RVing With A Baby | How To Travel With An Infant
How we live full time in our RV with an infant. Travel tips, baby proofing, & RV friendly baby gear.
Ever wonder what RV life with a baby looks like? We’ve been RVing with an infant for the past year and guess what? We love it! In this post we are sharing the RV friendly baby gear we use, how we baby proof, modifications we’ve made to our layout, & tips for travel.
OUR STORY
Michael & I have been full time RVers since 2021 and knew that when we expanded our family we would continue to travel and work seasonally. We stay put for about 7 months of the year at a seasonal job and then spend the other 5 traveling around and doing small work here and there. We personally love this lifestyle because we get to spend more time together, explore new places, and live a simple life. If you are thinking about RVing with your family definitely give it a try!
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MODIFICATIONS WE’VE MADE
Since we have the Grand Design 3210 BH, we had two couches in our living area. As our baby has become more mobile, we decided to remove one of the couches to create an open play area for Nebula. We used MioTetto Play Mat Tiles on the floor and attached some of her toys to the wall using Command Heavy Duty Strips.
It’s been great to have an area for her in our living room that is always ready for her but also doesn’t take over the limited space we have.
We also removed the folding bunk bed in the back room to make the room feel more open as well as creating more useable wall space.
RV FRIENDLY BABY GEAR
Portable Baby Bathtub | This collapsible baby bathtub is the perfect addition to bathing your baby in your RV. It’s made for newborns to three years old and collapses easily to fit under the bed or in the bunk room. It also has a floating pillow rest for newborns that can’t sit up on their own yet while still leaving plenty of space to play for older babies that can support themselves. It’s moderate in size so you can leave it in the shower or quickly stow it away when not in use.
10/10 we highly recommend this bathtub.
Koola Baby Convertible High Chair | The Koola Baby Convertible High Chair is a light weight, compact, and adjustable high chair. The legs come apart to become a baby high chair or short toddler chair. It fits perfect at the dinette and is small enough to fit through the door to sit outside. Plus we are able to strap it to our dinette table so when we drive it is locked in place.
10/10 recommend this high chair.
Noisy Dirt Designs Rustic Kids Bookshelf | We aren’t big fans of drilling holes into our RV walls so I looked for bookshelves that had a large enough surface to command them to the wall. These bookshelves have worked out absolutely well. I places about 8 Heavy Duty Command Strips on the back and it has not budged a bit. Even on the bumpiest of roads. They also work great as a floor shelve so our daughter is able to access her books without our help.
Wondever Ocean Wall Stickers | After painting and doing peel n stick wallpaper to our last RV, which you can read about here Tour Our Remodeled Travel Trailer, I wanted a simpler solution to decorating our new RV. These Wondever Ocean Wall Stickers are an easy and fun way to decorate an area for kids. They are a light sticker, non damaging, and hold up great on RV walls.
Instant Pot For Sanitizing | This is not something to buy just for sanitizing but if you already own one it works for the purpose of cleaning baby related things. We don’t typically use bottles but we have used it to sanitize my breast pump and i’d say it does the job just as well as a bottle sanitizer.
Roku Indoor Camera | We originally got this camera to watch our dogs when we are away from the RV but it has since become a great baby monitor. We leave it set up in our room and are able to watch from the app on our phone or TV as well as hear sound and receive motion detection. It can be paired with other Roku devices and requires Wifi connection to operate.
Stackable Folding Closet Organizer | These stacking closet organizers are a great way to organize clothes, toys, or crafts. We are currently using them for clothes but love that they can be used for many different purposes. They also fold up so if you don’t need them for awhile they can be tucked away under the bed or dinette.
Vacuum Storage Bags | If you are full timing with an infant and need a way to store clothes and other soft baby items, check out these vacuum storage bags. These have been so helpful to store a ton of clothes that no longer fit under the bed not taking up more space than they need to. I definitely recommend these for storage purposes.
Baby Delight Go With Me Portable Camping Chair | If you are RVing with your baby then you have got to get them a camping chair. This Baby Delight Go With Me Portable Camping Chair locks in place, has buckles to keep baby in, and a tray for playing or eating. If your baby can sit up but isn’t very mobile yet, this is a great item to have to enjoy sitting outside at the campsite. Our daughter absolutely loves being outside in her camping chair.
BABY PROOFING
Baby Proofing Corner Protector and Bumper Guard has worked great for covering some of the areas where our daughter could bump her head. We’ve mainly used it along the bottom of the island, the cubby by our bed and any corner that she gets around. I like that they are clear and stick on easy. They definitely give us more ease as Nebula crawls around the RV.
Jool Outlet Covers Pack of 32 for baby proofing the electric sockets. We don’t have that many outlets that our daughter could reach so this pack of 32 has been plenty.
MHOMER Bed Rails | MHOMER Bed Rails are great for families that cosleep or infants that sleep on their own. The bed rails slide under the mattress and connect to each other creating a safe and sturdy sleeping space. Each side slides up & down and locks into place. They’re compatible with king, queen, full or twin size mattresses and can be purchased for different lengths. We have two 39 inch rails and one 54 inch.
We haven’t needed to do anything with our drawers or cabinets so we’ve left those as they are.
DRIVE DAY TIPS
Have plenty of busy items for the car ride. Sitting in a car seat for long periods of time can be uncomfortable for many babies so having toys handy to pass the time and distract themselves is so helpful. Our go to car supplies are Joyreal Montessori LED Wooden Busy Board, Good Morning National Parks Interactive Book, and silicone toys for teething. Our daughter also loves music so we often listen & sing when in the car.
Keep drive days short. Long days in the car can be exhausting for the whole family so planning shorter travel days has been a key feature since RVing with our baby. We typically drive 150 to 250 miles per travel day. This way if we get a late start, hit traffic or have a hiccup in our day it’s not as exhausting as if we planned a full days drive.
Start early. The earlier you can get on the road the better. We get up around 7, have breakfast, finish getting everything together and then hop in the car. That gives our daughter enough of time to wake up and then be ready to get back to sleep in the car. If we are lucky she will sleep 2 to 3 hours during a morning drive which can allow us to get most of the driving done while she’s asleep.
If you do decide to do a longer travel day, add a decent break to the drive. This can give everyone enough time to move around, have some lunch, and get refreshed before you finish the rest of the drive. We have done a couple drives where we did a quick stop and tried to get back in the car and get to our destination which our daughter was not a fan of. So having a break is a must on longer travel days.
If the weather is too warm to be inside the RV on a travel day then just hang out in the car with the AC on at a rest stop. Sometimes just getting out of the car seat is all a baby wants.
Keep a diaper bag in an accessible area of the RV. When you have to change a diaper on a travel day it’s helpful to have all your diaper necessities, extra clothes and distraction toys ready for you. This way you can easily pull in to the next rest area, pop into the rv, do a diaper change, and get back on the road.
I hope this post was helpful to you. Let me know in the comments how you RV with your baby!
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HEY THERE, WE’RE MIKE, DEANDRA
A FAMILY OF FIVE ADVENTURE SEEKERS TRAVELING THE U.S IN OUR 37 FT. TRAVEL TRAILER. WE SHARE OUR LIFE ON THE ROAD AND TRAVEL GUIDES TO OUR FAVORITE DESTINATIONS.
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