Outfit details:
High rise super soft legging, chopped boyfriend tee, Vero Moda chunky long cardigan
Ok, so I am back with another travel blog post from our recent 28 hours long international flight to India in May. If you have not read my earlier blog where I have shared ‘what I carried in my carry-on bag to entertain my sixteen-month-old toddler’ a.k.a ‘flight toys/activities to entertain toddlers’ you can find the link here. In this blog post, I am going to share with you all the most important carry-on luggage for any parents when traveling with your child's diaper bag’. After flying thrice internationally with Mishika – twice to India (once when she was six months old and now) and another trip when we flew to London I have realized how important it is to be organized on these flights. When I say ‘organized’ I mean you can clearly remember where all your stuff is so that you don’t have to take out everything from your diaper bags every time you are looking for that small little thing for your little one.
Learning from my past mistakes, I had started to plan and pack for this trip long before we needed to fly leaving nothing to the last minute. Below is a summarized list of all the things that I was able to perfectly plan and carry in my diaper bag except the flight toys of which I was able to carry only two in my bag. The rest Mayank was happy to carry in his backpack. The diaper bag that I was carrying on my flight is this one. I really like this bag as it's just the right size, has a lot of compartments in it to perfectly organize my stuff, waterproof and it’s cute. The only drawback with this backpack was that it was difficult to close with the wide opening at the top. But having that design, was very helpful as it gave me some additional space to keep all the items (listed below) in my bag.
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Here goes the list!
1. Diapers – A must and not to worry if you forget you can always find them at the airport general stores. You will probably need at least 15-20 diapers for a long flight like the one that I was on (~28 hours). I was able to carry 6-8 diaper pieces in my diaper bag and the rest I carried them in our carry on suitcase and kept restocking them once I was done with the diapers that I was carrying in my bag.
2. Water wipes – Carry just one in your diaper bag and one in your carry on suitcase. It should suffice your entire trip. I like to use water wipes over other diaper wipes available out there as they are meant for sensitive skin and when you are on such long journeys there is a slight possibility that your kid can be in their diapers for a long duration of time (thanks to the different time zones and long immigration lines). Also, these wipes were very helpful in cleaning messy hands and other things when it was difficult for us to get up and use the restroom in flights or airports.
3. Diaper rash cream – Make sure to carry a tube of the diaper rash cream in your bag. You will need this a lot. We were using the Destin maximum strength on our trip.
Mom tip – Allocate a small section/ pocket of the diaper bag for the diapers, water wipes and diaper rash cream which is easily reachable by your hand and so that you can find everything you need related to diaper changing (which you will be doing very frequently) in one place.
4. Boogie wipes/ saline wipes – Always keep a set of boogie wipes in your front pocket of the diaper bag as well as carry an additional one in your carry-on suitcase. Boogie wipes came in very handy on our long flight.
5. Soft toy – With all the travel, destination changes, new faces everywhere, your child can feel restless at times. Carrying a ‘familiar’ plush toy on the long journey which your little one is comfortable snuggling with, can make your little one feel a lot less restless and more secure.
6. Diaper changing mat – Usually, this comes in as a part of the diaper bag. If not do make sure to carry one. While using the common bathrooms in the airport as well as flight, I was comfortable laying Mishika down on a clean mat to avoid all the germs and infection. I would first lay the mat, wipe it with a water wipe, and then lay Mishika on it every time I had to change her diaper.
7. Blankie – Usually some airports are chilly and having a blanket in your bag can come in handy if your child decides to sleep and snuggle with you. Also, with Mishika, when she gets really restless I am easily able to calm her by wrapping her in her blankie – A must carry-on for me.
8. Spoons/forks – Keep at least 2-3 spoons and forks handy. You can either carry them in a Ziploc plastic bag or also some diaper bags have spoon holders in them that can be used to organize these. I usually don’t prefer to use the plastic spoon/forks that you can find at the restaurants in the airport. I had a scary incident with Mishika once when while using the plastic spoon a piece of it broke in her mouth. Luckily, we noticed it right away and pulled it out from her mouth.
9. Disposable bibs – I really like using them. From my past travels, I found carrying cloth bibs to be extremely messy, and eventually, I had to discard them at the airport. Your kid is going to spit, throw, and create a mess while eating, so why not use disposable bibs that you don’t have to worry about later to get cleaned.
10. Toiletries bag – Body wash, body lotion, comb, rubber band, brush, tooth-paste, small hand towel, and other things that you might need for your little one. For our trip, I bought travel sizes of all these and carried them in a small bag. All of this being in a small bag came in so handy when I needed to just use the airport restroom with Mishika or the airport bathroom. I did not have to carry the whole diaper bag every single time to use the toiletries. It was so convenient!
11. Bottle washer – Came in very handy to quickly clean the bottles on the go.
12. Bottlebrush – Something I have learned from my experience and I make sure to carry one in my diaper bag on all my flight travels. Although the bottle washer soap was helpful most of the time sometimes it was hard to clean them with just the soap. I bought a small bottle brush that could easily fit in my diaper bag.
13. Bottles – I was carrying 4 bottles in my diaper bags (2 large – 2 small) and 2 large bottles in my carry-on suitcase. I have no idea how we could have managed without these. There were a lot of times when Mishika was sleepy, tired and she didn't want to eat anything. Having milk at our disposal always had me worry-free when it came to feeding Mishika. Also, having the small bottles came in handy to give her juice or drinking liquids without haven me to look into holding her glass. Instead of the small bottles, you can also carry ‘sippy cups’.
14. Quick snack – Always have 2-3 varieties of quick easy-to-eat snacks that your kid likes handy in your diaper bag. I gave it to Mishika when she would get restless to entertain her or just to snack at times.
15. Hand towel (2) –It can be so useful to give your child a sponge bath to get them relaxed and cleaned on such a long journey. Luckily, I was carrying two as the first one was completely wet after giving Mishika her sponge bath in the airport bathroom after our first 14 hours long flight.
16. Change of clothes (2 sets) – I kept 2 clean and comfortable change of clothes for Mishika in our diaper bag and 2 in my carry-on. For our entire flight journey, we did use up all the four sets.
17. Socks (2 pair) – Very handy. It can get very cold on the flight in the night. And if you have two you change them when the first one starts to get moist.
18. Jacket (1) – Just one in the diaper bag is more than enough. Carry something light and that is also comfortable to wear and sleep for your little one if needed.
19. Flight entertainment toy – From the activities/toys, I was carrying two in my diaper bag and the rest Mayank was happy to carry in his backpack. We did switch them every time Mishika was done playing with them. Also, in my previous blog post, I have shared a list of toys/activities that we carried with us to keep Mishika entertained in the long journey.
20. First aid box – Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, Thermometer, Band-aids, cotton swabs, Antiseptic cream, and whatever you can think of. In my diaper bag, in a small Ziploc bag, I was carrying the band-aids, thermometer, and Tylenol, the rest were in the carry-on suitcase.
21. Hand Sanitizer – Last item on the list but so needed. I think I must have used up my entire bottle on our trip.
Of this entire list, I cannot think of anyone item that was not used or less used during our long 28 hours flight journey. All these items were extremely helpful and have them neatly organized and packed properly in their allocated places in our diaper bag, saved us from a lot of stress and messy moments!
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