Recently we took our 1-year -old son to Italy. We went for about ten days and we decided to take him because he was almost free to fly with us and we were going for several days and wanted him with us. Once we decided to take him, then the panic set in. We started asking hundreds of questions to anyone and everyone we knew who had previously traveled with a small child. My husband and I have traveled internationally before but taking a child to a foreign country was completely new to us. We didn’t know where to begin. My first mission was to get enough clothing packed for him as well as all of his supplies that he would need for the duration of our trip.
Every outfit I packed for my son was placed in a Ziploc bag. I found this to be incredibly helpful while we were on our trip. Each Ziploc contained everything he would need for one whole day: shirt, pants, a sweater, a bib, socks and pajamas. I’m an extreme overpacker when it comes to our son and since we were limited on the number of bags we could take I needed to make sure I only packed what we absolutely needed and a few extra outfits just in case.
Son’s bag packed
Here is a list of what I ended up taking for him (or what I can remember I took):
- 13 Long sleeve shirts and sweaters
- 5 Short sleeve shirts
- 13 Pants
- 13 Pajama sets or micro fleece onsies
- 2 Pairs of shoes
- 15 Bibs and pairs of socks
- 2 Blankets
- 3 Beanies
- 1 Pair of mittens
- 1 Heavy waterproof and windproof jacket
- 2 Halo sleepsacks
- 1 Umbrella stroller that had a tray that attaches to it
- 1 Baby carrier
- 1 Baby carrier backpack
- 2 Packs of diapers
- 2 Packs of wipes
- 6 Pacifiers
- 7 Sippy cups
- A medicine bag filled with every kind of baby medication you may need for colds, cuts, headaches, gas, diarrhea, fevers and anything else that might happen
- Documents including passport, copy of his passport, a copy of his birth certificate, emergency phone numbers for the country, emergency phone numbers of people we knew in Europe
- And a ton of baby food packs: A 16 pack of Happy Baby organic Baby Food Stage 2 Simple Combos Variety, Peter Rabbit Organics 100% Pure Baby Food Variety Pack of 10 and Ella’s Kitchen Organic Stage 2 Variety pack of baby food-7 Pack.
- Toys for the flight (I’ll discuss flying with him in another blog)
That’s everything I can think of that we took for him. We packed most of it in his carry-on-bag and then put a few items like the food and an extra blanket in my husbands bag and my bag. In our son’s carry-on we also placed one or two changes of clothing for my husband and I, in case the airline lost our luggage or we ended up having to change on the flight.
Also, our son drinks cow’s milk so we were able to order it on the flights and purchase it at the local stores.
All in all packing wasn’t as stressful as I thought. We ended up losing socks and bibs so I was glad I had extra. We used all but one outfit on our ten day trip. It was a success.
Mommy's Wild West 