When Is a Good Age to Travel with Child?

I personally think 2.5 months is very young for a baby to travel, as it sure IS disruptive and it certainly can expose a young infant to illnesses s/he might never be confronted with at home. On the other hand, this doesn't stop millions of people from going to visit family at the holidays, taking a home leave if your an ex-patriate, etc. As long as your baby is in good health it's not even a problem to take them on a plane after age 3 months. (You may want to check this one with your pediatrician.) We first took our son on a 6 hour roadtrip at age 7 months and things went fine, except it's true the different environment was somewhat disruptive to him, and he really didn't sleep very well in the car. We did stop ever 2 hours like the pediatrican told us to get him up and let him move around, get him changed, etc. Since then, he's been on 2 overseas trips, Geneva-London-Orlando at age 2, and Geneva-Amsterdam-San Francisco at age 3 3/4, and he handles international travel very well. To answer your question, what is a good age? I really cannot, as it's so personal. Though before 4-months I was definitely decided for my son I would not expose him to travel. As long as your doctor agrees, you'll need to decide -- and then of course, live up to any inconveniences it may cause your baby. They're more flexible and more sturdy than we think. As long as he has good care, proper food and hydration, and lots of love probably any age is appropropriate, but especially after 3 to 4-months.

Hi B.,

First off, every baby is different and unique. I have a 6-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son. We have always traveled all the time. The farthest we went when my daughter was a baby was Arizona, but my son went to Hawaii when he was four months old and then I took him to Italy with my family when he was five months old. I feel it was the perfect time to travel. He was alert enough that he could enjoy the people around him and they could enjoy him, but he wasn't old enough to be uncomfortable and fussy on the long flight and car rides. He even adjusted well to the time changes. Both my children have always enjoyed traveling and I truly feel it's because it was introduced at such a young age and we continue to do it today. It's not something new and strange to them. So I say go to it.

we took a road trip when our daughter was about 2.5 months old and I thought it was a good time to travel with her. we went to so. cal so the drive was about 7-8 hours each way and we left really early in the morning. she slept for a good part of the time and when she was awake she was pretty content to be just hang out since she couldn't really do much else anyway. we did have to stop a few times for feeding but that was good for us to get out of the car anyway. she was actually already sleeping pretty well through the night and that didn't really change much luckily however naps were pretty much impossible unless we drove around.
we recently took a road trip when she was 13 months old and it was much more difficult b/c she was able to walk then and was not very content to be sitting in the car for the 5 hour drive.
i say go for it now since you will be going back to work soon and it is important to get out and do things. good luck!

I think the important thing to consider when traveling is "Who's going to have fun?"
The actual traveling, car, air etc. is one thing. Little babies are pretty easy cause they can't go anywhere and have pretty basic needs, eat, sleep, poop.
Where you go and what your expectations are for travel is a whole nuther set of issues.
If you're visiting friends and family and hanging out or going to a resort and will stay put for the most part, those are pretty easy, bring a port-a crib and the gear you need and you're set to go.
If you want to do some real touring, museums, more adventurous stuff it is a little more complicated.
Most important is do have reasonable expectations for yourself and your child. Travel is VERY different with a kid in tow.
As someone who did the backpacking through Europe kind of thing as a young person, I had to make big adjustments in my expectations when I started to travel with kids. It's still fun, but VERY different. Travel will definitely disrupt the child's regular routines and if you have concerns about health or safety issues, delay your travel or get gramma or auntie or someone you trust and leave the baby at home and take a real vacation.

Hi B.-
This age should be a good time to travel. But I think a NINE HOUR road trip would turn ANYONE'S world upside down. :O) That was probably way too much! Try another trip. A plane ride or shorter 2 hour road trip may work better. While on vacation, try to stick (as much as possible) to your home schedule with the baby... Ie: feedings, naps, play time, bath and bed time. Allow for a little flexibility, but try to stay on track as much as possible.

I also noticed that when my son was that age and too many different people held him back to back, he would get EXTREMELY fussy. Too much stimulation does that to them. Not sure if you experienced that during your trip?

