What can you do to make traveling easier when you have kids?
Leave `em home, some parents might say.
Indeed, traveling with kids demands a great deal of patience and planning-and excessive paraphernalia can often turn parents into beasts of burden. But a number of new kiddy products devoted to ”on-the-move” parents are intended to make life easier, not harder, and plenty of experienced parents have sensible suggestions to share with others.
Wendy Freeman and Marie-Pierre Sernatinger, both Chicago mothers who travel extensively with their children, believe in letting their kids carry their own gear. Each child is in charge of his or her own knapsack packed with nutritious snacks and plenty of stuff to keep them busy.
Both mothers fill these packs with a combination of old and new items.
”It starts the trip on a good note,” says Sernatinger. ”It also frees me up quite a bit because I don`t have to carry their things or pass them back and forth.”
Freeman likes the sense of responsibility it instills in her children.
”They can decide how and when to use the things I include, but they have to keep track of them. It keeps them busy for hours,” she maintains.
Sent packing
Almost any knapsack will do, but Freeman says the sturdiest ones are the Patagonia packs for kids. Available by mail order in three styles, prices range from $22 to $50. A Patagonia spokesperson says the packs are made of extra-heavy-duty nylon pack cloth backed with water-repellent urethane, industrial-strength stitching and sturdy zippers. (Call 1-800-638-6464 for a Patagonia Functional Kid`s Clothes Catalogue.)
For Dr. James Nicklas, a Chicago pediatrician, keeping his three youngsters busy while traveling is the least of his worries. He takes them abroad twice a year and makes a point of keeping them seated securely en route. ”Kids can be badly injured if there`s a sudden drop, so I never let them move around a plane alone,” says Nicklas. ”I always keep them belted in, and when they were infants we put them in a car seat.”
Car seats are indeed indespensable, and often can be rented at your final destination. But the infant versions are lightweight and worth lugging along because they`re harder to rent and you can use them in a variety of ways. On a plane, you can put your child right in it if it`s approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation and you`re lucky enough to be near a spare seat. Check your seat
Each airline has its own policy about the use of car seats, and the Federal Aviation Administration has a pamphlet entitled ”Child/Infant Safety Seats Acceptable for Use in Aircraft,” which can tell consumers if their seat is approved. To get it, send a self-addressed stick-on mailing label to Community and Consumer Liaison Division APA-200, FAA, Washington, D.C. 20591. Dream Ride by Cosco, a ”revolutionary” new infant seat, serves five functions and weighs less than 10 pounds. Carol Dingledy, communications supervisor for Cosco, calls it ”an entirely different category of child restraint.” It combines an infant car bed and seat in one item, and it can also be used as a rocking cradle, all-purpose carrier and feeding and play seat. It will be available for about $70 at Child World and Baby`s Room stores in mid-December.
Once seated on a plane, most parents pull out gum in anticipation of an ear-popping takeoff. Actually, descending is much harder on kids than going up, says Nicklas, and the best way to take care of ears is to get the child to swallow. ”Gum helps, but the best bet is to just give them something to drink,” advises Nicklas. ”Once a child is older, say 4 or 5, you can teach him to hold his nose and blow.”
Sleeping easier
A comfortable stay at the final destination is obviously another important aspect of the trip, and if the place you are staying doesn`t have cribs, you could be in trouble.
Two portable cribs that get high marks are the Pack `n` Play by Graco and the Commuter Crib by Newborn.
Ira Hymen, owner of the Bellini children`s shops at 2001 N. Halsted St. and 2753 Pfingsten Rd. in Glenview, recommends the 15-pound Commuter Crib, which closes up into a pack that`s 20 inches wide and 30 inches high. It`s safe and simple to use, and costs about $90.
Mark Lazar, owner of Lazar`s Juvenile Furniture, 2749 W. Devon Ave., likes Pack `n` Play best because it has no parts to put together. ”It`s all- inclusive-you just press the buttons-and it packs up to the size of a duffel,” Lazar says. It ends up being about 1 foot in diameter and 3 feet long, weighs about 20 pounds and also costs about $90.
Taking a stroll
But both men pointed out that the most important and basic equipment for a trip with small ones is a good stroller. There are all sorts of trick models that switch-hit as car seats and backpacks, but nothing can really take the place of a sturdy, lightweight umbrella model. And Hymen and Lazar recommend the same one: McClaren`s Majestic, which has three seat-back positions (with one almost totally reclining) and an ”escape-proof” latch on its belt. It weighs 11 pounds, folds up easily and sells for about $145 at Bellini.
Freeman has used this stroller for eight years, and has tried to find alternatives at times. ”I bought two other new strollers, but ended up returning them because they just didn`t work as well as this one,” she says. And when she had two children barely two years apart, she bought the double seater just to restrain them between planes. ”There`s nothing worse than two toddlers in a busy airport,” says Freeman, ”and this is the only double stroller that`s actually small and light enough to carry onboard.”
Traveling with infants can present other problems, too, ranging from bottles to baths. Cosco`s Travel Tub, which folds to 20 by 14 by 5 inches for carrying, can hold supplies and weighs only 5 pounds. Its lid locks in place to form a backrest for babies who can`t sit up yet, and it will fit into most sinks. It will also be available this month at Child World and Baby`s Room stores, and will sell for about $16.
To keep milk cold while traveling, the Duffle Cool ($12 from the One Step Ahead catalogue, available by calling 1-800-274-8440) holds two 8-ounce bottles and two jars of baby food, with a reusable cold pack. At feeding time, the Snugli bottle warmer ($17 at Child World) has a squeezable heat pack that takes 10 minutes to warm up and stays that way for 1 1/2 hours. To reuse it, just boil the heat pack.
There`s also a portable electric breast pump for nursing mothers. Small enough to fit in a purse, the MagMag can be operated with batteries or with an AC adapter that makes its suction mechanism even stronger. It sells for $59 and also can be ordered from the One Step Ahead catalogue.
Pure and simple
In certain countries, just giving the kids a glass of water can present problems. When the president of Mitsubishi Research became sick in Mexico from downing some defiled H2O a few years ago, he decided to create a portable filter for purifying water in even the worst conditions. The result is the Airpal Personal Purifier, diminutive in design (weighing only 7 ounces and measuring about 6 by 3 inches) yet capable of eradicating virtually all traces of bacteria from water. It sells for $39.95 at Mallards, 50 E. Washington St. (444-9295), and can be used constantly, thanks to a replacement kit (needed about every three months) for $19.95.
Other comforts of home that can travel with you are Children on the Go`s inflatable booster chair ($14.95) and a fold-up Totty Seat ($9.95) that adjusts toilet seats to a tiny size. Both are sold at Bellini.
Finally, if you`re heading south, you`ll want to protect your tot from strong ultraviolet rays. Sunscreens are a must, but if you want to keep a baby on the beach with you, the Kiddy Kabana from the Baby`s Room might be a better solution. The little, awning-striped tent ”envelops” kids up to 2 years old, and makes a protected place for napping while the rest of the family has fun in the sun. It folds up flat, weighs next to nothing and costs about $45.
