On the Go with Baby: A Stress-Free Guide to Getting across Town or around the World [Paperback]

Ericka Lutz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2002

A pack-up-and-go guide to get you and baby out of the house and on your way

From shopping at the grocery store to traveling Europe, parents will learn how to leave the house with their kids without having a panic attack. A reassuring book for parents who feared they'd never leave the house once they had kids.

Parents of young children will enjoy practical advice on packing, babyproofing a hotel room, how to choose a vacation, how to handle public tantrums, and anything else that could possibly happen outside the home. Text is humorous and written in an approachable and helpful tone so you can leave the house with Junior, an organized baby bag and your sanity!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lutz, a writing instructor at UC Berkeley and columnist for the Babyzone.com Web site, understands that many parents find traveling with their babies and toddlers a major hassle. Between the diapers, carriage, changes of clothing, toys and other paraphernalia, sometimes it's simpler to just stay home. A parent and inveterate traveler herself, Lutz shares her own experiences as she offer advice on different kinds of excursions, from plane trips to long car drives to strolls around the block. Some of her topics finding family-friendly hotels, choosing vacation spots can be found in other travel guides, but most of the book addresses specific baby-oriented issues like nursing on the road, eating out with infants and picky eaters, or taking kids to stadiums. A particularly useful chapter on work covers home offices, taking offspring on business trips, choosing child care and planning meetings around a baby's schedule. Lutz also includes a trouble-shooting section that covers a range of terrifying scenarios, from running out of baby wipes to traveling with the little one through malaria country. For first-time parents, this is a first-rate guide.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Ericka Lutz teaches writing at UC Berkeley and is the resident parenting author for Babyzone.com, one of the top parenting sites on the Internet. She has written five books, among them are The Complete Idiot's Guide to Stepparenting, The Mom's Guide to Discipline, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Well-Behaved Child.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc. (April 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570719527
• ISBN-13: 978-1570719523
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,443,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ericka Lutz's novel, The Edge of Maybe, is available from Last Light Studio books in 2012.

She is the author of seven non-fiction books including On the Go with Baby: A Stress-Free Guide to Getting Across Town or Around The World, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Stepparenting, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to a Looking Great for Teens (translated into Polish) and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Friendship for Teens (translated into Portuguese).

Ericka is a two-time recipient of a fiction fellowship at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Her award-winning short stories and personal essays have appeared in books, anthologies, and journals, and her articles, book reviews and advice columns have appeared nationally in magazines, newspapers, and on the Web. She was a founding editor and wrote a popular monthly columns, "Red Diaper Dharma" and "Solo," at the online literary magazine Literary Mama.

She has been interviewed on over 40 radio shows including "The Parent's Journal" on NPR and has been a featured guest on KRON-TV and KGO (ABC) in San Francisco.

Since 1998, Ericka has been on the professional faculty at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, where she teaches writing, speaking, and business communication. Since 1992 she's edited and consulted with writers about their writing and the writing process. She also teaches fiction writing and public speaking for U.C. Berkeley Extension

Ericka enjoys solo performance, travel, dogs, flying in small planes (as a passenger), hiking, gardening, and hanging out with large zoo animals.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ugh., September 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: On the Go with Baby: A Stress-Free Guide to Getting across Town or around the World (Paperback)

THis book had lots and lots of "adorable" stories about cute things the author's child did while traveling. It did not have much information that you couldn't figure out yourself, using common sense. I tired quickly of the author's anecdotes, and wished she had more substantial information, such as info on renting/availability of car seats, high chairs, services in different hotels , services provided by airlines, etc. Don't waste your money on this book, unless you are the type that never tires of hearing endearing stories about a stranger's child!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Few Specifics, November 13, 2003

By 

D. Noble "TheHKHousewife" (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On the Go with Baby: A Stress-Free Guide to Getting across Town or around the World (Paperback)

On the Go with Baby contains many amusing anecdotes about Lutz's travels with her daughter. However, as someone who resides overseas, and has already traveled to Hong Kong, Bali, and back and forth across the Pacific with an eight month old I was looking for more specific information. Her book did not even contain something as simple and helpful as a travel checklist of items to bring for around town or for out of town trips--I found that on the Babies R Us website and modified it to my needs. As someone who has, an will continue to take long flights with a little one I was also looking for ingenious ways to keep the little guy entertained on long hauls--no such luck. The strategies for eating out are common sense and ones you are probably doing already. There is really nothing new or enlightening in this book.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Have Baby, Will Travel!, April 8, 2002

By 

Jennifer Margulis (Pioneer Valley, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On the Go with Baby: A Stress-Free Guide to Getting across Town or around the World (Paperback)

When my one-year-old baby threw up three times on a five hour flight and I found myself running through the LA airport carrying my two-year-old in my arms, the baby on my back in a pack sporting nothing but a diaper, I wished I had read Ericka Lutz's fabulous new book before I went on this particular 5,000-mile adventure. This guide to how to GO with baby (to the supermarket, to the zoo, to Hawaii or Indonesia) is invaluable to all parents. Familiar with small babies vomiting on long flights, Lutz suggests bringing an extra change of clothes for each child, carefully protected in ziplock bags, as well as a change of clothes for each adult. I did have a carry-on that was bigger than a small house, but somehow I managed to leave all the extra clothing in the checked luggage.

It's daunting to have a baby, and Lutz's book helps parents cope with the enormous and drastic changes that come with new parenthood. Although I have lived, worked, and traveled in over 30 different countries, I found the prospect of traveling with my little ones worrisome at best. But Lutz's book is an inspiration. Unlike some parenting books which dwell on the negative aspects of child rearing and scare young fathers and mothers away from venturing outside the doorway, let alone down the street with baby, this book offers excellent advice and interesting real-life stories to encourage people with children to give gas and go. It's well-written, easy to read, funny, and helpful. And better yet, the book is tall and skinny, a perfect fit for the outer pouch of a diaper bag or baby backpack.