8 hour road trip with 5 month old... any tips?

I tried to do a search on old posts for long car-ride tips, but didn't really come up with anything for DC as young as my DS - he is 5 months.

Do any BTDT mom's have travel advice for an 8 hour road trip with a 5 month old?

So far I have:
- a portable DVD player with Dora, Blues Clues and Baby Einstein DVDs
- his favorite infantino toys
- paci's

Any advice for preparing formula and feeding on the road? DS is FF so I was thinking I would put water in all the bottles and then add powder and shake while on the road. Typically I prepare all of them the night before for the next day, but in this case, I don't want to have the hassle of needing to bring a cooler with ice and then worrying if they were the right temp, etc.

ETA: Thank you!!!

Message edited 8/3/2009 4:00:24 PM.

Re: 8 hour road trip with 5 month old... any tips?

We took a long drive with DS when he was about 9 months old. Honestly, we decided to drive through the night when he would be sleeping. It was great. We left around when he normally went to bed and he slept almost the whole way. It was nice to know we didn't have to worry about entertaining him.

Re: 8 hour road trip with 5 month old... any tips?

I'd love to hear responses to this as well.

I have a 16 hour ride in October with a 4 month old!

Re: 8 hour road trip with 5 month old... any tips?

good idea on the formula, that is how i always prepare them.

honestly, my advice to you would be to leave right before bedtime.
I dont know how long a dvd will hold the attention of a 5 month old.

i know my 5 month old only lasts a half hour in front of the tv and then he is bored.

Re: 8 hour road trip with 5 month old... any tips?

We went on a 6 hr road trip when DS 5 months old.

We left at 4PM and drove till 10PM, his usualy bedtime was 6-7PM so, like the pp said, we mostly drove during his bedtime.

And for formula, we used the Similac singlets.

Re: 8 hour road trip with 5 month old... any tips?

Re: 8 hour road trip with 5 month old... any tips?

We are right there with you. We are leaving next week for ocean city with our 5 month old DS. We plan to leave very early in the morning when DS is still sleeping. I'm going to get all ready and let DS sleep. As soon as we are about to go, I'm going to give DS a bottle or nurse, change his diaper and put him in the car seat. He loves the car, so I'm hoping he will fall right back to sleep. I told DH that I don't want to stop that much. I want to go as far as we can without stopping. DS wakes up right away once the car stops.
I plan to bring toys, and will jump in the back and entertain him if I have too. DVD player won't help us, since DS doesn't last more then 15 min when we put baby einstein on.

I'm a little worried about the whole drive.

Re: 8 hour road trip with 5 month old... any tips?

I would definitly drive through the night. Give you DC the last feeding before bed and hit the road and hopefully sleep.

Re: 8 hour road trip with 5 month old... any tips?

I agree.... if you could leave close to bed time, it would probably be best. In fact, you could leave an hour or two before and this way he can play and watch dvd for a while, then fall asleep and hopefully sleep the rest of the way.

If it is getting close to feeding time, and you see a rest stop, dont hold out, stop. We made this mistake one to many times thinking "well stop at the next one" only to have a screaming child right after we passed the rest stop.

Sitting in the back will help too.

CD with kids songs