Advice on travel (especially sleep) for under 2 year olds
My family will be staying away from home for the first time since my kids were born (20 month old and 9 month old trying to walk). The setting will basically be a condo for us, not sharing with others... Except for walls with neighbors.
My main concern is sleeping arrangements. The kids already sleep in their own cribs in a shared room at home. While they'll have their own room at the condo, the place we're staying at only offers pack n plays for them to sleep in. I'm hoping they'll be comfortable and wonder if anyone has experience/advice on creating a successful situation for everyone.
While sleep is my main concern, I'm open to all advice for staying away with little ones under 2 years old.
Thank you!
Dec 10, 2021
Parent Replies
Amazon sells mattress pads for pack n plays. We bring ours whenever we travel, so it was worth the investment. Our pad is soft like memory foam so you may or may not want one for your 9 month old.
My kiddo who had a toddler bed at home starting at 18 months LOVED the pac n play for travel up to age 4. Good Luck!
My kiddo is just about a year and we've moved cross-country, slept all kinds of places in the process, and been on a couple of tiny vacations. It worked great! She has a pack n play that we bring with us. We just do regular bedtime routine so she gets that it's nap/bedtime. We also bring a portable white noise machine since she's used to that at home. We haven't tried to black out the windows or anything while we're traveling, and that seems fine for her. I also nurse on demand at night when I'm traveling, even though she's more or less night weaned at home.
Courage! It might be totally great!
Hi! First, keep to your routine in as much as possible and always bring some comfort toys/teddys.
we ended up buying a pack and play for our little one so he got used to it and adjusts well to sleeping there when we are away from home.
safe travels!
My daughter was a pretty easy traveller as a young kid but some things I did were have her sleep in the travel crib a couple of nights at home before the trip, bring crib sheets for the trip that she had already been sleeping on for awhile (so they had her smell), and bring her white noise machine. Those things all seemed to make the sleep transition pretty easy. Now at age 3 it's more about managing the airport/airplane time. I really pump her up about the trip ahead of time by talking a lot about what we are going to do (get up early, go to the airport, go through security, wear masks, etc.), I have her put on her travel clothes the night before and sleep in them to make the early morning departure easier, I bring special food treats and let her watch lots of videos and she has come to love airplanes and does really well with all the travel waiting. New books also help. Good luck. It can be really fun.
I have travelled with my child at both those ages and have had success with keeping naps and nighttime sleep disruptions bearable during and post travel. Some things that helped me were:
- bring familiar sleeping items such as jammies/sleep sack, bedtime books, pacifier, bottle, lovey (doll, stuffed animal, blanket), travel potty
- keep the bed time routine consistent to home. For ex our bedtime routine was wash up, brush teeth, potty/diaper change, pj, read a book, lights out, sound machine on, say goodnight. We didn't keep to the time schedule of what our time at home would be. Instead we focused on the routine/sequence of events that occurred before bedtime. It helped my child and myself feel familiarity to the unfamiliar.
-brought a sound machine, video monitor and rechargeable red motion detector nightlight (bought on Amazon). The nightlight was a game changer when we travelled with our child potty training through the middle of the night and when I would breastfeed in the middle of the night.
- lastly be flexible and don't fret/worry as much about how to minimize the possible sleep disruption from travelling. It would take my child about a week and half post travel to get back to their typical sleep pattern of sleeping on own in own room.
Safe travels!
Hi, I started traveling with my 2 and 1yr old and they both sleep in the pack and play too. They did well in their own sleep spaces but it’s challenging since they share a room when we travel, they tend to wake each other up. At home, my kids have their own room. The first night of travel is rough since they aren’t used to sleeping anywhere else, but after the first night, it gets better.
The pack and play doesn’t feel very comfortable to lay on, so I recently bought a mini crib mattress ($30 on Amazon) and it fits perfectly. The only difficulty part is that the mini crib mattress takes up a bunch of space in my suv, but it’s worth it for the comfort of their sleeping. Hope this info helps. Good luck!
For us, light was a factor in good sleep away from home. Sometimes there was an unexpected skylight or thin curtains and the kids would wake super early. We bring black out curtains and pins now.
We recently took our 9 month old on vacation and stayed at two different locations - a rental home at the first and a hotel at the second. She normally sleeps in her crib in her own room and we brought a pack and play/baby bjorn travel crib. She did just fine and adjusted without issue. My only advice, which might not apply in your situation, is to bring extras of any items you rely on. Our daughter sleeps in a sleep sack/wearable blanket and on one night had a blowout just as we were putting her to bed. We were nervous about how she’d sleep without her sack (bc we had to throw it in the wash) but she did fine. We also brought our sound machine from home. Good luck!