Planning your first vacation with you baby is essential to the success of your trip.

Here are ten tips to follow to help you when planning your trip.

1. Food and water. If you are going to a popular, well-developed location like Cancun, or a major European city easy access to water and food for your baby will not likely be a problem. If your vacation entails travel to remote areas, or even on a cruise make sure that you know how and where you will get water and food for your baby during the trip.

2. It will be easier to treat any issues that your baby may experience when away from home if you pack the right medicines with you before leaving home. It is much easier and more effective treatment for sore tummies, low grade fevers, diaper rashes if you have the right medicines with you - rather than trying to find a drugstore after your child starts to feel under the weather.

3. In the past when it was just you and your spouse traveling on your own - you may have been on the go for the most part and you didn’t spend much time in your room. Things will be different now. Every day your baby will be napping and on many of those days it will be in your hotel room - or in your cabin on a cruise ship. Give yourself a place to spend the time that your child is napping - consider upgrading your room so that it has a balcony that you can relax on while your child sleeps.

4. Plan for time for each parent to head off on their own to see the attractions or sites that they are interested in. During those times the other parent will be caring for the baby. Plan upfront when these times will be and work towards an equal split of time so that there is plenty of time to be together - and time for everyone to see or do what is important to them during the vacation.

5. Our babies love to sleep in the stroller. That is great when we are at home - but not always so great on a vacation. If your baby is in their stroller too much during the day they may end up having too much daytime sleep making it difficult for them to sleep at night. During the day plan for regular breaks to get the baby out of their stroller and play with them at a park, or place a blanket on the ground and spend some time playing with them outside of their stroller.

6. As much as possible avoid connecting flights when air travel is part of your vacation plan. Taking off, landing and rushing through airports to get to your connecting flights is never easy and is even more difficult when traveling with a baby.

7. Think about bringing a travel bed for the baby to sleep in - and before you leave home let them practice by having them sleep in it for a couple of nights.

8. If possible bring your own car seat. The ones provided by car rental companies are sometimes questionable.

9. A month or so before you travel contact your baby’s doctor to advise that you will be travelling with your baby. Ask the doctor if there are any required vaccinations for the places that you plan on visiting during the trip.

10. Check list. Write a list of the items that you will carry with you as you travel and a list of the items that you will pack for your baby to be used during the trip. Check the list a week before the trip and then check it again the day before the trip to make sure that you have everything.

Tags: Travel Tips

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