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It’s summer and high season for travel in many parts of the world. Kids are out of school and even those who don’t consider themselves location independent often hit the road for a few days to a few months to enjoy the freedom of a more relaxed summer schedule.

Remember the days when your summer travel was spontaneous and everything you needed fit into your backpack?

While having kids certainly doesn’t mean an end to your traveling days, it certainly DOES mean more gear. If every gourmet baby magazine and kid’s gear website were to be believed we’d need a travel trailer to pack along all of the listed “essentials” for our little darlings.

Fortunately, if you can push past the glossy marketing campaigns and resist the temptation to “keep up with the Joneses” you’ll find that it’s not really as bad as it looks and a few well chosen pieces of gear will go a long way.

In this article I’d like to move beyond the obvious car seat, stroller and carrier conversations to a few choice items that may not be on your radar yet. These are items I’ve considered essential as my kids have grown and are perfect for the location independent parent or any parent hitting the road with kids over the summer…

Made-On Lotion’s Bug Block

We camp for a living and, as such, spend most of our time out of doors. I’ve always tried to avoid the chemical and neuro-toxin laden commercial bug sprays and have tried every “natural” bug remedy under the sun with mixed results, until now.

Renee Harris, a forward-thinking mother of seven, has created a whole line of hard lotions, hand-made in small batches of pure ingredients and essential oils. Her Bug Block really works!

It comes in bar form and softens when rubbed into the skin. It is safe for all ages and has become my new favorite for buggy summer evenings. What makes it perfect for travelers?  It’s not a liquid so it won’t spill or be confiscated from your carry-on bag for being over four ounces.

Inflatable Potty

In my humble opinion, toddlers present the biggest challenges in travel. They tend to be schedule dependent and grumpy when they miss naps, picky eaters and when they have to go, they have to GO.

Enter the inflatable potty. This product first went into my backpack when I had two 2 year olds and a baby and it didn’t come out of my pack until the last child turned five, ten years later! It is the height of location independent toddler convenience – it’s tiny, instantly at the ready and provides a safe, sanitary, child-sized “facility” anywhere and everywhere.

Eco-Friendly Snack Bags

The more we travel the world the more we come to appreciate its natural beauty and complexity – and the greater our desire to do every little thing we can to preserve it for coming generations.

Eliminating the use of unnecessary plastics that never bio-degrade has long been a family project. We were delighted to find washable, re-usable snack and sandwich bags and have found them handy for so many more things than food!

These have cute cotton print outer layers with ripstop nylon inner layers that are easy to wipe off when your PB&J squishes in the bag. We also use them as organizers for tiny gear pieces and my daughter’s make-up bag. They are available lots of places but we get ours here and can vouch for their quality and service.

Vital ID Safety Arm Bands

Where were THESE when I had toddlers?!  For years I printed name and info tags for our kids when we were on walk about and pinned them to their clothing. When we lost a five year old in a huge Central American market years ago the only thing that quelled my rising panic was knowing that he was tagged with our hotel and phone information.

These safety arm bands are a reusable version of my kid tagging system. They come prints and colors cool enough that even the big kids won’t mind wearing one!  By far their best features are their high visibility and the fact that the contact and personal information is hidden INSIDE the pocket which protects them from predators who might be looking for a way to lure a child away by name.

Important health information can also be recorded on the back of the card card, which could save your child’s life in an emergency. The more you travel with kids, especially in places where they may not speak the language, the more important it is to have safety measures in place.

thinkbaby Sunscreen

As touchy about bug spray as I am, I’m equally nervous about sunscreen and all of those difficult to pronounce, much less understand, ingredients listed on the bottle. Of course I don’t want my kids to be sun burned and at an increased risk for skin cancers later, so what’s a nomadic Mama to do?

thinkbaby is a wonderful company that produces a myriad of safe products for use on children, and adults too! Their sunscreen is paraben, PABA and scary chemical free. For my location independent kids who haven’t seen snow in two years but have been beach bunnies on every continent they find, it’s a perfect fit and this health nut Mama breathes a sigh of relief.

Do you have any lesser known “must have” items for kids in your travel bag?  We’d love to know what they are!

“But what about all the baby stuff you need?” is usually the question we’re asked most frequently. “You know all the nappies/diapers, the buggy, the car seat, the travel cot, the toys?”.

We like to think we’ve been quite smart about the purchases we’ve made – knowing in advance that we’ll be travelling and that weight & luggage will be at a premium. But we’ve made some mistakes and bought things that we barely used, left things behind that we should have taken with us and generally, as is always the way, learned as we’ve gone along.

