Tips for Moving Home With a Baby

Moving house is believed to be one of the most stressful situations a person can endure in their life.

Sadly, the difficulty level of a residential move can always go a notch or two higher.

For instance, add a baby to a home inventory list and suddenly the relocation challenge will become much, much tougher.

If you happen to be moving house with a baby, then you should know that while previous moving experience will help you organise your move much faster and generally better, you will definitely need specific tips for moving with a baby in order to have a safe and trouble-free relocation from start to finish.

In the best-case scenario, you will have hired an experienced and reliable removal company to take care of the time-consuming details of your relocation while you turn your sole attention to your little precious angel.

Moving house with a small baby presents a unique set of difficulties for you as a parent, so you must adequately prepare for moving day.

Take a close look at the following essential tips for moving house with a baby so that the move to your new home goes as smoothly as possible.

You may also like to read: Should You Move Home Before or After Baby is Born? In this guide, we ask whether it is better to move home before or after the baby is born, taking advice from mums who have actually made that decision, as well as seeking the views of child experts.

Pre-Moving Day Tips

If you’re lucky, your moving day will be at least a couple of months away and thus, you will have the advantage of having enough time to get things right.

Remember that the moving process should never be underestimated, especially when you’re moving with a young baby.

You may also like to read: Dido The Dragon Moves Home. If you also have slightly older children, then we have written a short children’s book about moving home that explains why people have to move home, what happens on moving day, and ways to help them cope emotionally during the relocation.

Minimise moving stress

As a rule of thumb, babies handle stress extremely well simply because they are too young to understand what is happening around them.

The thing that matters the most to them, which is also the thing that makes them happy, is to receive the love of their parents and to have their daily routine unchanged.

However, the pressure around the chaotic moving preparations can surely affect their parents, which will ultimately affect them indirectly. And since the most common moving stressor is insufficient time, the solution here is to start working on your relocation tasks as early as possible to avoid plenty of things being done at the same time.

You may also like to read: How to Pick a Good Removal Company. The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide. Nothing will make your home move less stressful than hiring a good removal company to do all the hard work for you. In this guide, we take you step-by-step through the process of choosing the best removal company for your particular home move.

Prepare an essentials box for your baby

A few days before moving day itself, remember to prepare a special container full of absolute essentials for a baby on the road.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a box or a bag, the important thing is, of course, its content. This so-called survival kit will be invaluable when you leave the comforts of your current home, while on the road, and even during the first few days after arriving in your new home.

The essentials you should consider placing in your baby’s survival kit are nappies (take more of them just to be on the safe side), wet wipes, powder, nappy rash cream, suitable baby food, and at least one set of fresh clothes.

And most importantly, if your baby requires specialised medications, double-check to see if you have packed them in the essentials box/bag.

You may also like to read: How to Pack a Moving Day Essentials Box. In this guide, we suggest items that you may want to include in your moving day open-me-first box.

Keep your baby’s routine unchanged

When moving with a young baby, and especially when moving house with a newborn baby, you must understand that the regular daily schedule of your little angel is their entire world.

To ensure minimal disruption of your baby’s routine, do your best to stick to their regular feeding and sleeping times.

If you find yourself up to your neck in moving tasks, then consider asking a family member or a reliable friend to give you a hand and look after your baby while you deal with the moving jobs at hand.

You may also like to read: 22 Really Useful Ways to Help a Friend Move Home. In this guide, we suggest 22 ways in which your friends and family can help make your home move so much easier for you while you look after your baby.

Make sure your baby is healthy

You must visit your family pediatrician and have your baby examined, just in case, shortly before Moving day.

When moving cross country with a baby, you need to make sure your small child is in good health and ready to endure the relocation trip.

You may also like to read: How to Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle When Moving Home. It is just as important that you keep yourself fit and healthy during the frantic home-moving period. Here we share some tips to help you maintain a healthy lifestyle during your relocation.

