Our family hasn't been on any long vacations in over a year (mostly because my wife became pregnant with our third last year). Now I am trying to convince my wife to go on one which entails a 7 hour road trip. She is reluctant because our 8 month old is a bit under weight, and she has been getting sick quite frequently in the past few months (mostly with colds, nothing major). She thinks the road trip will make the baby weaker and more prone to getting sick again. Is she right?
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Is the concern the length of the drive, the time away from home, or some combination (or something else)?– AcireOct 21, 2016 at 14:08
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I think the concern is the fatigue caused by the drive and maybe the exposure to the cold.– AbuMariamOct 21, 2016 at 14:36
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8hr or 7hr sound a bit far unless you have stop overs otherwise you can always check with your pediatrician. I remember we drove to panama city beach for 2 weeks when my child was 9 months just for a family vacation and we enjoyed it. We drove 6hrs. We had no stop overs he slept in the car the entire journey.– user22314Oct 21, 2016 at 15:12
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1I don't think this question is a duplicate, but it does seem related: parenting.stackexchange.com/q/8603/4054 ... Other road trip questions already on the site generally have to do with toddlers.– AcireOct 21, 2016 at 15:18
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@MakorDal Please make that an Answer instead of just a Comment -- it's thorough!– AcireOct 24, 2016 at 12:14
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1 Answer
This is from a recent experience, not a pediatrician advice.
I have a 8.5 month old daughter, underweight. She had a slight cold at the time but she's usually pretty though (my wife caught a minor pneumonia while our daughter coughed twice...).
We did a 6 hours trip one week ago. Both for our kid and us, we took a stop every 2 hours (it's a common recommendation for long car trip anyway). It drove the trips to 8 hours, but everything went smoothly. The first and third stops were for meals. The first one was for everyone and the third was just for our daughter afternoon meal. The second stop was just moving around, we got the kid out of the car and had her play a bit with us. The return trip was more or less the same with a slight variation : our kid ate before leaving, first stop was to move around, second stop was her afternoon meal, third stop was for our diner, but she sat with us and played a bit. In both case we gave her her bottle of milk when we arrived. As she is quite calm, she didn't complain even if it was late, so you might have to include a last timed stop to feed her.
Both trips went fine, she got back home better than she left. Keep your kid warm in the car (but not too much), give her toys adapted to her age. If you feel it might help keep a handkerchief with some menthol near her cosy to help with colds and such.
