Tips for long car journey with baby

[Littlefroggy18]

We are making the 300 mile trip to introduce our 16 week old dd to DHs grandparents in a couple of weeks as unfortunately they are too ill to travel. We are breaking the journey up on the way there with a overnight stay roughly half way but on the way home we’ll be doing the trip all in one go! We will be making regular stops to give dd a break from the car seat but I just wondered if anyone has any other tips so make it slightly less painful! I’m beginning to worry about it a bit!!

Put the car seat behind the driver so that the passenger can easily keep an eye on LO. Leave an easily accessible space to do a quick nappy change if necessary and leave a good supply of changing gear to hand.
If it’s a rear facing car seat, fit a mirror to the car seat so you can see more easily. Just remember to remove it at night-time – you can’t see it and the mirror may well wake up LO by reflecting car headlights and street-lamps.
Pack a good supply of pacifiers in the front with you, to replace those which get thrown and dropped in the back. Alternatively, now would be a good time to invest in a dummy clip to prevent them being throw on the floor.
Get a couple of window shades ready for potential sun and for lights when driving at night.
Light layers of comfortable clothing are a good idea.
If you’re using formula milk, the ready-made cartons can make life easier – just remember to pack some scissors!
Have a blanket to hand so that they can have a good stretch out on it during breaks.
Learn how to adjust your car’s speakers on the move, so that you can just have music playing via the back speakers and vice-versa.

Thanks ricekrispy I was actually thinking of moving the car seat behind DH but me sitting in the back with her. Thought it’d be easier to be able to see her properly and be able to give dummy back/try and entertain her a bit if needed.

We traveled from Bucks to Edinburgh and back a week later when our son was a few weeks older and did it in one day. It was absolutely fine. We stopped every two hours to get him out of the car seat, change nappy. We planned stops around feeding times. He was bottle fed, so we made sure to have plenty of formula with us and hot and cold water. Although we found you can heat up bottles at most services.

Neither of us sat in the back with him. He had some toys attached to his Maxi Cosi and was fine. He mostly slept if I recall correctly.

One of us always sits in the back seat with my son, he's 17 months now but at that age I would def have wanted to be in the back with him. Soothing music is a must in my view, we had a couple of tricky journeys early on and it calmed me down even if it didn't help him! Good luck.

Stop loads so that the baby isn't in the car seat for longer than the recommended time - lots of parks and fresh air to help wear them out, just before a feed and nappy change so they are snoozy for the next leg!

We used to over 300 miles to visit in-laws. We would drive through the night from Suffolk to Cornwall. We would set off after the bedtime feed, around 7pm, and stop at service stations for a feed at 11pm.
Driving time would be much shorter as there was less traffic, and the babies would sleep for most of the journey. I think we would arrive around 2 in the morning

We just did a long trip with our 5mo who travels really badly. He tends to cry a lot in the car and will only sleep for 30 minutes at a time.

Our strategy was to set off just as he was due a nap, then stopped when he needed a bottle. We then stayed at the services till he was due another nap and set off again.

I sat in the back with him and played with him to keep him quiet once he woke up. We only had about 20 minutes of crying the whole trip (because we didn't have a safe place to stop), which is quite impressive for him!

Buy RAC cover before you go if you don’t have it.

We set out the same journey with 6 week old twins, broke down and had to pay £250 roadside to get car towed to parents house and then extortionate train fares back. Oh, and it was snowing when we broke down on the M1.

Also, stop panicking. Most babies sleep in the car.

We did 200 miles when our baby was about 11 weeks. I was a bit nervous but it was fine. He slept most of way.
Leave extra time. Our usual 3 hour trip took 5.5 hours as we had to stop to feed twice and the tyre warning light came on.
I would look at map and highlight all your service stations en route, then you know where to stop to feed/change/get a coffee.
Make your changing bag and pram/carrier accessible so you can grab it to go in quickly. My DH packed our pram first into the boot so basically had to unload everything in car park to get it out!
Few toys also good to have on hand or nursery rhyme playlist.
I also sat in back as it was before we got a headrest mirror.

Be aware that your babies should not be in car seats for long periods.
NHS warns this can be dangerous.

Most baby car seta manufacturers reccommend that babies should spend no more than 2 hours in a car seat in any 24 hour period.

I would not make such a long car journey with a young baby.

Bully for you speakout. OP said she will be stopping.

Thank you all, much appreciated!

Thanks for your concern @speakout we are aware of the guidelines and we will be making regular stops.
This is the only way dd is ever going to meet DHs grandparents as they are in such poor health and one of them it likely to only be with us another few months so it’s a non negotiable trip.
This is also very likely the last time DH will see his grandparent so it’s not going to be a joyous trip. You don’t need to try and make me feel like I’m being neglectful to my child at a already upsetting time for my family.

@littlefroggy18 @speakout 's response is an extreme position and goes further than most expert opinion. Current guidance is simply that if you take a journey of more than 2 hours you should have a break and take baby out of the car seat. This NHS link explains the issues well:

www.nhs.uk/news/pregnancy-and-child/warning-over-babies-sleeping-in-car-seats/

Although the research is potentially worrying, as that article says, it's unclear what the clinical significance of the results actually is.

If it makes you feel better, OP, my husband and I are both doctors and, having looked at the evidence, we wouldn't leave our son to sleep in a car seat for long periods (so, when we get home, we lift him out of his car seat and put him in his Moses basket), but we did do several long journeys when he was tiny. We drove a 10-hour round trip to see relatives when he was 2 weeks old. We just made sure we stopped regularly and made sure to keep an eye on him during the drive.

You have to weigh the risks of car seat use against the social and emotional harm of never taking babies to meet relatives who are too old to travel to you. I made the same choice you did.

Could you do the journey in the evening so that if she sleeps it doesn’t mess with any vague sleeping pattern she might have?

Thanks so much for that @rightocciputanterior, we will be breaking up the journey there with a overnight stay, it’s just not possible to do that on the retune journey, I will be sitting with her in the back to keep a eye on her too!

Yes @user we will be doing the first leg in the evening so I’m gonna do bedtime routine as usual so I’m hopeful she will sleep.

Good for you, OP. Glad you can see DH's grandparents.
My best friend's BIL and his family live just under two hours' away. They have a 5yo. They have never visited my friend and her partner with their daughter as it is 'too far' in the car . I was really sad to hear that - don't think the kid's ever left her home town.

The 2 hours per 24 hours advice isn't much use in the real world where families don't all live near each other. No one is going to take multiple days off just for the journeys and then spend the majority of it twatting around in hotels.

I agree snuggybuggy one of the reasons we are stopping on the way is to give us more time to spend there as we can only go for the weekend. Doing half the drive the evening before just means we have that bit more time there and had the added benefit of breaking it up for dd.