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Absolute MUST HAVES - Baby/Toddler Travel Essentials

Why we recommend this product?
Traveling with a baby or child can become a logistical nightmare. Strollers, car seats, diaper bags, and everything else! Do you check your stroller with the luggage or gate-check it? We do a combination of these depending on our situation and how old our little one gets. However, our absolute must-have (until he grows out of it) for traveling when we need a car seat is the Evenflo Shyft DualRide Infant Car Seat Stroller Combo. This stroller helped us move seamlessly from a secure infant car seat to a sleek, fully functional stroller in a single, fluid motion. We were one of the few traveling with this on our New Zealand cruise, and we were the only ones who could get in an Uber without a problem, as lap sitting in an Uber is not allowed in New Zealand, like it is in the US. This is also great for road trips.

Why we recommend this product
A lot of baby backpacks that are affordable tend to be flimsy. This backpack is designed with premium, durable materials and ergonomic straps for ultimate carrying comfort, without breaking the bank. It features an intuitive multi-pocket layout and an integrated changing station that effortlessly handles on-the-go transitions. The multi-purpose pockets also include a bottle section of the backpack, as well as two handy outside pockets for wipes and a bottle of water. We love this bag as we didn't have to worry about it breaking while traveling, after trying several others that broke.

Why we recommend this product
The JMMD Baby Tricycle, 7-in-1 Multifunctional Kids Trike is a must have for parents looking for a premium, long-term gear investment that effortlessly adapts to every stage of a child's growth. From a fully controlled, smooth-rolling stroller mode for early morning walks with your 18-month-old to a standalone classic trike or balance bike for an independent 5-year-old, its modular versatility ensures you never have to constantly replace outgrown bikes. This tricycle made our lives so much easier while cruising, it simply fit everywhere, passed security easily, and its lightweight made it easy to carry it up and down stairs when elevator lines were way too long. 

Why we recommend this product
Most babies don't like showers, and not all hotels and cruise ships offer bathtubs. The MoreFeel Collapsible Baby Bathtub is functional and collapsible, engineered to effortlessly grow with your child from the newborn stage up into an active toddler. We liked the integrated real-time digital thermometer that takes the guesswork out of bath time, ensuring the perfect, safe temperature every single time. We went with this one instead of the more compact ones because this tub supports your child better if they slide or fall over onto the side of the tub.

Why we recommend this product
The Osprey Poco LT Lightweight Child Carrier Backpack is another must-have for active families who will not let a stroller limit their travel. Our little guy is starting to grow out of the more compact baby carriers that we love below, so we needed an upgrade. This feels very durable, sturdy, and secure when using it, and comes with a handy UPF 50 canopy for all the times our little one yanks his hat off his head. This also has great storage pockets, so you can eliminate a diaper back on a few hours' excursions by packing all your snacks, diapers and wipes in here. It's perfect for when you're not going to be out too long, but a stroller isn't convenient (think cobbblestone Europe or sandy beach adventures).

Why we recommend this product
The Infantino Carry On Baby Carrier is a unisex, high-utility essential that completely redefines hands-free convenience for active, adventurous families. It even has pockets for phones, keys, or a burp cloth. My wife and I could both use this and adjust the straps as needed. It is definitely well-built, sturdy, and we love this carrier. The weight limit is 8-40 lbs, though we found after 20 pounds we needed an upgrade. This carrier definitely earned its Disney and Airport miles and got us through to toddlerhood. 

Why we recommend this product
The Chicco Bento 3-in-1 Booster Seat is sturdy, foldable, and travelable. It is very easy to fold and carry. We found this easy to take to the grandparents' house for Sunday dinners. Complete with non-marking feet to protect your furniture, a wipeable seat, and a dishwasher-safe tray for easy cleanups, it offers a premium, stress-free dining companion that beautifully elevates the everyday mealtime routine. The seat could be a little bit comfier, which is why we have another recommendation below. This will be perfect as our little guy keeps growing, though.

