If you have kids, you know that travelling with them is hardly a piece of cake. It’s simply not feasible to pack all of a child’s necessities, yet it’s just not possible to do without. Until now, there have been few options for parents, so to accommodate their needs, Wee Travel rents baby equipment to people visiting Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria.

Launched by Shana Cherry and her Toronto-based sister Lesley, Wee’s mission is to make it easy for parents to travel lighter by providing a full range of hard-to-pack baby equipment and supplies. In other words, they provide everything that parents could possibly need when travelling so that they don’t have to bring it all with them.

The idea was hatched after Lesley and her son visited Shana in Vancouver a couple of years ago. Shana’s son had outgrown his cot, stroller and other kid-size equipment, so Lesley had only to pack some clothes. But when Lesley and son visited a friend in New York, things weren’t so easy. Her hosts had assured her they had everything, but Lesley discovered that meant poorly maintained equipment that had obviously been in storage for some time. She ended up buying a new stroller.

Many people have very old equipment which is inadequate and likely doesn’t meet current safety standards, so in addition to travellers, Wee also caters to local grandparents who have small children visiting. Hotels frequently use this type of service, as do big budget film and production companies, airlines, car rental companies…pretty much anyone who has a baby or toddler coming.

The rentals offer temporary solutions for newborns to children up to eight years of age. These include car seats, cribs, Pack ‘n Plays (fold-up playpens that infants can also sleep in), ExerSaucers, swings, bags of toys, high chairs, change tables, rockers, beach packages, strollers and joggers (double and single), backpacks for hiking and snugglies for newborns out for a stroll with their parents…virtually anything you require for your child when you’re away from home.

There are similar services in Vancouver and Toronto but Wee stands out in several ways. Whether you’re staying at a hotel or in someone’s home, they will deliver any rentals to your door before you arrive, and pick them up after you leave. They are also very careful about the equipment they offer. Neither trend nor hype top the list of criteria in the selection process as the latest fad may not always be practical for someone who’s travelling. If you’re in Vancouver and you like to go for walks, to shop, or to go for coffee with your stroller, storage and portability are obvious necessities. Wee also sanitizes everything with baby- and environmentally-friendly products and if you need their services on a more regular basis, they offer practical gifts with a certain amount of rental. For instance, as you saw in the video, they have a compact folding potty seat which comes in a washable bag; very useful when travelling with your child. Shana has a background in psychology so she did a lot of research on parenting books and offered one as a gift as well.

There is always something new in the baby equipment market so Wee is always on the lookout for innovative new products. One of their most recent items is the Gogo Kidz Travelmate, which is a suitcase wheeler-type tool that you hook on to the bottom of a car seat to enable you to pull a seated child through the airport. It fits through the isles of the plane and goes right onto the airplane seat with the car seat. Imagine the convenience!

You’ll find the prices quite reasonable. Here are some examples:

Car Seats: $7 a day or $42 a week.
Pack ‘n Plays: $7 a day or $42 a week.
Cribs, which come with a 4”mattress inside a foldable steel sided frame (no assembly required) and includes a sheet: $10 a day or $60 a week.
High Chairs: $7 a day or $42 a week.
Booster Seats or Bumbo Seats: $5 a day or $30 a week.
Gogo Kidz Travelmate: $5 a day or $25 a week.
Double Joggers (probably the most expensive item): $14 a day or $84 a week.

And in addition to larger equipment, Wee also offers:

Baby Supplies: They’ll provide you with any brand of diapers, wipes, formula, baby food, shampoo, soap or sunscreen ($10 service fee).

Bag of Toys: A selection of age appropriate toys to keep your little ones entertained, including books, toys, and videos ($4 a day or $24 a week).

Specialty Toys: They offer a variety of toys such as trikes, push cars, wagons, rocking chairs, toys, picnic tables and winter sleds.

Mom/Dad: They will do a run for whatever you require should you be so focused on baby that you forget some important items for yourself.

International Beach Package: If you are traveling somewhere hot, they have a number of sun packages. They can arrange to drop it off at your home or at the airport on the day of your departure. They offer a large fold-up sunshade (not an umbrella), a playpen, beach toys, pail and shovel and a variety of other items ($20 a week).