I wanted to list the key baby travel equipment items we’ve purchased over the past 9 months and summarise my thoughts on them so that you don’t have to make the same mistakes we did…

Koo-di Popup Cot

We bought this a couple of months before we hit the road, thinking it’d be a great solution.

It’s light, easy & quick to assemble and would work really well…if you had a baby who slept well when put down in a cot!

We didn’t and found this a bit of a nightmare to try to get her to sleep in on practice runs.

By the time we hit he road when she was 4 months old, we’d moved to co-sleeping and then transitioned her to the travel centre (see below) because she became mobile so quickly and we couldn’t chance her rolling out of this (the sides are quite flimsy). All in all, I think we used it about 3 times so not a great investment!

However if you do hit the road earlier or need something for short trips with a young baby, this would be a good piece of equipment because it’s so very light and easy to assemble.

NScessity Travel Centre

We got this before we actually purchased the Koo-di cot but Mali looked so ridiculously small & lost when we first put her in it (at about 3 months) that we didn’t use it at first.

For smaller babies who need to be rocked to sleep (or, like Mali, bounced to sleep!), it’s a bit of a nightmare to use because you have to firstly get on the ground (unless it’s perched on something – which is only suitable if your baby is still immobile), then zip up the thing once you’ve managed to place the sleeping baby in it, without waking them. Quite a feat and one we rarely achieved in the early days!

However, we started to use it again once Mali was about 5 months old and now she absolutely loves it. It’s great because, wherever we go, her “bedroom” looks & smells the same so there’s the element of familiarity at bed time which works well.

It’s far lighter than the pack-and-play type travel cots, is quick & easy to assemble and, once you’ve got the hang of it, pretty quick to pack up too. It comes with a blow-up mattress which makes most floor surfaces comfortable enough. As I mentioned, it’s wise not to put it on anything other than the ground as soon as your baby is mobile and able to stand up, since Mali used to stand & beat her hands on the side, almost toppling it over. I’d highly recommend this as a travel cot solution – my only bugbear is that the mattress thing which sits on top of the blow-up one doesn’t stay in place well at all.

Grobag Sleeping Bag

The grobag-type sleeping bags are great for babies – especially when you travel.

So much easier than sheets & blankets and the travel-specific ones mean you can keep your baby harnessed without disturbing them by having to remove the bag to put the harness on & off (there’s a hole in the back though which you can slip the seat belt).

The only difficulty we found was trying to figure out which tog sleeping bag would be suitable since they’re quite bulky things to pack and you don’t want to have to take a range with you to cover all temperatures.

We plumped for the 2.5 tog in the end – which has so far been fine for winter (dry) season in Thailand, spring in Dubai (air-conditioned rooms), end of winter in the UK and spring in Turkey.

They work well with the travel centre (above) because the centre isn’t great for fitting sheets & blankets to since there’ nothing to tuck them into.

TotSeat Portable Chair Harness

I saw this on a whim when Mali wasn’t sitting up yet and thought it might be useful. It’s supposed to fit a wide range of seats and we’ve only found a couple which were too tall for it to fit so it’s pretty versatile.

What’s great about it is that it’s very light & small to pack and the fabric is washable.

What’s not so great about it is that, while it does fit most seats, it can cause your baby to sort of slouch or slump down if there’s no solid back to the seat – not the most comfortable position.

We’ve also found that it can be quite tight under the armpits which again, isn’t so comfortable and it depends upon how wriggly your baby is, since this isn’t the most sturdy of frames to restrain them!

All in all, we’ve used this a handful of times so it hasn’t been a waste of money (they’re not terribly expensive) but given the choice, I’m not sure I’d purchase one again. Instead, I’d probably consider one of these.

Baby Björn Sling

Lots of people recommended we use a sling before we had Mali. So after buying around 4 different types of slings and returning them to the shop when Mali screamed every time we put her in them, we finally persevered enough to get her into one without the tears – and this is the one we stuck with.

We opted for the “active” version because the lumbar support was better – and it served its purpose really well while Mali was light enough to go in it.

She’s still not at the weight limit for this sling but as she grew beyond 7-8kgs, it became increasingly uncomfortable and put massive strain on our shoulders & necks. It got to the stage where I couldn’t carry her for more than about 10 minutes before I had to stop. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t continue to use it because Mali absolutely loved the face-forward position.