Also, make sure to dedicate a few moments throughout the day for a little quite time with just you and the baby. Get him away from over stimulation (loud noises, bright ligts..) for 10 minutes at a time - a few times a day. Do you have a sling you can put him in? Those work miracles!!!!

I hate to break it to you, but this is the "good age" to travel. Once they start crawling, it gets much harder.

I am a very experienced traveler and I have done more traveling with my little guy than I would prefer (20 mos and have lost count of airplanes). I can break down the stroller and get through security and ready to go before most business travelers have collected their shoes. Long drives are hell. Flying is easier because you hold them and they cry less. Although it gets slightly better once they are able to engage in an activity for 5 mins, you just have to bring a lot of toys (for mine, around 16 mos).

After getting pretty good at breastfeeding in the carseat (yes it is possible, just not comfortable), on one particularly bad 4 hour trip, I gave in and started just sitting in the backseat holding him, hoping that we didn't get into an accident. When a friend saw me right after that trip, I must have looked shell-shocked b/c she said, "I used to just take them out of the seat. It was the only way we made it to Grandma's." All I could do was nod and not cry.

Traveling always disrupts their schedules--good news for you, not much of a schedule for a few more months. Once you get into the problems with sleep around 4-5 mos, any sleep training will have to be started over once you get home.

My best advice is to avoid travel for a while. Yes, you can do it, but it makes life harder. And really it is a short time.

After my latest family work trip to Israel (returned 2 wks ago) my MIL said, "Maybe 19 mos, is just a little too young for this kind of trip." I decided that he did just fine. I'm just too old at 36.

I'm at that age where I'm looking back on the choices I made when my children were young. Like your experience, traveling with my children was difficult. So I decided to wait for a better age. I regret that.

What I've come to believe is that traveling is something that you become better at doing together. Now that my boys are 22 and 18 - they want to travel with their friends. It is one of my regrets.

The advice would be to start with small trips. Make them exciting little adventures for the whole family. It will probably be a little easier each time.

Hello,

We began traveling with our son when he was 4 months old. All of our family lives back east so we would always fly. My son now has a ton of frequent flyer miles because we travel with him often (2-4 times per year)! Of course, anytime you change their schedule or surroundings, you have to expect them need some time to adjust themselves. For us, this was never really a big deal. We also found that it got easier the more we traveled with him because we knew more about what to expect. Today, our son is 4 and he's a great traveler. Anytime we fly with him, people always comment on how good he does.

Good Luck!
A.

We took our daughter to Hawaii at 6 months and it was great. Perfect age. We brought a pack-n-play to the pool and she took her naps in it. They're too young to be crawling and walking which I think would have been a major challenge. But we used the baby bjorn for hikes and when we went to dinner we'd give her a bottle in her stroller and she would pass out before we would even get our entre. Talk about a dream to travel with. Good Luck.

9 hours is a LOOOOOOOOONG car ride for ANY age!!!!! Try a shorter trip to see how he does. You're right about travel upsetting routine and patterns, and you're also right about him not really having a pattern yet. Routines at this age are more about the baby's cues than the clock. My son (who's now 2) is a GREAT air traveller, but he's not so great for car trips longer than 2 hours. It's always been this way. Like I said, I would try shorter trips and see how he reacts :)

We traveled with our daughter on a 10 hour trip at less than a month, out of state by plane at 1 month and just recently went to England when she was 5.5 months. All went fine. Yes her sleep pattern was a little disrupted on the trip to England but she just went to sleep late nearer our bed time and woke up late (as did we we were on vacation after all). When we came back she went right back to her normal routine. I have friends who have traveled to Paris when their son was 10 months, another who traveled to Germany at 6 months and Ethiopia at less than a year. My friend who went to Paris her son is now 2 and she says that she can't see them going out of the country or taking long plane trips now because he is just so mobile and gets bored easily.

So go for it. Your best defense against illness is breastfeeding which you may well be doing at this point so that is a plus to going traveling when they are little.

