Additional Needs

4 Top Travel Tips for Parents of Kids with Special Needs

Posted by Angelyn Harrenstein on 5th May 2015 Additional Needs, Advice & Support, Disabilities, Travel Tips

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I never thought we would be the type to load two toddlers and all of their belongings a slew of suitcases on a plane to get away, but we decided to go for it.

Winter lasts waaaaayyyy too long where we are from and it was time to search for a little sunshine and sand.

I am going to share with a you a few tips for traveling with a child with special needs that helped us navigate along the way.

1. Pre-measure all of your Meds and Baby Food/Formula that you will need for the Airplane and Airport Ahead of Time

I measured out small tubes of formula and syringes of meds with caps and had them all ready to dump into the bottle as soon as we could find water in the airport.

To make it even easier, put all of the formula and meds for each bottle in a separate Ziploc bag, which you could label with the time needed.

Ziploc bags are your friend.

And they prevent spilling in the diaper bag.

It is not fun to balance bottles of meds or try to measure formula out of a large container on your lap in the airport.

2. Have an AMAZING Diaper Bag with lots of Room and Pockets

We love our Skip Hop diaper bag - it has loads of pockets, is easy to wipe down, expands if you need more room, and keeps everything really organized plus it’s cute and dad doesn’t mind toting it around.

This will help to avoid that crazy digging in the bottom of the bag thinking, “this is NOT that big of a diaper bag…..WHERE IS IT?!”

Especially in a stressful travel situation when you just want to find what you need.

3. Travel with your Stroller

There is nothing short about navigating through an airport.

Our original thought was to travel with as few pieces of equipment as possible and maybe leave the stroller or car seats behind.

The stroller was our saving grace and since our son’s lack of muscle strength makes it difficult to use a flimsy umbrella-style stroller we hauled our jogging stroller along.

It worked out great, and provided a place for naps, a quick diaper, feeding, etc.

My advice on this one is think through the equipment you need and don’t need to take.

Pick the ones that will kill the most birds with one stone.

4. Do your Homework to see what the Requirements are on the Airline you will be using for taking Medications through Security

I was worrying about how to travel with refrigerated medications and after a quick check online, I had my answer and could feel positive we wouldn’t be stopped or forced to dump out all of my son’s necessary medications for a week away from home.

The airport security staff were very thorough in their checks of the baby food, formula, and medications we took on board with us and we had no issues.