Keeping 1 Yr. Old Entertained in Car

We listen to sing a long cds, Elmo has a couple(we have a few homemade ones too), I read her books, peek a boo patty cake all that good stuff, food is always a good distraction.....get her really tired before you leave, we try to swim before a long car trip. we got the dvd players you strap to the seats last fall and those are great for the bigger kids(8 year old twin boys) my daughter(2 years old) could care less about movies or tv(she doesn't even sit through all of Elmo on sesame street and she loves him), so that doesn't help us much with her. good luck!

I take long trips with my daughter, and i just put a few toys back there with her and let her go. I never sat in the back with her, whether my husband was with me or not. She will entertain herself if needed.

When i go by myself, I always tried to nap leaving with her nap, so she would sleep while I was driving Now that morning nap is gone, she typically entertains herself, of just sits there and watches out the window. i do have kids cd's that i play for her while we are driving, and she likes listening to them.

I believe that as parents we can only entertain our kids so much and they have to learn how to entertain themselves. that helps their imagination and will save your sanity later on.

I'm leaving on a car trip with my 8, 6, and 2 1/2 year olds on Sunday and am trying to find anything I can to keep them busy!

At age 1, I would try to do as much driving during the baby's sleeping time as possible. Drive overnight if you can so that the baby will just sleep in the car. Does you baby watch videos and if so do you have a DVD player for your car? We don't have a built in DVD player but just a portable one that the kids can watch in the car. Do you have some "kid-friendly" music that you can play in the car and sing along to? If she is walking I would plan stops at places that will allow her to run around a bit. Restaurants with "playlands" or pick up food and find a park or rest area with a grassy area. Allow her a few minutes at each stop to run around and play before getting back into the car.

Good luck,
K.

I just recently downloaded a bunch of kids songs on my Ipod and have started playing the songs when my 22 month old starts is in the car. She loves to sing along and do hand motions. (I got a bunch of the songs for free on Limewire - songs from Yo Gabba Gabba and Disney, along with old-school songs from Sunday School.)

For longer trips, we invested in a portable DVD player also. We bought a few DVDs and this helps when she starts to get really impatient (which is usually about the two or three hour mark for long trips).

If she's still back-facing in the car seat, do you have a mirror so she can see you? Maybe flipping her to forward-facing (if she's the appropriate weight) could help, too. We just moved our daughter to the center of the back seat, so she can see out the front of the vehicle now, and she loves it! We play a sort of "I spy" every trip. "There's an apple." (Everytime we pass an Applebees.) "Look at those flowers." "Do you see that bus?" It helps build her vocabulary and keeps her entertained.

We bring the portable DVD player and try to hold off on using it until we hit "mission critical". We bring some boys, toy cars/trucks and snacks. Once those are exhausted, we hit the DVD player which can usually get us through about 45 minutes.
Our typical "long" trip is only 2 hrs, though, so the above combination tends to work. But there have also been plenty of times when we've just had 2 straight hours of blood curdling screaming and nothing has worked.

Toys with buttons that beep and/or light up. Suggestions:
-toy remote control
-toy phones
-jungle monkey that plays a song when you press his nose
-puppy with buttons in hands/feet/belly

Does she like to look at books?

I also sit in the back when they are melting down and we need to go longer.

Also try to go in morning or when they are in a good mood, and do a long stretch at naptime. Plan on it taking much longer with kids! I think our 6hr drive took 8hrs with kids.

try opening the windows and letting the breeze in. when i do, the wind makes the little paper flap on the shoulder seat belt wave in the air and it fascinated him for a good 15 min. at that point we were home so i dont know if it would have held his interest any longer but he was smiling and laughing at it. haha. very cute. good luck!

I've traveled alone with my kids a few times. When my kids were young, we planned the trip so we could get as much sleep time into the trip as possible. We either left shortly before naps or just before their bed time (Lots of traveling until 1 or 2 in the morning...). If your daughter is able to feed herself, bring finger foods for her lunch and let her eat in her car seat. When my son was very young we gave him a Lunchables for lunch, and he ended up playing with the container for at least 1/2 hour. Talk about cheap toy! :)

We would do a combo of things to keep them entertained. We would also hand them toy after toy, read books, and we take a laptop along to play videos. We have a travel battery for our laptop so we can get a good 6-8 hours on the battery. We also planned our trip to stop at a McDonald or other spot where the kids could get out and play for a few minutes during the trip. Let them get those wiggles out!

One of the best toys for my 1 year old has been a travel magna doodle. I know it says for older kids but my daughter has loved scribbling on it since she was just over 1 year old. She is 23 months now and still loves to scribble on it and show us the picture. She is also good at erasing it in the car. I have a travel one for both the 23 month old and the 4 year old and they both grab them immediately when they get in the car to color on.

