Can You Travel With A Baby?

Can you travel with a baby? Of course you can. The question is whether you’ll actually enjoy your holiday! Esma Marnewick remembers a few trying trips.

- Esma Marnewick

Travelling with an infant brings many challenges. Feeding is one of them. A deserted filling station in Keetmanshoop, a back street in Vanrhynsdorp, a farm road near Malmesbury… These are just some of the unusual places I’ve had to breastfeed. And then there’s the extra luggage: nappies, burp cloths, bibs, baby carrier, bottles, ointments, dummies and – most important of all – the blankie.

New parents generally fall somewhere along a spectrum. At one end of the spectrum, you get the couples who disappear from the social scene when their baby arrives – they only leave the house to visit Granny and Grandpa. On the other end you get people like my husband Tobie and I, who think that a baby should fit in with your life, not the other way around.

We’re not alone. There are lots of people who travel with their children and most of them make it look so easy. I have a friend who has been on two overseas trips with her young daughters, and I saw a guy on Instagram who took his two-year-old on a month-long camping trip in the Canadian Rockies. The toddler paddled on blue lakes and slept in a sleeping bag, in a tent. Too cute! But of course her dad never posted the photos where she was screaming at the top of her lungs because she wanted a pink marshmallow when there were only white ones left…

We travelled to Namibia when our firstborn, Emilie, was only two months old.

Emilie was a good sleeper. Our method was to rock her to sleep by bouncing on a big pilates ball. After 10 minutes, she’d be fast asleep. It worked like a charm. The ball went everywhere we went – even to Namibia.