So I’d recommend this if you have a small, light baby (Mali was 8lbs 110z at birth so not exactly light & has been a good eater ever since so she’s still not exactly small nor light for her age!) as it’s one of the more comfortable slings of its type available. It’s ok for travel although slightly bulky if you do want to put it in a bag/carry-on bag.

ErgoBaby Carrier

This is the sling we graduated to about 6 weeks ago once we decided we could no longer use the Baby Björn. I did quite a bit of research beforehand and this one seemed to come up trumps.

So far, it’s been excellent. Travel-wise, it’s lighter & easier to pack up in a bag than the Baby Björn and it’s far more comfortable for heavier babies & toddlers.

Mali’s almost 10kg and I can carry her round in this for 1-2 hours before tiring or feeling the strain too much. The only drawback is that the baby can’t face forward which we thought Mali would miss but turns out she loves facing inwards almost as much and falls asleep pretty quickly in it.

There’s a built-in sunshade for over the head and which also provides a little support if your baby goes to sleep.The straps are relatively easy to adjust – the only thing we’ve found difficult is putting it on if you’re on your own because the upper back strap is tough to reach. It can be done, it’s just harder.

On a side note, I’ve also found it an excellent way to nurse when out & about without exposing yourself too much – quite a handy feature, especially when you’re in a Muslim country!

Baby Jogger City Classic

Some people will argue that you don’t need a stroller – and in some respects I agree. In fact, we don’t have ours with us this time round but then we’re currently in a small Turkish town where we don’t need to walk for more than 10-15 minutes to get to anything or anywhere.

Whether you need a stroller or not will also be determined by your destination – some places are totally unsuitable for strollers (e.g. there are no decent pavements in Chiang Mai) so it’s a waste of time taking one.

When we have take it with us however, we’ve found this to be an excellent stroller for travel. It’s super light, folds away within a few seconds (this is seriously the fastest & easiest folding one we’ve ever seen – everyone who sees it is impressed!) and the back goes practically flat so is great for sleeping babes.

It also has a really good sunshade which pulls all the way forward and blocks out almost all the light. It’s been with us on a few flights so far and has stood up to the baggage handlers although we do sometimes get it wrapped for extra protection.

What equipment purchases have you made and regretted? And what equipment could you not live without when travelling with your baby?

Image: Mali & I on location at the beach in Thailand

Wow, I can’t believe we’ve already been on the road again for 4 weeks…last time I wrote about the countdown to leaving our home and what we did to prepare and already I’m writing a post about what we’ve learned so far. I guess most of you will know already that that’s what happens with children & babies…not only do they learn constantly but so do you!!

So here’s a bit of an update about where we are now (both physically & mentally) and some thoughts about what we’ve learned since being location independent & nomadic with a young baby….

Current Whereabouts

We’re currently in Thailand on the island of Phuket. We came here because we knew it already (which we thought would be an easy introduction back into location independent nomadism with Mali, our daughter) and my parents were going to be here for some of the time we were here.

We had a 1 week stop off in Dubai to stay with my brother and help Mali acclimatise to both the heat & the time change more gradually and that worked really well. But…we’re already thinking about moving again!

Every single time we stay somewhere, we learn more & more about what it is we look for in a place and what kind of place lets us live the lifestyle we want.

It’s no secret that while we enjoy the nomadic lifestyle, we’re actually on a quest to find those 1-2 (maybe 3) places in the world where we’d like to shuttle between each year and we do envisage settling somewhere at some point – at least for 6 months of each year. But unfortunately Phuket isn’t it. So we’re thinking about heading further north to Chiang Mai and seeing how that suits us.

Experiences So Far Of Being Nomadic With A Baby

We had all sorts of fears, anxieties and worries before we set off:

Would it be too much for Mali? Would it be unsettling? Is she going to scream for the whole flight? Will she cope with the heat, the time zone change, the mosquitos? Are we being irresponsible and bad parents for doing this to her?

Thankfully most of those fears have been allayed – although every now & then we do still wonder if this really is the *best* kind of lifestyle for Mali. Actually I’ve come to the conclusion that at her age (5 months), location doesn’t really matter but I think it will be more and more of a factor as she gets older.