Why we recommend this product
We love our Chicco FastLock 360 Hook-On Chair in Charcoal/Grey!  Its innovative 360-degree rotation system allows you to fluidly transition your little one between face-to-face feeding, a front-row seat at the family dining table, or facing outward to stay engaged with the room. We like this design in addition to the one above due to it being a bit more comfortable for our little one, who sometimes fidgets a little in the sturdier, firmer 3-in-1. The Bento Booster will definitely last us more years than this one though due to size limits. We find this one good for every day use with its FastLock clamps that secure to tables in seconds, while rubberized feet provide a rock-solid grip that protects from scratches and scuffs. This seat folds perfectly flat for storage or travel, and has a dishwasher-safe snap-on tray and a wipeable, removable fabric cover.

Why we recommend this product
We toy between reusable and disposible sterilizer steam bags when we were traveling with our little guy under 1. We spent 3 months in the UK and didn't want to pack endless Medela bags for sanitizing bottles multiple times a day. The Haakaa Silicone Microwave Steamer & Steriliser Bag is a great sanitation solution for longer trips. It has a great 70oz capacity to accommodate multiple bottles, breast pump parts, and daily accessories all at once, eliminating the need for tedious, back-to-back sterilization cycles. This steriliser bag made a world of difference for us while staying with family in England! We highly recommend!

Why we recommend this product
The Medela Quick Clean Microwave Sterilizer Bags are an absolute essential for active, on-the-go parents who refuse to let bulky gear slow down their family adventures. We love this for weekend up to 2 week trips. These bags offer space-saving solution to traditional tabletop sterilizers, to eliminate 99.9% of common bacteria and germs from breast pump parts, bottles, and pacifiers in just three minutes. You can use them up to 20 times and then dispose of them, which is great if you are short on space from all your souvenirs on the way back home! This bag is a great alternative to the one mentioned above if you are trying to maximize space in your luggage.

Why we recommend this product
What do you do when you are stuck on an airplane or in between rest stops on a roadtrip and you need to temporarily clean bottles or breast pump parts? In addition to our reusable silicone or disposable medela bags, we always kept medela wipes in our diaper bag for when we don't have immediate access to a bathroom, microwave, or sterilized water. These temporarily cleaned our bottles and brest pump pieces until we'd get to our hotel for the night on trips. We also sometimes took a medela sterilizer bag with some dishwasher liquid in it to get bottled water on an airplane to clean out bottles and pump parts. 

Why we recommend this product
Anyone who knows my wife and I, know that I can't survive without my coffee, and my wife can't survive without her British tea. Along with the portability of being collapsible and the handy travel bag and cups, this kettle also allows us to sterilize anything we need for our little one. If you forget your steam bags at home, don't trust the cleanliness of hotel coffee machines; try boiled water from this kettle instead. We always bring this on all of our travels. 

Toys and gadgets to save your sanity on your trip

Why we recommend this product
What's your child's favorite thing to do when you give them a toy to keep them happy? If "throw it," was your answer, these are the perfect solution to your child throwing their toy and laughing at your expense as you pick it up off the floor. The joke's now on them, as they can throw their toys until their heart's content without you worrying about them dropping their favorite, can't-live-without toy. We've given several of these to our friends on Disney trips, and they loved them, as we always travel with extras.

Why we recommend this product
For some reason, these fidget spinners seem to keep our little one's attention for a while. Whether it's sticking it to a table, window, food tray, or just holding it, our little guy loves to spin and pop the buttons on these spinners, and it keeps him happy for a while. We keep one in the car, one in the house, and one in his backpack, so we don't have to remember where we put one. The cheapest toys, like water bottles, can also provide entertainment.

Why we recommend this product
As much as we try to avoid screen time, car rides and airplanes leave minimal flexibility for movement, and once you have gone through all your selection of toys, you may need some YouTube or video time. This phone holder is designed for planes, but we've also been able to hook this up in the car for when his favorite show needs to come to the rescue.

Why we recommend this product
Occasionally, you may be in a spot, like a National Park or a remote area, without fully functioning toilets and sinks. These silicone holders are great to put travel-sized hand sanitizer in them and attach them to the diaper bag. We love their durability and the flexibility to attach to any bag or stroller.