Moving Day Tips

The Big day has arrived. Now it’s time to make sure that the process of moving to a new house with a baby lives up to your pre-move expectations and meets your high safety standards.

Keep things as safe as they can be

No matter what happens around you, one 6-letter warning word should be constantly flashing in your head: S-A-F-E-T-Y.

Needless to say, it must be your top priority to ensure safety through all stages of your residential move, especially when a tiny little person is involved.

It’s of utmost importance to minimise the potential moving day dangers for your child by arranging for additional babysitting help.

Ask a family member or a trusted friend to keep an eye on your small baby in a quiet room away from the moving day chaos and make sure your child’s routine is kept relatively unchanged as discussed above.

Also, if you have pets, keep them far from your little one as the increased relocation stress could sometimes make pets act in fairly unpredictable and even dangerous ways.

You may also like to read: How to Move Home Safely. 14 Things You Must Know. Moving home is full of hazards and potential accidents just waiting to happen. In this guide, we identify 14 things to be aware of and how to minimise the risks of moving home.

Plan your trip well

Moving house with babies is never a joke and good preparation will guarantee a safe and problem-free family trip.

If you’ve chosen to drive to your new home then it’s very important to plan the entire journey well so that the actual drive takes as little time as possible and still provides much-needed frequent breaks for rest and fresh air.

Take your baby’s favorite blanket or toy so that they can feel safe and protected on the road.

Ensure that your child’s moving day essentials box is loaded into the car and not the removal van.

You may also like to read: How to Move Home By Car. In this guide, we share tips on how to prepare your car, safe loading techniques, as well as how to have fun driving to your new home.

Post-Moving Day Tips

Our moving house with a baby tips continues with some pointers about your child-related priorities right after the move.

Naturally, the first few post-relocation days will be extraordinarily busy for you with scores of urgent jobs to be completed.

However, there should be nothing more important than your precious baby, so make sure your child is taken good care of before turning your attention to other pressing matters.

Baby-proof your new home

Your new house or apartment will be just that – new, and as such, it will most likely be largely unknown.

You never know what dangers might be lurking in the next room – dangers not for you, of course, but for your baby.

You no longer know each inch of your living space like the palm of your hand, so make sure you finish one high-priority task without delay even before unpacking.  Yes, it’s all about babyproofing your new home.

Also known as childproofing, the process of making your new residence completely safe for your little one includes identifying any potential threats that could ultimately hurt your baby and then effectively eliminating those hazards.

Your new home must provide a 100% safe environment for your baby, and be a haven where they will feel protected and will grow happily through fun play without becoming an unfortunate victim of accidental injuries.

You may also like to read: How to Childproof Your Home Room by Room. In this guide, we go through your new home room by room identifying any hazards that may harm your child.

Resume your baby’s routine ASAP

Moving cross-country with a baby will always be a challenge in itself.

Luckily, once the move is successfully over, your baby should not have any particular troubles adjusting to the unknown environment.

You might witness a few nights with your child being restless and getting much less sleep than usual, but as long as they keep getting their soothing daily routine then the adjustment period for your baby son or daughter should fly by before you even realise it.

Another good tactical move to help your baby cope quicker with the sudden change is to set up their room as closely as possible to their old one.

If possible, take the children’s furniture with you, recreate at least some of the colorful patterns, and definitely keep the same toys they used to play with before the move.

However, should you happen to notice any worrisome changes in your little one’s behaviour or an uncharacteristic lack of appetite, unusual prolonged sleepless periods, or excessive crying, address the issue immediately by consulting a qualified pediatrician in your new city.

You may also like to read: Tips for Moving Home with Teenagers. If you have some older kids as well, then you will find this guide to moving home with teenagers invaluable.

Hopefully, our practical tips for moving with a baby will enable you to have a perfectly safe and problem-free move.

The key to having a smooth moving experience is good planning, a calm state of mind, and hiring a good removal company.

Good luck!