Tips on car travel with small children

"Are we there yet?"

Now is the season for family holidays, car trips and picnics under the sun. Holly Davis reveals how you can hit the road with your brood and keep a smile on everyone’s face.

Planning the route you will travel can alleviate any stress about getting lost on the way, and getting the vehicle checked for roadworthiness is also a good idea. I lay a blanket over the back seat to collect any debris from snacking in the car, which is easily shaken out at the end of the trip, and add a doona for getting cosy. We always travel with our own pillows; they make any foreign bed feel more like home.

Travelling through the night can be a great option if you have young children who will easily sleep in their seats. It is important to stop often, and to make sure you are well rested before setting off; or better still, share the driving.

I pack our travelling drinks and food separately to picnic meals for easy access, and fill individual water bottles so we can see how much we are drinking and to avoid spillages. I also squeeze some lemon juice in each of our water bottles, as this makes the water taste more appealing to children and also helps counteract any nausea from motion sickness. Another trick I’ve learned is to freeze my daughter India’s water bottle along with the freezer bricks needed to keep our picnic food fresh. She enjoys cold water, and is entertained by it melting along the way.

In cooler weather, it’s a good idea to heat several small thermos flasks with boiling water before filling them with warm soup or casseroles and hot drinks, as they stay hot longer if pre-warmed and unopened. On a cold day a roadside stop for soup and crusty bread or a warm stew is most welcome, and I don’t like to go too long without a hot cup of tea.

A garbage bag for rubbish, and a damp cloth or two in a plastic bag for spills can be very useful, as can a change of clothes and a toothbrush kept within easy reach.

Beating boredom

To manage my own frustration at frequent cries of ‘are we nearly there?’ (which used to start at the end of our driveway) I let India know the length of the journey before we leave home. When she was too young to relate to time, I told her we would be travelling for one sleep, or until after dinner for example, which seemed to make a difference.

Dealing with boredom is another common problem. When children say they are bored, my response is: ‘Fantastic, what game will you invent now? Let me know when you have come up with something’. Children are incredibly imaginative when it comes to inventing new games that will interest them. Rather than give them toys and electronic gadgets, may I suggest you give them this chance to be bored, and let them create their own entertainment. A favourite game of ours is called ‘I went shopping and I bought…’ The idea is to keep adding items, and the next person must repeat the list exactly, before adding theirs.

Travelling is an opportunity for long chats, so I try to minimise the amount of time we spend wearing headphones. These can be great though, since our taste in music is fairly disparate and I like to listen to music if I am driving through the night. Talking books and educational tapes are another good method for keeping children entertained.

Packed with goodness

What to eat and where to eat it are key factors when on the road. I believe plenty of variety is important; when packing meals, include lots of choices of healthy, nutritious foods with a smattering of treats and sweets. If you have more than one child it may be worth pre-packing individual paper bags of snacks for the car. Put their names on these to avoid confusion or give them a different colour each – this alleviates possible squabbles associated with sharing.

Suitable snacks include homemade trail mix, which is more-ish and nutritious. Simply combine nuts and dried fruits you know they like – cut the fruit in small pieces, and try adding chopped strips of nori (sheets of dried seaweed) with toasted sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds toasted in tamari.

Naturally colourful foods offer a wide range of nutrients and appeal to children, so pack fresh fruit salads or cut vegetables for dipping in hummus or a spread. Popped corn or dry-roasted brown rice are also fun for nibbling on.

I like to give them little things they can pick at, and that take a while to eat. Spillages do happen, but a car is easily cleaned and it’s another good reason not to give them too much sticky stuff. Crackers, biscuits and a lot of starchy foods may cause constipation. So, if your kids will eat them, pack salads, vegetable dishes and wholegrain snacks, and keep biscuits, cakes and crackers as treats. Keep an eye on your children’s water intake, and carry a couple of litres a day for each person.

