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Judy Ritchie <[log in to unmask]>
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Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 24 Jun 2001 19:19:03 -0700
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http://search.tribnet.com/archive/archive30/0624s102.html


Having baby on board doesn't make for bad trip

Vacation: Parents often learn from experience the best ways to handle
traveling with children

June 24, 01

Janet Simons; Scripps Howard News Service

As travel companions, babies and toddlers are less than ideal. They have
no attention span, and they're noisy, demanding, inconsolable, messy and
sometimes smelly. But even those who have suffered through the worst say
the rewards of taking babies and toddlers along on trips outweigh the
problems.

Judsen Culbreth, editor in chief of Scholastic's Parent and Child and
Early Childhood Today magazines, said an incident that occurred 21 years
ago is still fresh. On a plane trip with her infant daughter from her
home in New York to see relatives in Atlanta, she was pinned in the
window seat. The baby dirtied her diaper just as the meal was served.

"I couldn't move. I couldn't do anything but apologize as everyone in my
row gave me really dirty looks," Culbreth said.

She said that as a new mother traveling with a baby for the first time,
she hadn't known to request a bulkhead seat, which would have given her
some space to change a diaper.

"Even an aisle seat would have helped," she said. "But once we arrived,
it turned out to be a good visit. Our relatives really do want to see
our babies. Don't leave home without them."

A few such moments in parenting hell are inevitable when you travel with
very young children, but knowing some tricks can help keep them to a
minimum.

Gretchen White of Golden, Colo., said she's learned a great deal and had
wonderful experiences in two car trips to California with her children,
Aidan, 3; Ryley, 2; and Samuel, 11 months.

"The logistics were hard - the planning and the worry that you'd forget
something critical, and you'd stop the first night and realize that the
baby's favorite rattle was in his crib at home," White said. "We worried
about how the children would hold up, but they held up just fine."

It helps, she said, if you don't expect to cover the miles very quickly.

"Sam was 11 weeks old on our second trip, so we had to stop every two or
three hours to nurse," she said. "We stopped at every little town on
Interstate 70 and Highway 50 and looked for a park. I'd find a bench and
breast-feed while Aidan and Ryley ran around and burned off some energy.
It worked out well."

Barb Rolfe of Centennial, Colo., offered a painful example of what can
happen if parents travel before they fully grasp their baby's
priorities.

"I thought it would be 'a great family vacation' to drive from New York
to Colorado so my husband could start law school," Rolfe said.

"Our son Josh was just 2 months old and was breast-feeding every three
hours or so. He had never slept in his car seat. We realized the
difficulty this presented our first day when we didn't make it out of
New York state. Our cross-country routine went like this: Stop and
breast-feed for one hour, drive with a crying, unhappy, overtired baby
for one hour, stop and breast-feed for an hour, etc., etc.

"To this day, 17 years later, my husband will veto the occasional idea I
have that's not to his liking by saying, 'Hey! It'll be a great family
vacation.'"

Rolfe said she spent many miles with her arm over the seat holding the
pacifier in Josh's mouth. "Responsible new parents that we were, neither
of us ever considered taking him out of his car seat while the car was
in motion," she said.

As well they shouldn't have. Although all states have laws requiring
children under 4 to be restrained while riding in a car, and 25 states
require that children up to 16 be restrained at all times, motor-vehicle
accidents remain the largest cause of death among children 15 and
younger.

Rolfe, however, might have considered sitting in the back seat with
Josh. That's what White and Culbreth did with their young children.

"I don't think I started riding in the front seat again until my
youngest was 8," Culbreth said.

She said focusing on your baby's habits will help things go much more
smoothly. She suggested parents try to accommodate a young child's
regular eating and sleeping schedule and bring along a few familiar toys
and books.

"Think about your child's comfort," she said. "Traveling puts them in a
state of constant transition, and babies are creatures of routine.
Maintain bedtime rituals. If your child always has a bath and then a
specific bedtime story, do that when you're traveling. Be as consistent
as possible."

And if you really want to keep things familiar, rent a recreational
vehicle, suggested Christine Loomis of Boulder, Colo., contributing
travel editor for Family Life magazine.

"My favorite baby trip was in an RV," Loomis said. "Campgrounds are
inexpensive. We could sit outside at night and use the grill for food.
We always had access to a microwave and a refrigerator. Most of all,
it's fun because you meet tons of families with little kids."

Parents must spend plenty of time focusing on their young children's
needs while traveling, experts say.

Leticia Steffen of Strasburg, Colo., flew from Denver to Minneapolis
last August when her daughter, Isabel, was 15 months old.

"When we got on the airplane bound back home for Denver, she started
wailing," Steffen said. "I decided to try
breast-feeding her, thinking that might ease her discomfort with
altitude changes and calm her. I had a blanket, so we were very
discreet. She ended up falling asleep in my arms for most of the return
flight."

Many airlines don't demand that parents buy tickets for children ages 2
and under, but Loomis said parents should do it.

"It's a hardship to buy a $300 ticket, which is why airlines won't
demand it. But you need to use a car seat on the plane because in a
heavy pocket of turbulence, you cannot hold onto your baby."

The Federal Aviation Administration reports that turbulence injures
nearly 60 people a year who are not restrained. The FAA strongly
recommends use of an approved car safety seat in flight, rear-facing for
a child under 20 pounds and forward-facing for a child who weighs 20 to
40 pounds.

"Safety has to be your first priority," said Loomis, adding that safety
concerns are far from over when families reach their destinations.

She has a long checklist for parents of toddlers. She started with the
suggestion that parents bring corner guards, toilet latches and other
"baby-proofing" equipment to use at hotels and homes where children will
spend time.

She suggested parents ask for ground-level rooms at hotels and check to
make sure there's no more than a soda can's width of space between crib
bars in borrowed cribs and that the crib mattress fits snugly.

Look, too, at window blinds and make sure the cords are out of reach so
children can't strangle on them.

Loomis said parents should muster the nerve to ask relatives to
child-proof before they arrive - then check up on them.

"Lots of grandparents haven't been around young children for a long
time, and they don't realize how many dangerous things are in their
medicine cabinets, under their sinks and in their purses," Loomis said.
"When my daughter who is now 13 was 2, she got into some medicine my
father left out, and we had to have her stomach pumped."

Dirty diapers aside, Loomis said, traveling with infants is a snap
compared with traveling with children old enough to get into trouble.

"Babies are easy to travel with, so use infancy as the last opportunity
to go on adult vacations," she said. "They're happy in a stroller or
carrier, and you can take them along when you go shopping or to art
museums. They'll sit in a stroller while you eat in an open-air cafe.
Cities are great destinations at this stage."

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