Any trips over 2 hour we have the DVD Player with Dora episodes (her favorite) and baby Einstein.
We just got done traveling 4- 12 hour trips within 3 weeks so it was long. We also timed our trips to leave right when she woke up since she is usually in a better mood in the morning. We would give her a snack cup full of cereal or goldfish. I also packed one of my purses full of little toys. She seems to like the ones best that will react or light up when pushing a button. My mother in law had a great idea. In her purse she had a hand held mirror that my baby looked at for about 30 mins as well as a box of tic tacs. My baby shook the box. It was loud for us but she was having fun. When its nap time, try to turn everything off and slowly move the toys away and read her a book...the car should put her to sleep but we are lucky to get 45 mins of naptime in the car with our baby
Good luck...our next trip is 14 hours each way in mid July.

Maybe I was just lucky, but all three of my boys seem pretty content to just watch out the window at the scenery and other cars and things. We point out a lot of this stuff as well. Our extended family is 8 hours away and we visit every couple months, so we're definitely some "road warriors". I always bring books and finger snacks and a few toys. But those will only last so long.
Encourage her to look out the window. Point out neat things you see. My 9yo and I love the alphabet game and have several different variations we've made up over the years. We also try to be the first to spot city or state signs, think up funny words that rhyme with the city we're in. Scan the exits we pass for familiar restaurants and hotels. License plate game. These are all older but we had to start somewhere.
We do have a portable DVD player but our rule is that they can only watch when it's dark and if they've been good.
We stop a lot, preferrably at rest areas, and get out to stretch, run, throw a frisbee or football, or just to lay flat on the ground.
I never put an "arrival time" on our travels and just knew it was going to take as long as it took. This kept me sane not worrying about being on schedule so we'd just stop when someone wanted to (within reason)

Here are some ideas for the car.
http://www.bigbluetrunk.com/ourcorner/689

We caved and purchased a car with a DVD player this time around for long trips. We take several/year because both of our families are considerably far (5.5 and 12 hours away).

But, we only use it for trips of 1 hr + and not locally.

We keep a soft-side box in the car and let the kids have access to toys. Depending on how many months, she may or may not have the dexterity and reach to get to items even close by.

The best advice is to stop frequently which will add time to your trip but will make it much easier on you by letting her get out, stretch her legs, play a little, burn some energy and then to be ready to get back in.

Good luck! Have a safe trip.

I am getting ready to travel cross country with my two children, by myself. I posted a question similar to this. I can think of plenty of things to entertain my 4 yo, but my 1 yo has me stumped a bit. We have a DVD player, but besides Tinkerbell she has little interest in TV. I was able to find a small round plastic tub (at home depot), that she can reach from her car seat to get things out herself. For normal running around town I have a magna doodle, one of the water ring toss games (she can't play it, but LOVES to push the buttons) and books and her "car" baby.

For our trip I have lots of not too messy snacks planned.

I also found a small purse at Goodwill yesterday. I plan on just filling it with "stuff"....a play phone, keys, an old change purse. She loves to carry things around and fill bags, so I am hoping that will keep her busy for a bit.

She has recently gotten into matchbox cars, so I bought her some little cars that are larger than matchbox cars, but still small to play with.

And we have two different versions of the giggle sound station http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=8001&e=product.... I have hidden them so they will seem "new" on our trip. My little button pusher LOVES this thing. Her brother and both her cousins loved theirs too...I found them all at Goodwill for just a few dollars. In the car they can be a little noisy, but I put tape over the speaker and it mutes is enough for the car.

And her leapfrog Chat and Count cell phone (http://shop.leapfrog.com/leapfrog/jump/Chat-%26-Count-Cel...) has saved many a shopping trip...so it's hidden to be a "new" toy for the road. Again...using the tape over the speaker trip.

I also got her an mp3 player. I found a very simple plain one online for $10. If she gets a hold of it and mashes all the buttons all she will do is skip around the songs. I bought some volume control headphones for kids, so I don't have to worry about that. Many people suggested kid songs and story Cds to me. So I got a ton from our library and added them to her player. I can also clip the player out of her reach in car seat, so I am not too concerned about any choking hazards...plus she is positioned where can see her at all times. We tested it yesterday in the car and grocery store...she was one happy little camper.

I think this with our plan to make lots of stops will keep us sane! I am bringing our lunches and breakfasts, but for dinner wherever we eat will have a playground, so they can run around. And our hotel will have a pool, so we can burn off all the extra energy. Safe travels!!!