For now though, here are a few of the things we’ve experienced & learned so far since we’ve been on the road again with Mali in tow…

Equipment: On a practical note, we have uhmed  & ahed about the equipment & stuff to bring with us for Mali. I’ll be writing a post about some of the gear we’ve been road-testing but here’s what we’ve found so far:

• In a hot, humid, tropical climate a buggy isn’t really necessary: you’re unlikely to walk around much and if you do, the baby will get really hot unless you get some kind of fan-contraption rigged up. If the baby is still small enough (or if not, you’ll need a strong person around!), a sling seems to be the best thing to use. We’ve hardly used our buggy – only in the malls a couple of times – but we use the sling almost every time we go out, particularly since Mali loves being able to see the new stuff around her.
• We expected to be able to get some of the basics really easily in Thailand; things like a simple changing mat (we have a travel one but wanted a cheap one for the apartment), packs of cheap babygro’s/onesies. Have we been able to get them? No! They seem to have all the fancy stuff (changing mat integrated into fancy changing table) but none of the basics.
• We really struggled for a baby bath since there’s no bath in the apartment and at 5 months, Mali’s quite a large & long baby. My parents had got the biggest baby bath they could find before we arrived but it was still too small, so we now use…a blow up paddling pool w/ our regular bath support! It works brilliantly & because it’s light, means we can take it with us elsewhere.

Flying with a baby: I had all sorts of stress about Mali hating flying, having problems with her ears and screaming for the whole flight. The reality? She played happily through the first flight from the UK to Dubai and slept a little (it was a day time flight) and slept in a bassinet for 90% of the 2nd flight from Dubai to Bangkok, despite being woken up at midnight to traipse to the airport!

No crying, no screaming and her ears were fine, despite not feeding on the way up & down, as we were advised by our health visitor. I can’t tell you how awkward it was though, trying to breastfeed her on the plane with a Muslim family next to me & trying not to expose myself, while at the same time trying not to let Mali’s kicking feet kick their child in the head!!

While a bassinet is useful, in future we may try & select the seats which give us a row to ourselves (use Seatguru to check out your plane & seat configuration) so we’re not sat next to another family with their own kids, reducing the cramped space even further.

Heat, humidity & bugs: We have acclimatised Mali fairly slowly to the heat by keeping the air con or fan on most of the time but gradually turning it down so she gets used to the natural temperature here. I’ve been very wary of dehydration and at the advice of our health visitor, have just offered her more milk, more frequently particularly when she seems to be hot & bothered.

So far, we’ve not had a problem with mosquitoes but brought with us some natural repellant rather than anything chemical-based (and certainly not DEET-based for a baby). We’ve managed to avoid the mosquitos by staying indoors at prime feeding time (dusk) and being vigilant about keeping the doors & windows of our apartment closed. We also have our homeopathy kit at the ready, in case of any bites and know which remedies to apply should Mali get any bites.

And the biggest thing we’ve learned so far?

Thai nappies (diapers) are crap!! We must have tried every brand available (including western brands here such as Huggies, Drypers etc.) but unfortunately nothing is as good as Pampers.

The best ones to use here (and thanks to everyone on Twitter who also recommended these) are the Mamy Poko brand – they’re slightly more expensive than others but worth it and are the closest thing we can find (both in comfort, fit & performance) to Pampers.

Image by Yukon White Light

Our approach to “stuff” has radically changed since being location independent – and we applied that same mentality to having a baby. We were about the only couple at the Parenting Classes who hadn’t stuffed our house full with every baby gadget known to man.

In fact we didn’t buy a baby bath, a changing mat, a baby monitor and a load more things until our daughter was actually born. This turned out to be a really good approach for us since we were able to choose things as we needed them and based on the experience of knowing exactly what would work once she was here – instead of buying things based on guesswork before she arrived.

We’ve used the same approach to travel so far – and packed the bare minimum, knowing that if we needed anything else, we could very likely buy it on location.

Of the few things we’ve researched and packed, here are some of the items we’ve considered, researched and bought. Having only been on the road for around 3 weeks and with this limited experience to judge things on, I’ll save any reviews for a later date but will promise to update you as & when we’ve been on the road for a bit longer and had chance to thoroughly road-test the items listed…

Travel cot

We researched & researched this and decided not to buy those big travel cots which are heavy, bulky and (we decided) just not practical to travel with.

We decided instead to go for a lightweight travel crib (from Koo-di, as pictured) and also considered the Samsonite equivalent and travel bubble.

On the recommendation of numerous people, we have also purchased a UV Travel Centre [aff] – both for use indoors and outdoors. This, we hope, will eventually be used as a bed but can also be taken to the beach/pool and used as a play tent which also protects from the sun.