Why we recommend this product
My family in-law call me the "Selfie-King," for good reason. I make taking good selfies easy. I think it was due to my photography class I participated in growing up. Back then, I learned the basics about lighting and angles. I was taught to "look through the lens" of the camera, not just literally, but wholistically. These skills have been paying off as cameras were built into cell phones and selfies became a thing. I owned a regular selfie stick for a while, and it helped get some really good angles. But I leveled up with this modern gimbal style selfie stick, which is worth having if taking great pictures and shooting smooth videos are important to you. This gizmo comes with a slick app that has built-in templates for social media and features a face and body follow option that can make anybody a selfie king.

Why we recommend this product
Traveling with a travel tray might sound like a bit much, but it is the missing piece for most family travels, especially road trips. Long travel periods, like flights or extended drives, often leave you constantly picking up toys, snacks, or items that your child keeps throwing on the floor or that simply roll away. This tray provided a secure, contained surface that kept everything our little one needed within reach, significantly reducing the "pick-up game" and allowing for a much more peaceful journey. It acted as a dedicated play and snack station that saved our backs and sanity during long transits. It will do the same for you.

Why we recommend this product
Nothing is more important when travelling than keeping as close to a nap time and bedtime routine as possible. Your little one will already be wary of sleeping in an unfamiliar environment, so bringing their favorite plush toy, and for us, our noise machine, music, and stars machine. This noise machine is small enough to pack with you, and lasts all night on infinity mode. It has varying sound and color options if you want to use it as a night light as well.

Why we recommend this product
Keeping with routines and schedules, we always bring our elephant stars and song machine for our trips. It has a variety of songs to choose from and different timer and volume options. We like the 15-minute timer to start the wind-down process with dimmed lighting. We wish all gadgets had a volume control!

Why we recommend this product
These toys actually work for keeping our child entertained while traveling. Particularly the stacking cups, block and shaker shapes. They also come with a bucket, which makes it convenient to travel with. We recommend bringing only some of your child's favorite toys to travel with, so they don't all get lost. But if anything of these did get lost, we would definitely buy these again.

Why we recommend this product
Have you ever been at your destination, packing up ready to go home, getting ready to make sure your luggage is not overweight, and your luggage scale won't turn on? This happened to us, and it sucked! One thing we don't travel with is extra disc batteries. Once we got home, we found this amazing luggage scale that all you have to do to power it up is to shake it. It has not let us down in years!

Why we recommend this product
Does your little one like to chew on books or find ways to tear all the pages? Ours is very good at this, so when we heard about these "indestructible" books, we were definitely dubious. When the books arrived, we were even more skeptical as they were made of some sort of wax paper material. However, our little one has not yet managed to destroy these books! They may be crinkled and bent, but they are not torn or broken. 

Why we recommend this product
These indestructible books are amazing, and they even come in Spanish. Perfect for teaching your little one multiple languages. We usually travel with one or two of these. Although our little one prefers my wife to turn all these books into songs! One more plus, they are pretty affordable. 

Why we recommend this product
Not sure where to start with luggage, or has your last purchase luggage let you down? Luggage these days are not cheap, but we found out you get better deals when you buy sets online. We love our local discount stores, but they are  not cheap for luggage these days. Our favorite brand for dependability is American Tourister. We bought two large hold suitcases back in 2016, and one only recently broke and one is still going strong. We also like that they have more unique colors than just blue, black, and gray.... the most common and easy to mix up suitcases. While we are not in control of how much luggage handlers toss our suitcase, we can attest to one suitcase lasting 10 years and one lasting beyond that, making the larger investment tag worth it for us. We prefer the soft luggage options, as we worry about cracking, but have heard good things about American Tourister's hard shell cases too. If you do not need an entire set, they also offer individual large 28/29 inch cases too.

