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Traveling with children can be difficult and demanding, but advance planning can take some of the lumps out of travel.
Seat Belts
The most important consideration is seat belts, otherwise known as safety restraints. With automobile accidents claiming more children's lives than any disease, the risks are not worth the gamble. If you put your children in a car for two blocks or two thousand miles, use the appropriate safety restraints. Besides protecting the child, auto restraints protect the sanity of the driver. Children who are buckled in behave better in the car. That is reason enough to make certain everyone is wearing a seat belt.
Summer Temperatures
Traveling in the heat introduces some additional cautions. The interior of a parked car gets HOT! A surface that seems just "hot" to an adult can actually burn a child's tender skin. The plastic on infant car seats can really heat up and then a parent is faced with burning the child or not using seat belts. With advance planning, you can avoid either unacceptable choice.
- Carry a few bath towels in the car to cover seats (and the steering wheel) when you park your car for any length of time. An old towel can be cut to fit a child safety seat if doesn't have a cloth liner. Cloth is much more comfortable against the child's exposed bare skin than the plastic of the car seats. Make certain that the cover does not interfere with the locking system of the car seat.
- Always have shoes available in the car, even if the kids are not wearing them. A minor accident or car problem could necessitate leaving the car and walking. Hot pavement can burn feet.
- Have water available. It is a good idea to carry a gallon of drinkable water in the car. With children, water and paper towels should always be in the trunk anyway! You never know what or who you will have to clean up. In the summer heat, drinking water could become a necessity, especially on trips.
Motion Sickness
- If you have a child that gets car sick, consider a conference with your family doctor. There are many over-the-counter drugs for the disorder but most caution against giving the medicine to a child under six. Since the drugs are basically antihistimines, you may already have a suitable alternative for your child. The anti-motion sickness preparations work best if taken before the trip, not after the car sickness begins.
- Motion Sickness bands are available that can be worn on the wrists. Small nodules press against a trigger spot that prevents motion sickness. Self Care and other mail order catalogs carry them. They work for our family.
- To prevent or at least lessen the condition: let the carsick person ride in the front seat with eyes straight ahead. This helps most people.
- Eating small, light meals and cutting out sweets. A pancake breakfast and reading a book in the back seat is a sure way to bring on a severe case of motion sickness for anyone with the tendency.
Take a breather!
Nothing improves car travel like getting out of the car. Children cannot be expected to sit in one position hour after hour just because the adults want to get some place in the least amount of time possible. Depending on the child's age, a break is necessary every one to two hours. The children need to get out of the car and run around. A rest stop of only five minute will help. Plan the trip to take advantage of historic sites or special attractions and the travel breaks can be fun.
Meal Breaks
Stopping to eat in a restaurant where the childrn must remain seated is a very bad idea. Most children prefer roadside picnics where a jump rope or Frisbee can help them stretch their bodies. If a stop must be at a restaurant without a playground, stop before or after for a good stretch.
Short distance; long trips.
With children, it is better to take a long while to go a short distance. As the children get older, it is possible to drive for longer periods of time but the breaks are still necessary. By making frequent stops for the children, everyone will enjoy the trip more.
next: Family Reunions and Kids
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