Key considerations: Weight, comfort, safety, footprint of cot, whether accommodation provide similar.

Baby Bath

If you’re not sure whether there will be a bath or big-enough sink in the place you’ll be staying, then you’re going to need some sort of solution to bath your baby. We decided to purchase a baby bath once we arrived (in fact, my parents are also in Thailand for a couple of months and arrived before us so purchased one before we arrived).

Unfortunately, our daughter’s a pretty big girl for her age (5 months) and in conjunction with the bath support we use, is too long for the bath they bought and others we tried so we’ve actually bought a small paddling pool to use with her bath support which works perfectly.

Key considerations: Size, availability/suitability of existing facilities.

Strollers/Car Seats/Slings

Stroller: Having started out with a Quinny Zap buggy + Maxi Cosi car seat, we traded it in (sold it on ebay) for a City Jogger which we’ve been exceptionally happy with (it reclines almost fully, has an excellent rain/sunshade, is light, comfortable to push and folds away with one hand). We’ve brought this with us and the only thing we’d change is to get it in a different colour (we got black) so it doesn’t absorb the heat so much – not a consideration when we were in the UK!

Car Seat: In many countries, the laws aren’t as strict about using rear-facing baby car seats as in the UK but there’s ever been any question about whether we use one or not. We brought our existing car seat with us and, as per much of the advice you’ll read, opted to take it hand luggage rather than check it in. We have however left this one in Dubai and purchased a new one in Thailand since it’s likely to be a place we’ll be coming back to every year and can store it somewhere when we leave.

Slings: We brought our Baby Björn sling with us and also carried it on the plane with us; this was an excellent decision (we almost didn’t!) since the buggy which we left at the airplane door didn’t meet us there at the other end in Dubai and we’d have had to carry our 8-9kg daughter on the 20m bus ride to the terminal, along the miles of walkways at the new terminal in Dubai and for the 45m+ wait at immigration.

Key considerations: Weight, suitability for climate, safety, whether to check in or carry on.

Clothing

We’ve taken a few weekend trips with our daughter prior to hitting the road for good; each time we’ve over-packed in the clothes department, largely for “just in case” scenarios. We’d probably still do this if she were a little younger and nappy accidents/leakages were still a common feature of daily life but since this happens less frequently, we’ve brought 3-4 of each main type of outfit (i.e. short-sleeve/no legs babygro’s, long-sleeved/long-legged babygro’s for cold plane journeys). A consideration here is whether you’ll have easy access to a washing machine or not.

Key considerations: Climate, availability of clothing on location, growth/development stage, access to washing machine.

Toiletries

No matter where you are, you’ll probably be able to get most of the basic baby care toiletries and supplies. If however, there are specific brands/products you use then you will probably want to consider taking your own supply with you. For example, we use organic skincare products on our daughter’s skin and I was pretty certain you couldn’t get these in Thailand (you can’t), so we’ve bought a 3 month supply with us. Of course if we run out, we’ll use what we can get but it’s nice to primarily use our chosen products 90% of the time.

Key considerations: Availability on location.

Toys

Our daughter’s only really just getting into favourite toys and showing a preference for certain ones, so we’ve brought along the ones she likes and is familiar with to ensure a bit of continuity. This includes her playmat off of which we can hang existing & new toys we buy.

For the most part however, we’ll buy toys & play things on the road wherever we are. As with our previous approach to on-the-road purchases, anything we don’t want to carry with us when we leave, we’ll donate/pass on to locals, a hospital or an orphanage.

Key considerations: Availability on location, familiarity, stimulation/development stage.

Other Equipment

While we’re here, we’ll need to wean our daughter. In the UK, this would be easy (well, relatively speaking!) – we know we can get all the equipment we need, the organic food/baby food and anything else which might help make this process simpler. In Thailand, I had no idea what we could & couldn’t get – although fortunately I could get my parents to go on a reccie and find out before we left – so I bought some of the basics with us and will keep our fingers crossed that we can get the rest!

We’ve already learned a lot about some of the decisions we made and equipment we chose so I’ll update you on these in a future post – but for now, the best tip I can give is this…

Before you hit the road for good, a useful experiment to conduct is to spend a few days away from home at a relative’s or somewhere and see how you cope. You’ll be amazed at how many things you can do without or how much you can improvise when you have to.

Of course, when you’re staying somewhere for a few months at a time, you won’t necessarily want to “make do” but it’s a good attitude to have for the first few days until you get kitted up with everything you need.