Long Car Trip with 12 month olds

Hi,

Shortly after J&D's first birthday, I will be driving with them to my parents' house, which is about 8 hours away if driven with no stopping (obviously not possible now!). We are luckily purchasing a van with a DVD player this week (yay!!) and my father is going to fly here in order to drive with me to help me...but I am wondering what else I should be doing to prepare? Are there any good toys for 12 months in the car? Good snacks for the car? And what about their schedule? Should I just plan on stopping every time there is a meltdown in additin to sticking to their usual times for meals and bottles? I know they'll need a lot of breaks. Will they nap at all? Is this crazy? Any lifesaving tips from those who have done this?

Thanks!

 

How do your LOs sleep in the car? If they sleep well, I'd start the trip at the time they normally went down for their morning nap, which will give you an hour or two "grace period". Then when they woke, I'd give them a snack (or lunch, depending on when they wake up). Are you going to be driving by yourself, or will you have help? If you have another driver, you can get in the back with them and feed them. I've done this a lot! This will keep them busy for a while, then you can turn on the DVD. :good: My guys are good for a long time when watching TV in the car.

As far as toys go, straws are a big hit (who knew!), stuffed animals, and Mama. I have to go in the back and amuse my boys quite a bit, or reassure them when they have meltdowns.

For snacks, we give them snacktraps and sippies. Again, I often have to get back there with them and hand them snacks to keep them happy.

Be prepared for the trip to take a lot longer than you anticipate.

 

We just got home from a 12 hour trip - both ways! Ekkkkk. We broke it up by stopping over night though both ways. We stopped to let them stretch and run around/diaper changes every 2-3 hours or so. As for meals, well, if/when we stopped to eat, they would be too anxious to run around and look at all the new sights and people that they wouldn't eat well. So we just fed them in the car, but mine are really good with not gagging or choking. So that was something I was comfortable with. Snack traps - do you have any? They were awesome for the trip. I packed a cooler with things like cheese and yogurt, cut up soft fruit, and these.

Toys, I just put a big bag of small things, noisy ones, soft loveys, etc. Some of the things they played with the most though were not toys. Such as flashlights with no batteries, a little fan that hooks on their stroller... etc. For some reason this v-tech book was definitely the most popular toy.

And I think you'll agree, that the best investment you made for a successful road trip is buying a van (AND the dvd player). I spent a lot of time in the back entertaining, swapping toys, snacks, etc. Do your children have any favorite DVD's? Mine love Elmo, so those were lifesavers.

I guess you'll just have to make the decision about stopping for meltdowns. When mine were little bitty we would stop, but as they are getting older, I try to redirect them, find something else, turn on some music or a dvd, or snacks.

Have a great and safe trip!

 

When we made a long drive when my oldest daughter was a year old, we decided to take off when it was bedtime. We took off around 8pm and she slept most of the way! If your little ones sleep well in the car, perhaps take off at their bedtime?

Good luck!!!

 

We did an 8 hour drive with all the kids in April and it went really well. The biggest tips I have are to be organized. Have stuff packed just for the car--like having 2 diaper bags. Also if you can research a couple places along the way that they can get out and crawl around on grass. I'm not sure what van you're getting but we have the Odyssey and you're able to change the seats around so I had the full back row of kids (3 car seats) and my oldest was in the seat behind the driver and I took the other 2 middle seats out. So I had a huge space to change diapers and sit when I needed to hang out with the kids.

Have fun!