Planning a Trip to the Zoo w/ 12 month old

[Cherry Alive]

My DD has been *very* interested in animals lately, and I was thinking it may be fun to take her to see some real ones (aside from our crew at home). We have a great zoo in the city, and my mom was mentioning she'd like us to have a grandma/mommy/daughter day so I'm planning a trip next week. It's supposed to be in the 60s and sunny (nice weather).

What would be good things to pack?

[elmh23]

Lunch unless you plan on eating in a restaurant at the zoo.
Snacks and water in addition to lunch.
Jacket just in case.
Sunscreen in case it's sunny.
A stroller or wagon to haul all your stuff and babe.
Normal diaper bag stuff.
Camera.
Quarters in case there is a duck feeding pond with a food dispenser near by (our zoo has this.)

We go to the zoo often and thats what I always take (unless it's summer, then I don't take the jacket.)

[rightkindofme]

Tons of snacks. Water. Buying such things there is way too expensive.

Carrier.

I don't think you need anything else.

[mbm]

Use a baby carrier if you can. There will be a wall of strollers around the animals, and with a carrier, you can sneak right through, plus baby will be high enough to get a good view.

Have fun!

[MamaPhD]

I did the zoo with DD recently (at 14 months). We brought stroller, usual diaper bag and some snacks for her. I treated myself with lunch, which was only $7-8. I also realized all of DD's sunhats from last summer were tiny, so got her a special zoo hat for $10. She really liked the hat and giraffe/zebra area. A lot of the other animals were really hard for her to see or recognize, though. She knows the "main" animals - cow, dog, elephant, monkey, etc. But they had a lot of "alternative" animals like lemurs and meerkat, prarie dogs, etc. that she hadn't see in her books, so she was not very interested in them. I would say definitely look for a children's area or petting zoo, if your zoo has them.