Have fun!

hi,

I travelled with my then 4 month old to germany and she was great. she had acid reflux as well. apart from the jet lag she was great. We then went back again when she was 6 months and again she was great just put her in the pack and go off and see the sights. When she was 14 months old we went to Australia and she was pretty easy on the flight and traveling around a little. We are now back in australia at 20 months old and the flight was hard we had to keep doing laps. 5 hours she was awake for on the plane. I was alone though. Her jet lag was very easy this trip cause we made her stay up late. I say the younger the better for flying just be prepared and expect the worst.

Sorry i cant help with driving. The road trip we did this last week was quite painful 3 and a half hours of constant entertaining and no moving was hard.

good luck

P.

We started traveling with our baby girl right after she turned 3 months and had her first round of vaccinations. Since then (she is now 8 months), she has been on 7 round-trips flights around the US (longest flight being 4 hours). She's got the routine down for take off and landing. It also helps that she loves meeting all the folks (esp the toddlers) on the plane. It's easier to hold the baby on your lap at an earlier age. I've been lucky a few times to get an empty seat so can bring the car seat on the plane and the baby will take a good long snooze.

Can't offer anything though on the long road trips but I would imagine your boy would need to stretch now and then, so lots of pit stops?

Friends have encouraged as much travel until the baby starts walking and gets more restless in contained environments.

Guess it ultimately depends on your baby's disposition and your willingness to get out and about. Good luck and enjoy!

Hi B.,
You have a very valid question. I think it really varies per child however. Some personalities deal with change better than others. I am a world traveler and my 15 month old son seems to have gotten the travel gene frome me because he loves to travel and does really well with being in different places. Many people have told me that is probably because I do well with being in different places and he senses my calm and confidence. I have also found that I have to be reasonable in my expectations of him. For example, I start my drive at nap time so that he falls asleep for most of the trip. I plant healthy interactive snacks (like a box of raisins) within his reach for when he wakes up and offer him plenty of liquids in his sippy cup. When he can sit still no longer we take a break. On one 8 hour drive I was at a loss for where to stop and the sign for a mall popped up. That ended up being the best rest area ever! bathrooms, snacks, lots of indoor space to walk and a toystore to play in.
The first time I traveled with my son he was 3 months old and I took him on a greyhound bus for 9 hours. He did much better on the bus than in a car because he could be on me and breastfeed and sleep well. If I did travel with him in the car, I tried to be next to him because he was easily distressed at not being able to see me. Now he actually prefers his car seat. I also have a big bag of toys that he only sees when he's in the car, so he really looks forward to it. Music has been essential as well to how well he rides. We listen to A LOT of bob marley because it is calming and rhythmic. I have noticed that when I try to listen to anything more upbeat he becomes agitated. When he is crying and I am unable to stop right away, I roll his window down just enough that he gets fresh air, turn the music low or off and take his shoes off and rub his foot. OF course it helps that he is front facing, but I have found that this helps and often he falls back to sleep.
I hope this was not too much. Hope to help. Enjoy every minute you've got with your little man. One thing I have learned from my son is that he makes me let go of a lot and often when we stop everything for him I realize there is no hurry and that living at his pace is healthier for me too.

Good luck!
S. and Rune

We have traveled with our daughter since she was 8 wks old. It has been great. She was great.

But if we had taken a 9 hr. road trip, I don't think I would have been great, with or without a baby. That is way too long for me, so I can only imagine that would throw a baby's schedule into a tizzy.

Maybe try shorter trips and build up. We drove from LA to Vegas when she was not quite two. She was potty training and kept hollering that she had to go to the potty, so we would stop the car. She wanted ice cream, as it turned out, and she knew we would stop for a call for the bathroom.

Stephanie

My son is a great traveler. We adopted him in MT and brought him to CA when he was 2 weeks old. He traveled 1- 3 hour car trips frequently (at least every 3 months) We drove to SD when he was two and he did great. I would suggest traveling again at about 4-6 months. Before they learn to crawl is good. The more you do it the better they get about it. From 1- 3 years it would be a good idea to have one adult ride in the back seat with him. The extra entertainment helps the hours go by and you will be surprised what he will learn with that much undivided one on one attetion.

we've always traveled with the kids - the military says go & we go & we try to find interesting things to do along the way. I found that by about 6 weeks of age we were up for road trips, etc. build in extra time, changes of clothes & lots of diapers. i found it helpful to sit in the back & interact with the kids, read books, play peek-a-boo, etc., and then move to the front seat when it was time for them to rest. It helps establish (or reinforce) a "play time" and a "rest time" pattern .

