Travelling can be stressful for both the child and the parents. For safety reasons, the child must be placed in a seat with fastened belts, which is most often the reason for his discomfort and resulting dissatisfaction. When we add motion sickness, hunger and boredom to the feeling of restraint, the journey can become a nightmare for everyone. How can you prepare yourself and your child for a long car journey? Here are some necessary steps.
Understanding their needs
Understanding children’s needs is a real art and sometimes, despite our experience, or great desire to understand, we simply are unable to decipher our child’s signals. A baby or toddler cannot express the reason for their tears. However, here are some common causes of irritation:
- seat belts fastened too tight
- nausea caused by motion sickness
- boredom
- over-stimulation
- excessive fatigue
- hunger and/or thirst
- discomfort (temperature in the car, too loud music).
Clothing
Your child’s clothing for the journey is more important than you might think. It is crucial to remove jackets and other warm clothing such as hats, gloves and scarves from the toddler even if the travelling distance is short. This is not only to avoid overheating but also for safety reasons. There is often a lot of room between the clothing layer and the child’s body, which during an accident may prevent the seat belts from holding the baby sufficiently tight. It is also important to remember that the baby sits with tightly fastened belts, protected by the Styrofoam car seat, which unfortunately does not allow much air flow. As a result, the child’s body temperature is warmer than an adult, which is another reason for selecting the correct temperature for heating or cooling the vehicle. For a longer journey, comfortable cotton clothing is perfect, but it’s important to ensure that no part of the outfit has buttons, zips or other elements on the back that can cause discomfort.
Blanket
It is good to keep a spare blanket in every car in which a child is a frequent passenger. It’s useful not only for cover during sleep or in winter, but also to calm down a tired and irritated toddler. Such a wrapper has a positive effect on providing a sense of security, which is very important in the process of inhibiting the production of cortisol. If your child has problems falling asleep, it is useful to buy a special sensory blanket. It’s heavier than the standard filling (constituting of approx. 10-15% total body mass) and affects receptors in the body that are responsible for sending information to the brain that the child is in a safe place. When the brain receives this information, it begins to reduce the level of the stress hormone and instead produces serotonin which is the hormone of happiness. As a result, the child becomes quiet and calm, and after only a dozen or so days of using the sensory blanket, they fall asleep faster and sleep more effectively.
Frequent breaks
Travelling with a child should involve frequent stops, and these will certainly ease a car journey together. First of all, no one likes to be restrained in one place for many hours, so it’s worth introducing a stop every 2-3 hours. It is also good to choose rest places so that the child can change their perspective for a little while. For example, one stop could be by a forest, and another in a playground. This way, our children will avoid boredom, and get tired faster, which will increase the chances of falling asleep during the journey. It is good for a baby to have a mat or blanket, where it can easily lie down and move arms and legs. However, for older children, it is useful to have more physical activity during the breaks, such as an outdoor family game.
