Travelling with toddler :packing tips

I was never one to crave worldly possessions, for me exotic travel, enriching life experiences, tantalizing food trails, are my objects of desire; and yet I found myself wishing I had a particular bag.

Not a hermes, but Hermione’s bag. That purple beaded bag, which was just a nifty sling bag but which held all assortment of stuff for her two friends and her, from clothes, to shoes, socka and even an invisibility cloak. I have never wished harder for the power of the undetectable extension charm, than when I was packing for baby foodies first international travel.

We are travelling with my 14 month toddler babyfoodie, and having myself and everyone around me up the wall, I finally have written down my packing essentials, in the hope it will help other travelling moms.

While packing can be daunting, I divide it according to the toddlers day which is , eat, poop,play, bath time,sleep.

Eat :

a.Travel food : small knick knacks, I am carrying home made carrot cake, and chocos cereal, for anytime finger food. But you can carry whatever your toddler likes. Just keep it simple and non messy.

b. sippy cup for water

c. sealed milk carton /juice carton/fruit yogurt carton: just a single helping .since it is sealed I hope it wont be a problem on flight

d. milk powder: baby-foodie has whole milk now, but considering that will be difficult to carry and may get spoiled, I am carrying a carton of lactogen 3. Plus he has a midnight feed, and it is much easier to constitute the milk powder from boiled cooled water, than wondering about the milk scene at 2 am in the morning. I plan to carry 5 scoops of dry powder in a measuring cup, so that he can have milk on bpoard the flight as well. much easier to ask the flight attendant for hot water.

e. A few small containers: these will be to stock up food and fruits in the morning breakfast area, so that baby foodie has handy snacks through the day.

this guy loves his chocos cereal, carry some of your child's favourite snacks. sugar rush be damned!

Poop/pee time:

a.       Diapers: he uses 3 /day since he is partially potty trained, but I am calculating 5/day and a few extras.we are going to a place where it might be difficult to purchase diapers, and thus the overthink.

b.      Wet wipes

c.       Leak proof bags to pack soiled diapers

d.      Diaper cream

e.      Potty chair: now this one was the tough call. The chair is a bulky duck shaped chair, with a neck and snout and hand bars. This meant a whole bag just to pack in the chair. We debated not taking it, debated buying a smaller more travel friendly potty chair, but ultimately decided to take the original along. More on the adventures of the potty chair once we return from our holiday.

yes, I am planning to chronicle our first international travel with wax crayon illustrations.

Bath time:

a.body wash

b.towel one big two hand towels

c.lotion

d.sunscreen

e.mosquito repellent lotion

swimming:

a.       Trunks

b.      Tube

c.       Hand tube

d.      Air blower (optional) to blow up the bigger tubes.

e. his grandmom has got him a life jacket too!(p.s.)we will be in a water villa, thus the overcautiousness)

Sleep time:

a.       Favourite blanket and pillow

Clothes:

Calculating three changes per day. repeated every three days. Which comes to 9 sets of clothes.some extras. Plus two night clothes, if it’s a short trip and three sets of night clothes if it’s a longer trip.

aqua themed clothes for the little one

Shoes:

A water proof crocs variety for the beach

Another set of shoes.

Stroller or babywearing ?

Major debate on this as well. but we are planning to take both. Here is why. We start travel in the wee hours of the night and I feel baby wearing a sleeping child will be more conmforting to him. but we have two changes of flight with a 6 hour stop over. 6 hours of carrying an energetic toddler is going to be tough. He loves his stroller, and even though it is 7 Kgs, it can double up as a strapped in chair in which to feed him, at the airport, or even in the hotel room. Even if it buys us an hour of sanity, I am ok lugging around an extra 7 Kgs. (that’s the idea, but more on it once we return from our travel).

We went to a fancy restaurant once, and they didn't have any high chairs. baby foodies's stroller came to the rescue. we had a hands free dinner .

No toys!

I believe in baby foodie engaging with his surrounding. That is the whole point of him travelling. He is a curious kid, and new places will keep him curious. He can look through the inflight magazines, play with empty cups on flight, run around the hotel room, play in the sand, and engage with his surroundings. Plus one less thing to pack. (he has no favourite toy yet, but if he did I might have carried that along)

Well , this is only our first travel, so hopefully I will keep editing this post as we go along. But any and all suggestions are invited in the comments below. 

some helpful posts I read along the way :

http://ohjoy.blogs.com/my_weblog/2013/11/traveling-abroad-with-a-toddler.html

http://www.rookiemoms.com/world-travel-is-better-with-a-toddler/

my post on travelling with my 10 month old

http://foodietrails.blogspot.in/2016/07/fathers-day-celebrations-and-how-to.html