For our family, road trips have long been a tradition where we share a holiday with friends. It is much anticipated, with our kids now a bit older than toddlers, the packing of bags has been happening for the last month! And I can report, we have negotiated down to seven soft toys per child under eight!
When I think back to our road trips as kids, which we did a lot of; I wonder how we made it out alive. Not from a car crash. Although we did get to destinations miraculously fast WITH NO STOPS UNLESS YOU WERE GOING TO POO YOURSELF. But the raised stress levels induced by sugar fuelled kids. Road trips were lollies, juices & individual packets of convenience. Processed foods laced with "I am going to get hyper real fast then crash, burn & wake angry and low, needing another hit". Those foods we refer to in our books, blogs & recipes as "unhelpful" (in context).
Boy, how things have changed
In our household; we currently have a five, seven, and 10-year-old, two 'adults' and a dog but have been road-tripping since they were born. So a mix of ages to please, whilst trying to stay engaging and fun, sane, hydrated, awake or asleep, satisfied, less cranky than normal, clean-ish, and on a budget whilst also avoiding intense & annoying mood swings.
Why do we do this again?
Also & importantly allowing for the fact that the mother who packs, is a dietitian who does not like to plan, cook, or be more organised than needed.... easy right?
Let's get helpful!
Here are some road trip tips that I learned when my kids were much younger.
Tip 1: Variety is key
Have a mixed bag of goodies that do not include sugar. As any parent or caregiver would know; kids love variety & choice. As long as you can give them options, they are happy. Even if the mixed bag of variety is not what they want, having lots of options means there is a sense of negotiation and decision ownership they love, to feel satisfied with their eventual choice.
Smaller amounts of many things are better than three to five options. Aim for around 10 different choices, which could be four different fruits, four different crackers/bread, rice cakes & two different types of nuts. High in protein & fibre for fullness & satisfaction is good. Concentrated sugar on a road trip, in any form, is not helpful. If you want to like your family at the end of the long journey, do yourself a favour & keep that bag of mixed "sugar in any form is still sugar" lollies, snakes, chocolate, whatever your preferred ticket to mood swing, home! Don't be fooled by packaged snacks that are marketed as healthy, like certain muesli & nut bars. It's just easier to steer clear.
You may aim for 98% healthy "helpful" options; with one small, controlled portion size "unhelpful" card to pull out for the last leg of the trip. Don't tell them about this card until you are close to playing it. I often don't play it at all, but it's nice to have it there as an option. But only for the last leg!
Non-food extras for your "hand reachable" bag - wipes or a wet face washer, a bag to use for rubbish, a small towel for spills, a small plastic plate, some paper towels & a no blade knife for spreading avocado or peanut butter.
Tip 2: Hydration is essential.
Even though you are not moving much sitting in a car, being in an air-conditioned car all day, you get dry & thirsty. Your body & brain need a regular top-up of water. Water consumed goes into your blood, which then helps pump oxygen to your brain & increases your concentration. Plain, straight-up, hard-core tap water is the only real option. Other than one or two coffees for adults, we pack water bottles for kids and they get filled up with this miraculous free & clean water supply we have available to us along the way.
Pack 2 bottles for each child if need be & remind everyone on the hour, to sip some water. Any fluids slightly sweetened (naturally or not) are not only unhelpful for mood, hydration, or getting your kids used to drinking straight-up water, but it's an unnecessary cost. If your children get used to getting bought flavoured drinks, this is hundreds of dollars, literally flushed down the loo every year with not a single benefit other than fleeting taste-based satisfaction.
Food choices to help with hydration are fresh berries, grapes & seasonal, easy fruits like cherries, nectarines, plums, or peaches. These fruits are particularly high in water, but any fruits are good, as long as they are fresh & easy. Apples & bananas are always in our car too.
Avoid high-salt snacks like chips & salted nuts. Occasional flavoured rice crackers are ok, but they are high in salt, so be cautious of serving sizes. No more than 10 & make them a "sometimes" not an "always" road trip food.
Tip 3: High fibre
It's not just about the journey, but also the destination. No one is happy unless they have had a good poo. Not moving for hours on end, combined with low-fibre food choices means that it would take longer for everyone's bowels to get back into motion when you finally reach your destination. Now, that is not a good start to anyone's holidays.
Ultra-processed white bread, crackers & biscuits are like paste in the gut. They move slowly & are unhelpful in not only moving things through, but nutritionally they are pretty much void.
So, make sure you have crackers, bread &/or whole fruit options that are high in fibre. This is wholemeal + grains where possible or just grains if you had to choose between wholemeal or grains. We pack vita wheat, five-grain bread & wholemeal salada. All of these plain or with our homemade peanut butter (see blog; easy to put on in the car on demand) are great. We use corn thins as a filler, but these are not really much help for fibre, more for crunch. The whole fresh fruit and water also help significantly in keeping the bowels moving.
Tip 4: Don't pack anything you are not willing to give
The power of being the parent is, that if it's not in the "hand-reachable" bag, it's not available. If your child gets genuinely hungry, they will eat or go without. I once naively packed sultanas. Those little sugar cubes are so unhelpful in the context of driving & sitting. Great for playing in a park or moving; not for sitting. They not only go everywhere, finding them months later in every crevice of the vehicle & come out perfectly rehydrated as grapes, but they are an instant high & once it was seen in the bag it was requested & consumed & the sugar high began in the form of loud sporadic high pitch.
If it's in the bag, it's for everyone & it needs to be rationalised. There is no "that is for daddy". We don't have special food for some people. We all have to endure this road trip,
so fair is fair. What is in the bag is for everyone. Think also about mess & compromising with yourself. Pack foods you prefer they eat & just wear old clothes if need be. We pack a spare set of accessible clothes for when we arrive somewhere and we need them to look decent. Knowing there is a high probability the berries will be all over their tops & faces (& hair, up their noses, in their ears...all the normal spots).
Tip 5: Don't get too fancy
Managing expectations is a big deal in my professional career, as well as my home life as a busy mum. It's all about consistency & ensuring people understand what is coming so they don't get disappointed (annoyed, frustrated, cranky). So, I don't do fancy. If you get fancy - such as preparing foods, baking finger snacks, packing food boxes, etc. that is ok, but just be sure you:
a) do it every road trip! As this will be expected.
b) don't get disappointed or annoyed when it ends up on the car floor or is not eaten.
Kids in cars are unpredictable. They are out of routine, tired, agitated & can like something one minute & hate it the next. It's enough effort packing the car, getting into it & leaving within one hour of your preferred departure time, let alone packing fancy personalised lunch boxes.
I also don't want my kids to emotionally associate "road trips" with certain foods. They will just get disappointed. It's about the colour car spotting, the singing, dancing in our seats & “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with...”
And that’s a road trip for us! What tips do you have for a road trip?
This article was written by Tanya Nagy, founder of Bite Nutrition.
Care for Kids is excited to invite Tanya to our panel of experts, sharing recipes, up-to-date information, and her extensive knowledge around all things parenting, and nutrition, keeping us creating beautiful food with minimal fuss!
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