The Best Travel Gear for Babies 0-6 Months
- akhilapamula
- Sep 2, 2024
- 4 min read
Traveling with a child is daunting enough, but traveling with a baby sounds masochistic. It’s even more intimidating when you hate checking bags, like me. I absolutely loathe it. My hatred for checking bags forced me to become an expert capsule wardrobe packer for trips that lasted for weeks, where a few staples can be mixed and matched to create multiple different looks . Before Jai, Neal and I rarely checked bags unless we were forced to at the gate or bringing back wine. The idea of having to go to the airport early—or even worse, waiting at baggage claim after a long flight—just makes me shudder. I’m happy to report that it’s possible to travel with a little one and only bring carry-ons. It just takes a little more planning.
Clothes are the easy part. Small humans have small clothes. You can make them even more compact using packing cubes. I use the Bagail brand because I can pack all the essentials in one side of my roller: clothes in the small and medium bags and burp cloths and bibs in the slim bag. This leaves enough room for the toiletries; and while I am not picky about hotel soaps, lotions, and shampoos, I don’t necessarily want to risk using them with Jai. These soft silicone bottles by Mrsdry come in a slim, clear pack, and they are easily fillable and don’t leak. Although I do have to give up some real estate in my roller bag for them, it forces me to be even more mindful about what I’m bringing for myself.
Keep one thing in mind: a baby does not get their own carry-on if they’re flying as a lap child. If you don’t pay for a seat, you don’t get an extra bag. However, a bag that has a breast pump or baby formula does not count as a carry-on. My trusty Cuyana tote has become my breast pump bag, where I’m able to fit my Spectra, Elvie, and Ceres Chiller. My Dagne Dover backpack holds all the other essentials: diapers, wipes, bottles, bottle warmer, baby food, formula, extra clothes, and plane toys. Both of these bags do not count as extra carry-ons, but they hold all of the essentials so that if, for some reason, we had to gate-check our bags, we wouldn't have to worry about Jai.
Having a comfortable baby carrier is another way to make the travel experience a little easier. You can wear your baby through security and onto the plane, freeing your hands and leaving one less thing to worry about. It’s also nice at this age for contact naps and walking a fussy baby on the plane. I absolutely love my Artepop Zeitgeist carrier. While it is pricey, with the cheapest model being $370 USD, it offers both beauty and function; it is very easy to put on by yourself, offers great lumbar support, and is super stylish. Mine is made from a cotton blend (you can ball out with calfskin and cashmere if you choose), which is super convenient because you can throw it in the washing machine.
In terms of strollers and car seats, we opted to buy a travel system, one where the stroller and car seat (and if needed a car seat base) all plug into each other. Many companies make these systems, so there are a wide variety of options in different price points. We chose the PIPA urbn/TRVL stroller and car seats system for a few reasons. Firstly, the infant car seat does not require a base and can be clipped into any car. Not only does this make installation in Ubers and other cars easy, but the elimination of the base makes the system very agile; one of the biggest downsides of some of the other popular travel systems is that the extra components make them bulkier and heavier. In that same vein, the stroller itself weighs less than 15 pounds fully assembled and folds down into a compact, free-standing package at the push of a button. While this Nuna system is expensive, it does tend to go on sale during the Nordstrom anniversary sale in July.
The best hack is gate checking your carseat and stroller. Yes, read that again. Lugging your carseat and stroller through the airport actually does have some perks. For one, neither count as carry-ons, so if you’re not checking bags, you don’t have to wait at baggage claim. It’s also nice to have your stroller during a layover if you don’t want to wear or carry your child. More importantly, you can pack more items into your gate check bags. We use the Yorepek stroller bag and V VOLKGO car seat bag , which are not only padded, but offer room to squeeze in more items; because the car seat bag is oversized, we can also gate check our Slumberpod and Guava Lotus travel crib.
The Slumberpod and Nanit camera have saved our naps and nights away from home. The Slumberpod is essentially a blackout tent that fits over most travel cribs and play yards. More than just blocking out the light, it also creates a separate space for your kid, something that is very much needed if you are sharing a room; you don’t have to worry about turning out the lights at bedtime or sneaking into the room in the dark. It also has convenient pockets that hold a fan, sound machine, and a baby monitor. Something to note – we had to Macgyver the camera pouch a bit because the thick clear plastic caused a glare that blinded the camera, so we had to cut a hole in it for the lens to be unobstructed.
The Nanit camera is what we use at home. It is sleek, compact, and has a range of cool features including monitoring your baby’s breathing (and sounds a nuclear alarm if it thinks your child stopped doing so) and tracking when and how often they wake up. The app is also super easy to navigate. To take it on the road, you do need to get the Flex stand to hold the camera. Because it is a WiFi based camera, it will not work on public networks. To bypass this problem, all you need to do is buy a travel router and connect it to the public wireless network using WISP mode, which turns the router into a hotspot with a password-protected WiFi network. We have this travel router, as it is small and very easy to use.
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