Road trip with a baby

[ICantThinkOfAGoodOne]

Hi ladies,

My DH and I are planning a bit of a road trip to the southwest of France in the autumn. Our DC will be about four months when we travel. I'm going to plan at least one overnight stop, but while we're actually on the road how frequently should we stop?

DC will still be exclusively breastfed when we travel, or that's the expectation anyway.

Have you had your baby yet?

To be honest a road trip with a four month old sounds an absolute nightmare

Official guidance is two hours, but if it's a long journey, it's going to take forever at that rate! If your LO is well travelled already and seems quite happy, I'd try and push it to 3 hours. Do make sure that when you actually do stop, you stretch their limbs, gently rotate their joints and you could even massage their back and buttocks. Also aim for a few minutes of tummy time during a stop.
Children younger than two are rarely travel sick, but it can occur. Try not to give a full feed just before travelling and look out for an increase in dribbling (this indicates nausea).

@NewIdeasToday yeah, he's six weeks. We're driving rather than flying in order to pick some things up from my MIL's house (DH is French) else would probably fly.

@Ricekrispie22 thanks - knew that 2-3 hours was recommended at current age, but wasn't sure if it was the same in a few months. Cheers for the massage tips too!

It needn't be hell.
If you use a dummy, take a dummy clip and a few spares with you in the car.
Invest in a large baby car mirror that attachesto the headrest facing the car seat. Not only will this give you peace of mind being able to see what LO is up to whilst on the go but will also provide extra entertainment for LO. 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.

We did it with a 4 month old (many years ago now) No problem at all and he was BF. Some of the nappies were....um......interesting Enjoy!

I have a 4 month old and she would be fine. Totally happy in the car. I think the frequency of stops needed would make it very slow though!

I think go for it you’ll be fine, just make regular stops as everyone has suggested. It’s tricky to know whether your particular child will be more or less tolerant. We had a trip from hell from Lancaster to Brighton when dd was four months earlier this year because we assumed she’d be chilled in the car like her brother was. We’ve had to rethink our camping trip to France this year as she just hates being in the car!! I think this is just our bad luck though.

Until you try it you never know!! I hope you have a lovely trip.