We recently took a trip from Houston to Colorado and Utah, and here’s a big surprise…. WE DROVE! Yup, we drove over 1,000 miles with our 2 boys. I know, it sounds terrifying even to me as I’m writing this. But can I also give you an even bigger surprise? It wasn’t bad at all. No really, my boys did amazing! Even when we were stuck in standstill traffic on I-70 outside of Denver for almost 2 hours, they never had any major melt downs because we were proactive about feeding them!
Now, I would be lying if I didn’t include this, but we take a good amount of long road trips and my boys have become very comfortable in the car. What this means for you is that I have some pretty good tried and true tips and tricks to help make road trips an ENJOYABLE experience with toddlers. Yep, you read that right. You can even ENJOY these trips.So here are my top 5 tips on road tripping with toddlers. And I would be totally off-brand if I didn’t throw in some nutrition tips with these (I am a dietitian and total food nerd J )
- Come prepared! It doesn’t need to take a whole lot of time, but think through the length of the trip, how many meals you need, and plan accordingly. But also, think through any entertainment for your kids. For my oldest, we always have a charged iPad with his favorite shows and movies downloaded, coloring books, and more (even like an 8 ft extension cord if the iPad dies..). For my youngest we use our tried and true “mr. buckles” toy (a toy covered in buckles he can play with) and whatever we have laying around in the car for him to play with.
- It’s just 1-2 days. If you’re worried about your kid picking out “junk” food at the gas station or having to go through the drive through for a quick meal, it will be fine! One day of eating heavier foods is not going to break your kid or your health, we actually try and save a lot of these foods for road trips so they view it as a fun event. It’s ok to be in “survival mode” during road trips and doing what is easiest, just acknowledge it ahead of time and roll with the punches. You will fall back into a routine once you get back (our target is a week after) and everything will even out, I promise.
- Pack lots of food and drinks. Like more than you think you will ever eat on a trip. We pack a cooler with drinks, snacks, and oftentimes meals. This is especially important with children because you simply do NOT know when they are going to get hangry and ready for a meal. You’re better off having something planned for them, so when it hits you can stop and eat. It’s better to be over prepared than under prepared when it comes to amount of food. And I can bet you will probably eat any leftover snacks once you arrive to your destination, it won’t go to waste, I promise. Some of our favorite road trip snacks include fruit/veggie pouches, bananas, apples, yogurt smoothies, dried fruit, whole grain crackers, and more.
- Plan frequent stops with space to play. I read a recommendation once that has really stuck with me: you should let your child out of the car seat every 2 hours. No clue where I saw this, but it has stuck with me. We aren’t perfect at this by any means, but we plan frequent stops for the boys to get them out of the car seats and let them get their wiggles out. Sometimes it’s at a gas station and we walk around for 5 minutes, but when we can, we try to find stops that have playgrounds or open areas for them to run around. It doesn’t have to be for a long time, 10 to 15 minutes is perfect. But I can tell you from experience, it makes a HUGE difference in everyone’s mood when we do this.
- Don’t stress. Like tip number 2, it’s just 1-2 days. If your kid has way more screen time than they are used to, it’s going to be ok. If you kid eats more pouches than they normally do, totally fine. Your kid picked up a bag of M&M’s at the last rest stop and that’s what they had for lunch? Not ideal, but it really will be ok. What’s really important is what you are doing with your kids MOST of the time. A road trip is certainly an outlier. So please don’t stress about these things. Road trips are stressful enough, don’t add this food-guilt to your mental load.