I'm not sure about a good age to travel, since I think it varies based on the child, the trip, etc. (some young children get very car-sick and it's hard to tell that's what's wrong with them - they may not show any symptoms but constant crying), but I know for my children, the HARDEST age to travel long distances was while they were crawling. There is literally nowhere to get out and let a child crawl. Before they crawl and when they are walking - much easier . . . but rest stops are mostly concrete and dirt . . . or grass that people allow pets to use . . . you don't want a child on hands-and-knees in restaurants and public places . . . it is very hard. We tried hard during these months not to travel much because we ended up with a baby who was in a carseat, in someone's arms, in a high-chair, back in someone's arms, and back in a car-seat. Very restrictive and uncomfortable for the child.

We have always traveled with our babies. Most recently, we went to Hawaii with our five week old. The plane trip was 5 hours and the time difference is about 3 hours, but he was great! Then we traveled to NYC with him when he was six months and he did great. We traveled with our older son to Japan when he was three months old and then back and forth to Ohio every six months to visit my parents and the easiest time is before they start crawling! Once he started to crawl, it was a little harder to keep him in his seat. It was between 6 months and 1.5 years that was the hardest to keep him contained. After that age, he understood that you stay in your seat in the airplane. We took him on a 12 hour flight to Russia when he was just 2 and he did fabulous. He played for six hours and slept for six hours. I don't think there is such a thing as too early. When my parents had my baby brother, they took us all on a road trip to California from Louisiana when he was only three weeks old. We spend almost all day in the car for five days straight and then went to Disneyland and by the time we came home, we had been on the road for two weeks! So, I think it is great that you have started early.

I've traveled with my daughter at 3 and again at 5 months. She did much better at 5 months. She had a more stable sleeping pattern. Also for that vacation I was more relaxed and babyies can sense that! Bon voyage!

Congratulations on the birth of your son!

We took our little girl on a driving cross country trip when she was nine months old. Everyone said we were crazy but it worked out really well. It was a lot of fun. She is eighteen months old and I am very glad we didn't wait. Now that she is walking she wouldn't have enjoyed sitting in her car seat for the trip!

Hi B.,

My husband and I traveled with our daughter when she was 3 months old. For the most part, the trip was great. However, for the next 8 months she hated her carseat and the car. After all that time in the car she did not want anything to do with it. It made small erronds awful.

Then when she was about a year old, we traveled by plane. She was perfect. Most of the people on the plane did not even know she was there. Since then she has been a joy to travel with.

I think it depends on the baby. When my daughter was 2 months her reflux was still pretty bad and she was VERY fussy much of the time, even on medication.

Once she could sit up and play a little more easily independently it was a lot easier to travel with her. I would think that for us, 5-9 months was the easiest time since she could sit up, but wasn't crawling and was happy to be held constantly (I wore her a lot).

I think once they are mobile long flights are really hard. We went to Hawaii in December with our then 15 month old and the flight was exhausting. Maybe it's easier if you have a kid who sleeps easily?

Good luck! I think pretty much everything about parenting gets easier as they get older.

Hmmm.
My daughter's nineteen now, and it's gotten pretty fun....
But seriously, a lot of it is luck of the draw.
Depends on whether you hit a teething, sickish day, or a good one, that kind of thing.
Two of you is good.
I used to drive up and down 5 from when my daughter was about 10 mos old through the toddler years.
Yes, it is harder with a crawler, but not impossible.
For one thing, you will have a sleep schedule.
And they become more interactive - bring toys.
And go ahead and take breaks when you need to - let the journey be part of the vacation, and don't fret if you have to spend some time -- maybe if you can research the trip you can even plan a stop or two.
That is, yes you can still travel, it's just going to be different.
And if you can embrace the difference, it can be a great experience.