The Value of Traveling with Your Baby
June 1, 2009 by Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor
Filed under advantages of breastfeeding, travel
While it’s not always easy to travel with a young baby, the rewards of doing so are great! I recently traveled to Newport Beach, California, for a La Leche League conference and I took my 10-month-old with me. It was a grand adventure being away for the weekend and my daughter made a developmental leap — something I have noticed happening with each of my three children when we travel!
My 10-month-old playing in a box of books
Some of the benefits of traveling with a baby:
~ The extra stimulation from new places and new faces when we travel has led to new words or first steps for my children at all different ages. This time my daughter went from taking a few wobbly steps here and there to becoming an official “walker”!
~ When you see new places, things and people, you naturally speak different words than you would during your regular day. Exposing your child to that expanded vocabulary contributes to language development.
~ It’s great to travel with a baby because the alternative — separation of baby and mother — can be very stressful for both! Certainly many mothers travel for work and express their milk while they are away, but others make arrangements to bring along a partner, other family member, or a babysitter who can care for the baby during the day.
~ It’s helpful for a baby who eats solid food to practice eating at a restaurant. If you want your child to behave at restaurants as a toddler, preschooler and older child, make an effort to expose him or her to restaurant dining early on! Practice your skills nursing in public and you might just find your baby does very well in the restaurant environment.
~ Nursing mothers especially have the luxury of bringing a food and comfort source with them that helps a baby cope with the excitement of new experiences. In particular it is wonderful that the breastfed baby will nurse to sleep in a new bed, and potentially sleep as well in a hotel or other strange room as at home (especially if you are a co-sleeping family!)
~ Traveling with a baby may not be a “vacation” in the usual reading-a-book-on-the-beach sense, but as my friend reminded me, “A change is as good as a rest.”
Do you have to travel far for a baby to benefit? Absolutely not! “Travel” does not have to mean an expensive trip away. It can be a day trip to the beach, a zoo, or a new park. Get out and about with your baby and you both will benefit!
Have you traveled with your baby? Where is the most exotic or far-flung place you’ve gone?
i’ve traveled 20K miles with a breastfed baby (i was an EP-er then) and have traveled (via air) about 10x since then with Naima. we have 2 other upcoming air travels in the next 2 months. and i’m not counting our day trips here.
all i can say is — i wouldn’t be planning all these travels if i had to lug: (1) bottles; (2) sterilizer; and (3) powdered milk! 
It’s a lot easier when you don’t have to pack those things, and when you can nurse for food, thirst, AND comfort! That’s wonderful that your children are so well traveled!
I am actually taking my first trip with my 4 month old this weekend to a wedding. It will be a 7 hour car drive – any advice for the car trip? And on a tangent – any advice for breastfeeding in a dress or am I doomed for separates?
Hi Christina! I’ve posted your question in the Mom-to-Mom series so hopefully you can benefit from my advice and others’:
http://www.blisstree.com/breastfeeding123/tips-for-infant-car-trips-mom-to-mom-18/
Have a great trip!