Roadtrips?

krislati · #1 November 14th, 2011, 06:46 AM

Has anyone drove a long road trip with your LO's? What do you take to keep them occupied?

We went to PA this weekend and it takes about 5 hrs from here and Tommy was bored out of his mind. He only slept for 2 hrs of the trip. Any suggestions what you can give a toddler to play with to keep them entertained?

mrsjl · #2 November 14th, 2011, 06:59 AM

leave at like, 4am and they will sleep most of the way.

krislati · #3 November 14th, 2011, 07:07 AM

I was thinking of doing that over Thanksgiving when we go home again. I left at 1 pm thinking he would take his nap but it still wasn't long enough.

KMH · #4 November 14th, 2011, 07:08 AM

We did a 22-hour trip in August over 2.5 days (22 hours driving time, plus stops for meals, diapers, etc.). We were moving, so DH was in his car by himself, and I had Claire in the car with me.

I had a 6-pacifier rotation going so that if she threw one or dropped one, I could reach back and hand her another one...that helped a lot. I also had various toys and things for her...books, balls, stuffed animals, etc. As usual, her favorite toys on the trip weren't even toys...she loved to shake a half-empty water bottle and crinkle the plastic. At one point I gave her a bottle of Tylenol to shake around (childproof cap) and she loved that. Music was also good...I played kid's songs that had clapping or that were familiar to her, and she seemed to enjoy that...especially anything with animal noises.

Mostly you just have to be flexible and stop often to give them a break.

mrsjl · #5 November 14th, 2011, 07:19 AM

I also packed some new dollar store toys and handed them back one at a time as they started getting antsy, and since it was new it occupied them for a while. I even blew bubbles in the back seat for them. my sister lent us her portable DVD player so DD could watch movies.

Celine · #6 November 14th, 2011, 09:55 AM

My friend suggested to leave in the evening (around babys' time for bed) - but then of course the driver misses out on some sleep.

We went for a couple of drives- that were horrible- screaming non-stop for 4 hours straight. We stopped to give Sophia a break but she was even more upset when it was time to get back into the car seat. We went in the middle of the day though- not a good idea. I think I will leave at night if I do a long car ride again. Peace and quiet and less traffic seems like a good idea to me.

inyourhonor · #7 November 15th, 2011, 05:00 AM

Bishop's first time on a road trip was this weekend and it was a 4 hour drive. He did very well actually. A few moments of get me the heck out of here but was pretty content. I have good travelers. My eldest played a lot of peek-a-boo as well. Bishop seemed to sleep a lot. Cars knock him out.

mommydiva · #8 November 15th, 2011, 05:30 AM

We haven't done any long distance trips with Rosie since we moved here.
We plan on going this spring if all goes well with Josh's leave. But I think we will be purchasing a DVD player, then the normal toys and things like that. would love to leave at night but since its 30+ hour drive we will split it up 2 days so they can get out of the seats for a good 7 hour stretch..lol

I<3HelloKitty · #9 November 15th, 2011, 08:02 AM

We did an 8 hour drive when Ellie was 4 months old for a wedding, but there were 6 adults in the van with her so we could take turns entertaining her, plus she was so little, she didn't do much other than eat and sleep.

Now, I'd probably try packing new toys that she hadn't seen before as well as her favorites, and play music that I know she likes as well has have snacks available for her.