Why we recommend this product
Thankfully for us, this rarely happens, but luggage does get lost, accidentally taken, or left behind. This happened to us when someone accidentally took our stroller car seat bag in New Zealand. Thankfully, we had installed an Apple Air Tag right before our trip and could see this person driving around the airport after departing the car rental desk. There was one bag similar to ours, but still the wrong color, going around the luggage pick-up belt. The desk agent was able to call that person who had taken our bag, and we traded. While still stressful (we were even stopped by customs by a hungry but incorrect sniffer dog while watching our bag drive away on the app), we were able to retrieve our bag due to this Apple Air Tag. This was one of the most critical pieces of luggage we had with us, as we couldn't leave the airport without a car seat for our little one, due to the country's specific car seat regulations. (See Evenflo Shyft DualRide Infant Car Seat Stroller Combo above)

Why we recommend this product
We do not have a perfect Facebook happy baby. If we stop his stroller, bicycle or even stop at a red light in the car, all hell breaks loose! We tried to find a way to keep our little guy happy when we have the misfortune of having to count several minutes before an elevator arrives or a traffic light turns to green. This steering wheel definitely does the trick and saves our ears from the endless screaming. It can turn, it sings songs, it rattles, beeps, and has turn signal buttons. We love the added bonus of seeing people's confused faces when our son beeps at them from behind to tell them to keep it moving! 

Why we recommend this product
We see a lot of forums asking how to breast feeding and how pumping mothers keep their breast milk safe from getting soiled. After much research, as there are very expensive options, we found this more affordable milk storage cooler and were able to successfully use it while flying and on road trips. This was very important as we had hours without access to a fridge and this made it through TSA with ice in it, but did undergo additional screening. You could also use it for keeping water cool. 

Why we recommend this product
We found another portable all in one toy to keep our little guy entertained. From fidget spinners, to buttons, levers, and all sorts of other widgets, this has a lot in one to pack a good punch for value. It's also not too large to travel with.

Why we recommend this product
We recently transitioned to the Pamper water diapers over Huggies due to the pull up style. Our little guy likes to run around and keep things interesting when we are trying to change him, so running after him trying to connect tabs is much harder than getting him to put his feet in a pull up. These work great for splash pads, and on the one occasion where he did go number 2 in our pool while wearing these, it did not make a mess in the water! Everything remained contained in the diaper. Of course pick the size that best suits your little one's development. 

Why we recommend this product
We took a little while to find this item, but we are so glad we did. A snack spinner for when you have no idea what mood your baby will be in and they're not old enough to tell you yet. Sweet or salty? You can mix it up and include a variety of snack options for your little one in this easy to use gadget.

Health and Well-being Needs

Why we recommend this product
Keeping hydrated is a critical part of staying well on your trip especially to hot and exotic destinations. This includes your little ones. Our regular sippy cups don't work on hot days while at the playground or having fun on the beach, so we found this great price point, durable, and easy to use thermos. Our son loves pressing the button to pop it open.

Why we recommend this product
Staying hydrated applies to the adults too! Keep yourself well with a durable thermal bottle that has a nice price point and a dual functioning lid. You can also add a carabiner to the handle and attach this to your backpack, or put it in a large water sling. As well as keeping water cold, it can keep your tea or coffee hot.

Why we recommend this product
We take several essential vitamins and medications with us when traveling, varying from Airbornes, to pain killers, to allergy meds, anti-nausea meds and more. Taking a bottle of everything is not practical for a 2 weeks or less trip, making these pill organizers a great addition to your toiletries wellness bag. They are compact, can fit more than you think, well-priced, and have multiple compartments. These have lasted us years.

Why we recommend this product
Wellness is always important on trips, but catching bugs is very easy. What's harder is when your little one is crying to communicate something is wrong, and they don't feel well, and you have to run down the list of "Are they hungry, tired, need changing?" before getting to the ill question. On our longer trips, we always make sure we take a thermometer with us to see if we need to give our little guy any medicine to bring down a temperature. It works for adults and kids and even has an option for ambient temperature.

Why we recommend this product
Again related to the communication piece, it's hard to tell if your little one is teething or not, besides taking a best guess from general unhappiness, pulling of ears, or chewing on things. We don't like medicating our little one all the time, but we also don't want him to be in excessive discomfort. Up through 18 months, we found these teething pills to help provide some comfort for him, until the bigger teeth started coming in. Our little guy also created his own word for these to tell us when he was in discomfort, "Nee-Nees". A lot of products we bought did NOT work; however, we must have ordered these close to 20 times!

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