Travelling with a Child

My husband and I are both road travel enthusiasts and we would any day prefer driving to a place rather than taking the train or a flight. Once we had our daughter we vowed that things would not change and we would continue with our road trips only now it would be the three of us. Sounds great no?? Ha ha, little did we know that this little bundle of joy would require a car full of things to facilitate her travel and then some more.

It began with a short 90kms trip when she was 6 months old and ended with me sitting on the back seat with my wailing baby who really wanted to be in my lap while I wanted her to be in the car seat, which was very important to me since we were on the highway. Finally after a lot of shouting and screaming ( all three were doing it) we got back home in the evening hungry and with a headache and decided we needed a better plan for the next time around.

Next time was when she was 10months old.. Ha ha.. We had a plan.. and it was called “Phenergan “(our trusted pediatrician had suggested). Two spoon full in the morning and baby was sleeping from here to Chandigarh and after a days halt we continued the same pattern and we were in the process of admiring the hills of Shimla when the baby woke up…. We thought that was it … we had cracked the travelling with a baby code… Well, not so much….

Then on, every time we travelled by road we realized that we were in some way not prepared for what was to come, and that each time the concern was different!! We did not let that get to us. We always carried all the generic medicines may be needed, a lot of her favorite toys to keep her occupied, a great car seat so she was comfortable and safe and last but not the least healthy and not so healthy snacks at hand.

The last road trip that we took was to Khajuraho which was 650 kms or so away. Our now 4 yrs. old daughter threw up so many times that we finally exhausted all the clean extra clothes that we had for her and I had to tell he the next time she threw up she would have to wear dadda’s t- shirt and nothing else to travel in; that did the trick and somehow the vomiting stopped.( I’d like to believe my daughter is very fashion conscious… ha ha ). We were not aware of her motion sickness as she had never demonstrated such symptoms before and were as usual taken by surprise.

We arrived at our destination and all the smelly clothes were given to the hotel laundry ( we even got a disapproving look for giving them puke filled smelly clothes… ha ha like I cared , I was in khajuraho…..

It took us 15 hrs. to get there but we did manage it, and had loads of fun in the Panna national park and the temples.

To this day my baby girl says “mama phir se Kajuraho jaenge… theek hai….!!!