Interestingly, the Cherry sisters have noticed a distinct east-coast, west-coast divide when it comes to what parents want. In Vancouver, a lot of people rent outdoor equipment such as strollers, joggers, and beach packages. In Toronto, joggers are not much in demand but Lesley regularly rents out ExerSaucers and swings. It has to do with climate obviously and Vancouver caters to a more active lifestyle with great outdoor spaces like Stanley Park and the Seawall to take a stroller. Toronto summers are so hot and their winters so cold that locals are more inclined to stay indoors.

With airlines now, there are a lot of restrictions on what you can bring, and you have your own personal restrictions because there’s a limit to what you can carry. There are a lot of things you have to check in and parents often complain that their car seats end up getting torn, dirty, and bashed around when they send them through. It’s not on the site yet, but soon, Wee will offer wheeled car seat cases.

A lot of times, people come to Vancouver but they’re going to the Island or through the Rockies. Shana realized that there are many people from new Zealand and Australia who come here for a month, rent a motor home, and travel around Canada. Wee is a useful service for such travellers because their rentals can be taken anywhere as long as they are brought back when they’re due.

When you’re planning on traveling somewhere, give some thought ahead of time, to what your child is going to need to have an enjoyable vacation because if your child has an enjoyable vacation, you’ll have an enjoyable vacation. You might start by thinking you need a package of diapers…then all the formula because where you’re going they won’t have yours…the swing is a must because ‘Johnny’ lives in that swing and won’t nap anywhere else…you also need somewhere for him to sleep in because he can’t sleep in the bed…and there’s also the jogger because you like to jog every day…and it’ll probably be raining in Vancouver so you also need some cover for the jogger…by the time you finish your list, you’ll need a moving truck to go on holiday! If this sounds like something your family has gone through, next time you go to Vancouver, Victoria or Toronto, consider Wee Travel. They’ll certainly make sure your holiday is much more enjoyable.

Things You Didn’t Know About Car Seat Safety

Shana is certified to install car seats but she can’t actually do it for you as that would pose a liability issue. Car seat safety is the driver’s responsibility but Shana can help by looking at the installation that you’ve done and direct you if it’s not safe.

Here are some important tips from Shana:

* A lot of parents like to swaddle their babies to make them comfortable in their car seats. What they don’t know is that they’re sacrificing their child’s safety when they do this. In the case of an accident, everything compresses upon impact so if there is a towel or a snuggly wrapped around the baby, it too will compress. This means that the straps won’t be as tight as they were and your child could actually shoot out of the seat. So, never put anything between the car seat/straps and your child. If you want to keep your baby warm, place the blanket on top once they’re securely strapped in (you should be able to put one or two fingers between your child and the strap).

* The purpose of the middle clip that you do up on the infant or convertible seats is to ensure that the shoulder straps remain in the right position in case of an accident. Please note that it doesn’t hold your child in and typically will break off on impact. What it does is keep the straps in place until such an incident. That buckle should be at armpit height.

* With booster seats, many people think that high backs are safer. That is not true. There are two options available to accommodate the kind of car you drive. If you have headrests, you don’t need a high back on the booster and if there are no headrests, you want to have a high back to avoid whiplash. One’s not safer than the other.

* All car seats and cars are shaped differently. The seats in your car may have more padding…you may have flat seats or bucket seats…As long as your car seat meets Canadian safety standards (CSA sticker) though, it’s alright to have about one inch of wiggle room. Shana received a recent email from a client who had a very strong man install her car seat so it fit tightly in her car, but she couldn’t do the same in a rental car. The reality is that depending on the car and depending on the car seat, a tight fit isn’t always possible. The back seats in some cars have a little bit of a hump on them, or a little ridge…some slant a little more at the back…If you manage to secure your car seat so well that it won’t budge, that’s fantastic. However, please note that it can move one inch and still be considered safe.

For more information and a tourist and shopping resource, visit www.weetravel.ca. Also check out the Wee blog here for additional tips and the latest news.