No matter how good a mom you are in the comfort of your own home, traveling with a newborn could be near nightmarish nonetheless. The reason for this isn’t because you’re a bad mother but just because travel tends to over stimulates infants that have barely gotten used to living outside the womb. Here are a few do’s and don’ts that can help you survive the trials of traveling with a newborn.
Do’s:
1. Make a list of things to pack
Making a list of things to pack helps you ensure that you have everything you need for your trip.
2. Plan frequent stops
If you’re traveling by road, plan frequent stops as newborns can get very frustrated with being confined in the child seat. The moving landscape also over stimulates them and they end up acting fussy.
3. Carry medication
Newborns and their mothers fall ill all the time. Carry the medication that your doctor as prescribed for yourself and the baby during travel to be safe.
4. Bring extra bottles of breast milk
Keep a few extra bottles of expressed breast milk when traveling with a newborn. At worst, you’d have to throw it all out but if you baby needs to be fed right when you’re boarding the plane, you could easily feed him without yanking your breast out.
Don’ts:
1. Don’t travel alone
Unless there is an emergency and you cannot find a companion to travel with you, it is strongly advised that you don’t travel alone. Your focus through a travel needs to be on taking care of the newborn and a companion could help take care of everything else.
2. No need to pack everything
When you travel with a newborn, you’re going to need a lot of diapers, wipes and sufficient milk. What you don’t need is the same outfit in 5 different colors and different hats, shoes and accessories for every outfit.
3. Don’t freak out when the baby is inconsolable
Newborns freak out often. It’s a fact of life. So when your baby is being fussy, you need to calm yourself first. Take a time out and just focus on soothing the baby and don’t worry about all the people staring at you.
4. Don’t try to get the baby to enjoy the sights and sounds
A newborn is hardly going to remember how nice the duty free shops at a world class terminal were. Trying to show every nice sight and sound that you encounter during travel with only leave them distraught and over stimulated.