Let’s Talk About Baby Led Weaning On The Road!

Today my little family is leaving for a week long vacation to California and we are beyond excited! While we can’t wait to put our toes in the sand we first have to deal with the hassle of getting there. When planning this trip we were going back and forth on whether we should try to fly with Bennett or whether a car trip would be easier. The car trip from Phoenix, Arizona to San Diego is about 6 hours so that’s a long time in the car for our very full of energy ten month old. When we took into account all the stuff we would need for all of us for an entire week and the hassle of not having our car with us for a week we decided to drive. So here we are sitting in the car about half an hour into the six hour trip, Bennett is currently asleep but knowing my little man that won’t last long. Luckily for us, when he wakes up I am probably overly prepared with toys, books and snacks to hopefully keep him occupied as long as possible! Let’s talk about what I brought on our first road trip with a baby!

I have to be honest, Bennett has a LOT of toys at home. Probably way too many for one baby. Who can resist buying way too many cute little baby toys??? But more than anything, Bennett absolutely loves a good book. He could listen to us read him books all day if we would do it (and some days we do!). So for this road trip I only brought a few of his favorite toys but brought a good variety of books.

When thinking of what to bring on a road trip for your baby, the biggest things I thought of were 1) What is going to occupy the most time? 2) What is he not going to get tired of? Answering those questions, I ended up bringing the following:

14 of his favorite books (this sounds like a lot but the books are so little), these are all books he has me read over and over again everyday. I got four packs of flash cards to keep him entertained (I know he is too young to retain what the flash cards have on them but he still loves looking at them!) I also brought his xylophone, he is not quite old enough to really play the music (if he was I probably would not have brought it) but he really likes to touch the keys and it actually keeps him occupied for awhile. I brought his favorite toy car which he loves to hold and chew on. And lastly for toys I brought him his favorite maraca/rattle. This was one of the first toys he ever played with as a newborn and he still loves it to this day.

While I try not to rely on screens too much to keep Bennett occupied, I did make sure to download some of his favorite videos in case he needed some extra entertainment.

Now let’s get into my favorite topic: Food!

I had way too much fun planning what I would bring for Bennett on the road trip, I think I started making food plans before we even booked our hotels. I had this silicone holder that has a big lid and six different compartments for food and I just thought it was the perfect thing to hold a variety of foods and snacks for the car. So we got a small cooler with ice packs to keep everything cold and I filled out he compartments up with different treats all easy to eat and perfect for the road.

In the first two compartments I had to start with Bennett’s absolute favorite snack, Peanut Butter Puffs. I swear B could eat these things all day long! Next I wanted some fresh options so I washed and chopped some strawberries for one compartment and some blueberries for the other. And lastly I wanted something a little heartier, something that would fill him up. So I made one of his favorites: Broccoli, Egg & Cheese bites (recipe is on my blog). I made six of them and put three in each compartment, these are definitely the simplest and cleanest way to eats eggs and veggies and Bennett absolutely loves them.

In addition to all of that I also brought him a pear, some string cheese, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and plenty of water.

For the adults in the car, I washed the extra blueberries & strawberries, I chopped up some celery and I packed two protein bars for us of us.

Road trips with a baby may seem scary, but I think if you come prepared and go into it with a positive attitude it will go just fine. I hope this helps for anyone planning a trip with a baby soon!