Baby Travel Essentials (0-6 months)

There’s just no way around it: babies have A LOT of gear. I had no idea just how many items one tiny human needs until I started researching items to include on our baby registry. After traveling to eight countries and four states, these are my essential baby travel items for 0-6 months. You can also check out out 11 tips for traveling with a baby under 1 here.

Travel Gear

1. Guava Lotus Bassinet & Crib
   • This is one item that I will forever recommend when traveling with a baby at this age. I spent hours researching something along the lines of a pack and play designed for travel. While a more traditional pack and play would work for a road trip, we travel a lot by plane. Therefore, I needed to find something that we could easily transport and carry. On our trip to Europe, my husband and I each had a backpack, a diaper bag, a breastfeeding/pumping bag, a carry-on suitcase for baby, two checked suitcases, a car seat, and a stroller. Oh, and then we needed a place for him to sleep. What I love about this item is that it is a bassinet and a crib in one. We purchased the essentials set, which includes the crib, bassinet conversion kit, backpack, 1 bassinet sheet, and 1 crib sheet.  Throughout our trip to Europe, we stayed in four different places. We were able to quickly set this up and tear it down (many times in the early morning before a flight or late evening after a long day of travel). We used this as a bassinet until our baby was able to roll over and then we converted it to a crib.
2. Nuna Trvl + Pipa Urban Travel System
   • This is worth every. single. penny. This was another item that we spent A LOT of time researching. I think my husband watched at least 50 YouTube videos of different reviews before we selected this one. The best part of this travel system is the easy with which the car seat can be installed into a car. There is no base. The car seat has two “legs” which insert into the safety bars in the car. There are green lights on either side which show that the car seat is installed properly. The car seat can be released with one hand and snaps right into the stroller. It took us longer to get all of our belongings into the taxi than it did to get the baby loaded in! Not only is Nuna’s system great for travel, it is also great for errands around town. The stroller collapses with one hand making it very easy to set it up and fold it back down. Our baby is a great sleeper on the go, and this product has made it very easy to do all we need to do without waking him up.
3. Car Seat Gate Check Bag
   • This bag is a must if you frequently travel by plane. It folds up into a nice pouch when not using. We always put our car seat into this bag before gate checking it. It protects the car seat from damage and rain, and it allows us to quickly identify which car seat is ours.

Sleep Essentials

1. Yogasleep Sound Machine
   • We went through an embarrassing amount of sound machines before figuring out which one worked the best for our baby and this is what we settled on. It’s small and compact enough to fit in baby’s suitcase. It has 16 sounds, although our favorite is white noise 1. We think it sounds just like an airplane, which baby seems to love! This is what we set up next to his bassinet/crib while travelling.
2. Yogasleep Portable Sound Machine
   • This sound machine sounds exactly like the one mentioned above. This version is portable and we take it everywhere. It is now a permanent fixture on the side of the car seat. The only drawback for this product is that the battery life will not last through the night (we found out the hard way!), so be sure to charge it often or keep it plugged in if using overnight. Once baby became more aware of his surroundings, we liked having this device to signal to him that it’s time to get some sleep. I’ve used it just about everywhere including our polling location while voting.
3. Happiest Baby Sleepea Swaddle
   • There are SO many swaddles out there on the market. We originally came across this swaddle when we borrowed a friend’s SNOO bassinet. While our time in the SNOO bassinet was short-lived, our time in the Happiest Baby’s swaddles has not been. These swaddles are the same as the ones that fit in the SNOO minus the wings on the side. My husband and I tried multiple times to learn how to swaddle with a traditional blanket in the hospital, but we just could not figure it out (blame it on the severe lack of sleep after having a baby at 2 am?). We called in multiple nurses, but everyone had a different way and we were sent home quite frustrated by it. These are advertised as the 5 second swaddle and super easy to use (yay, happy parents!). They are 100% cotton and come in many different colors and patterns. We used this product as a traditional swaddle until about 3 months when we popped open the buttons on the shoulders so that baby can be arms free. What our son loves about these swaddles is the security and comfort that comes from the chest strap. We are certain he was able to transition easily and sleep better in all of the different locations because of the familiarity of this swaddle. He even slept in an airplane bassinet on his first flight! 

Toys & Entertainment

1. Ring Toys
   • At this age, our baby did not need too many toys to keep himself entertained. These toys are absolutely perfect because they can easily clip onto baby’s carseat or stroller. They are very easy to clean and if you lose a few, it’s no big deal!