"Once you have a baby, you won't be able to travel anymore," says SO MANY PEOPLE! Except they are so wrong!!!
My husband and I recently took our 4-month old daughter on her first international trip to England and Malta from Toronto, Canada. How did it go? Excellent! Yes, even flying with a 4-month old baby went well because we were prepared with our baby travel checklist. I actually felt more excitement travelling this time around then I have in a while because I was exploring a place not just through my eyes but also my daughters. Watching her interact with locals and amazed by the shapes, colours and smells of a new place brought me so much joy. It's as if you're experiencing life for the first time alongside this precious new being.
Now, when it came to planning our trip, it took more time since this was all new to us. The first step was calling the airline beforehand to get a FREE upgraded front row seat (not first class), then I request a bassinet for my seat. After that, I called my travel insurance company to get my daughter covered. What I found out from doing this was I could register under my travel insurance at no extra cost and she would be completely covered for the same things as me. I did have to call and add her to my plan though, which something I highly recommend doing before stepping foot out of your country. I can't emphasize how important travel insurance is, especially now that you're travelling with your baby. You can book World Nomads Travel Insurance here. Be sure to read all the fine details to make sure you're covered for everything.
Next, what to pack? I was learning about an entirely new category of travel and now I can pass on my newfound knowledge to you. In this video and post, I'm sharing my Baby Travel Checklist. The following are all of the items I brought AND used; I've linked each item to my Amazon store. You can also download my Baby Travel Packing Checklist PDF and print it off.
Baby Travel Checklist - Carry On/Diaper Bag
-
Diaper Bag
-
Passport
-
Disinfectant Wipes
-
Soothers
-
Cream
-
Diapers (I use reusable cloth diapers now but have yet to travel with them)
-
Wipes
-
Doggy Pee Pads
-
Milk/Formula
-
Bottles
-
Changing Pad
-
Extra Clothing/ Comfortable Clothing
-
Extra Clothing for Parents
-
Blankets
-
Hat and Mitts
-
Toys
-
Baby Headphones
-
Sleepsac
-
Medicine
-
Nail File and Clippers
-
Disinfectant Spray
-
Snot Sucker
-
Breast Pump
-
Haakaa
Baby Travel Packing Checklist - Checked Luggage
-
Everyday Clothing (I organize mine in Ziploc bags)
-
Baby Carrier
The following items can checked in ahead of time or at your gate:
Once again, you can download a printable PDF of my Baby Travel Packing Checklist.
This checklist, along with the other tips I mentioned above, will help you make your first trip with baby more enjoyable knowing you are prepared. Travelling with your baby is one of the best joys in life. You get to experience the world through their eyes while giving them one of the most amazing gifts of experiencing news places, cultures, traditions, foods, smells, and the list goes on...
Have you traveled with your baby? Do you have your own baby travel checklist you’ve curated? We would love to hear your tips and stories below!
Let's encourage those on the fence that it is indeed not only possible but great for both the parents and baby.
10 Comments
Wonderful post! It is more helpful. Thank you so much for sharing.
I can relate, I also carry some pee pads for my puppy, when I’m on the road. Thanks for the tips.
best-hoverboard-for-kidsT
Thank you for your tips. Great effort you make. whenever you pack clothes if they are iron pressed then keep them in their packages first and then into your luggage. It can help to make the shirt’s wrinkles less.
My wife and I just got back from Paris and Normandy, France with our 8 month old (youngest of the three, the othe two stayed with Grandma and Granddpa) and this list is spot on! We forgot to have extra clothes for US that were easy to access on the plane… much to our peril. Little Felicity spit up a couple of times and we just had to stay gross for the 7.5 hour flight. Not recommended. We also regret bringing our stroller, since we just put her in our Ergo carrier pretty much the whole time. Much easier to navigate cobblestone streets and beaches without wheeled transport! We left our carseat at home too, and just rented one from Europcar. Hit and miss on this one… yes, they provided a seat but it was….. not really up to our standards. We’re really glad we brought her along, and she was a great addition to our adventure, bringing smiles to everyone she met (and getting us to the front of more than one security line! Bonus!).
HI Kristen. Great list of things to pack. I have a few quick questions if you don’t mind. (Maybe you can address this in a future post). How do you deal with the time change and sleeping for babies? Was it easy for your baby to adjust?
Also, we do cloth diapering too. Did you pack some disposable diapers too, just in case? Or did you just book places with a laundry machine so that you wash the cloth diapers.
Nothing quite like family travel especially when you can travel with the kids. Looking forward to your future blogs on child friendly place and hotels now that you will be traveling with her.
Yes, its such a different and beautiful experience which I’m sure will get even better as she gets older.
Thank you so much for this article! I am due in July, and the first thing everyone is saying to me when they find out I’m pregnant is “I guess you’re done traveling “ …it really drives me crazy. But this article really helped reassure me that we will be able to travel with our little one, and show her this amazing world. I look forward to following your future trips with your little one! Thank you again ☺️
Oh yes, the famous statement that everyone seems to say with such confidence. Ask them if they traveled with their kids and I bet you the majority haven’t So, while they are trying to offer you some wisdom, they are talking about a topic they know nothing about. You can continue traveling. Will it be different? Yup. Will it be awesome. Yup! I’m excited for you 🙂
Follow on Instagram