Sweet treats

Excess sugar, in all its forms and guises, is the enemy of happy travel and settled children. Treats are important though – find something they love, and you are happy to give them. I make biscuits, muffins and cakes, but have found something in a store-bought wrapper still has particular appeal. I buy a bar or two of the best-quality chocolate before we leave. I introduced my daughter to dark chocolate early on, as it has the least amount of sugar – and because I like it best. The trick is to keep it well under wraps, until I deem the time is right. On the freeway this is often just after a fuel stop. The chocolate lures young ones back to the car and away from the colourful temptations on offer at petrol stations and the like.

Pleasant picnics

You will need frequent breaks to rest, stretch your legs and to eat your picnic, so look for pleasant bush rest areas with amenities. Encourage the children to run about and play while they can. When picnicking, deter critters by drawing a chalk circle around each dish, or by sprinkling talcum powder on the ground around the picnic blanket – ants dislike the feel and smell of chalk and talc, and won’t cross the line. Lighting citronella candles will ward off bothersome flies and mosquitoes.

Picnic lunches during my childhood included classics such as egg mayonnaise, corned beef or cheese sandwiches and maybe Scotch eggs or Mum’s favourite – coronation chicken, which consisted of chicken pieces in a curried mayonnaise with roasted slivered almonds – very 1970s! By the time I was a teenager, quiche had become very popular, as well as yoghurt. I still preferred Mum’s criss-cross jam tartlets and her egg and bacon pies, which have inspired my own bacon and egg tartlets.

Bacon and egg tartlets freeze fantastically, and you can pack them frozen to thaw as you travel. Simply roll out little squares of shortcrust pastry (you could buy pre-made if you wish) and line 24 small muffin tins. Whip up 12 organic eggs with a litre of cream, and season with salt, pepper and a good pinch of nutmeg. Fry six rashers of organic bacon and coarsely chop. Finely chop a bunch of chives and divide, along with the bacon, among the pastry cases. Fill with the egg mixture to half a centimetre below the top, and bake at 220˚C for 10 to 15 minutes or until set and golden brown. A good timesaving tip is to cook extras and freeze them for your next trip.

Other healthy snacks I like to make include fresh nori rolls and musubi, the Japanese equivalent of a sandwich. Meaning rice bowl, musubi are made from short-grain brown or white rice pressed into a triangular mould (available from Japanese supermarkets). A dent is made in the centre, and is filled with either umeboshi plum paste (available from health-food stores) or tuna, before the triangle is wrapped in half a sheet of toasted nori. This stops the rice from drying out and keeps it fresh to eat all day. Iku Wholefood (www.iku.com.au) makes an assortment of organic, natural items that pack very well into picnics and lunch boxes, including musubi, tofu pockets, Iku rice balls and rice paper wraps (pictured left). Any leftovers are probably best thrown out on arrival, unless you know it has stayed cool for the entire journey. 

Motion sickness

It is the job of our inner ears to maintain our balance; they do so by organising information received from all our senses and relaying this to the brain. Motion sickness occurs when the eyes and ears send different signals, such as our eyes sensing movement while the inner ears register stillness.

Symptoms include turning pale, feeling light-headed, disorientation, nausea and vomiting. By focusing on an image that is static, such as the horizon, we may be able to prevent this. Reading while travelling in a car is a common cause of motion sickness, as while we sit still looking down at the book our peripheral vision picks up movement. If you need to, or wish to read, stay in a position so that the book is at your eye level, and block out any movement in your peripheral vision.

Patience is a valuable virtue when it comes to travelling, and hopefully you will maintain your cool and arrive at your destination ready for a thoroughly fun-filled family affair and a well-deserved rest. Whether lush greenery or the sun, sand and the surf await you, or perhaps a dryer part of our sunburned land – wherever you go, may the return journey be a breeze.

 

Words: Holly Davis. Photography: Sam McAdam. Styling: Jo Carmichael.