How to pack for children? Leave it to the experts
While packing her 7-month-old son’s things for a trip to Europe a year and a half ago, Alejandra Tejada became so overwhelmed by the minutiae — from food pouches to infant thermometers — that she forgot to include diaper cream. She also brought too few diapers and in Barcelona had to make an emergency run — for a decidedly not-leak-proof brand.
“When you have a baby, packing takes on a whole other level of responsibility because the well-being of that child falls squarely on you,” said Tejada, who lives in Wellesley, Mass. “It’s a lot of anxiety when you worry you might be forgetting something.”
Galvanized by this anxiety — and that discouraging diaper run — this past summer she created Totts, which delivers baby and toddler essentials to travel destinations. Totts is one of several new, parent-founded companies seeking to relieve packing stress by espousing DIFM — “do it for me” — solutions, rather than DIY or BYO ones.
Family travel is a $500 billion global industry, according to the Family Travel Association, an industry trade group. In a recent survey of nearly 1,600 parents, the association found that 77% traveled with their children in the past three years; nearly that many will do so in the next three years.
Yet getting little ones ready for vacation remains a constant source of bewilderment. On Facebook groups, at mommy meet-ups and in stores like Target, consumers wonder which travel stroller to purchase, whether to use 640 cubic inches of precious carry-on space for a 33-pack of Pampers — yes, I measured my son’s — and what happens when you step off the plane only to realize that you’ve forgotten baby Tylenol.
“With young kids, extensive thought goes into creating a home-away-from-home, which is complicated when that new home is across the world. There’s only so much that families can pack and carry,” said Amie O’Shaughnessy, chief executive of Ciao Bambino, a family-focused Virtuoso travel agency.
Totts determines what customers need based on the length of their trip and their children’s ages. A five-night vacation with a 13-to-18-month-old, for example, produces an $89 box of twodozen drugstore-aisle staples, all apportioned to be used while traveling, including 36 diapers and disposable bibs. Add-ons include swim diapers and Babyganics
“With young kids, extensive thought goes into creating a home-away-fromhome, which is complicated when that new home is across the world. There’s only so much that families can pack and carry.”
insect repellent. Boxes are advance-shipped to hotels and vacation rentals around the United States (for now).
Another company, KeepEmQuiet, founded in 2016, curates age-appropriate toys and snacks in an effort to, well, keep ’em quiet on planes, trains and automobiles.
Serving central London, Airtots rents out larger gear like a Babyzen YOYO+ stroller, which retails for about $450 (about $56 for one week, and about $96 for two weeks). Bundles of gear (from about $238 a week), organized by age, include everything from bottle sterilizers to cribs.
Whereas Airtots owns an inventory of nearly 1,000 items, BabyQuip takes a different approach: a geography-based network of parent-to-parent rentals.
Families in Brooklyn over Christmas can rent a BOB jogging stroller ($15 a day) and a wood-slatted crib ($18 a day) from a local woman whose avatar shows a photo of herself snuggling with her two children.
BabyQuip has raised more than $2.5 million in seed funding and serves more than 400 cities in the United States and Canada, plus both Disney resorts.
“Most of our providers naturally build their own inventory — say, their kids grow up and they have extra stuff around,” said Fran Maier, the Match.com cofounder who founded BabyQuip in 2016. “They’re largely moms serving other moms, so they have empathy; they know exactly what families are looking for.”
With a few exceptions (like the The Chatwal in New York City, which allows guests to borrow UPPAbaby strollers), many hotels only offer cribs and (perhaps) baby-friendly toiletries. Hotel partnerships — for Airtots, with Ace and several others in London; for BabyQuip, with Destination Hotels in the United States — widen the range.
Vacation rentals might similarly lack supplies. “With the rise of the likes of Airbnb, we saw a growing expectation gap between what guests would like to have provided and what hosts were willing — or even capable — of providing,” said Ben Lewis, a father of three, who co-founded Airtots in 2017 with Matt Wood, an uncle of three.
For Jill Monaghan of Edinburgh, Airtots saved a family vacation to London last year by delivering and assembling cribs and high chairs for her children, now 2 and 4, even after an eleventh-hour switcheroo with her apartment rental.
“Knowing there would be clean gear — and knowing that everything would be set up — made my life so much easier,” Monaghan said.
Amie O’Shaughnessy, chief executive of Ciao Bambino, a family-focused Virtuoso travel agency