve owned several travel strollers that could fold up compact and lightweight, but the problem was how flimsy it felt when we’d put any kind of weight on it including Pia! That’s why we’ve been loving Baby Trend’s Tango Travel System.

I wanted to share a few more things that we love about the Baby Trend Tango Travel System…

Not only can we connect the car seat to the top (very key when traveling with a baby) we could load up bags in the large storage beneath, it felt sturdy and well built like our jogger. What we loved most is how easy and compact it folded down that even I could break it down and carry it all while holding the baby! I also have to mention the cell phone grip holder… I have yet to find a stroller that will hold up my phone like this and I’m telling you, Baby Trend really knows what a parent wants! Some other features I love about the Tango Travel System that our other strollers lacked was the comfortability for Pia, both laying down and sitting up. With a mesh back to allow air to flow through and keep her cool, padded seating, and oversize canopy, this girl was so comfortable, nothing was going to wake her up (as you can see).