Tips for air travelling with a baby
May 26 '00
I have taken my daughter (19 month-old now) air travelling twice already. The first time was when she was 8 month-old, and the second time was when she was 13 month-old. She was doing just fine on both flights. Although to make sure she would be OK, I have done a lot of preparation ahead.
Here are the things I think are most important to make sure your baby doing fine on an air trip.
1) Consult your baby’s pediatrician. I consult my daughter’s pediatrician prior to our first air travel with the baby. And she gave us many good advises. I will mention some of those in the following sections.
2) Try to pick a direct flight as the first. According to my pediatrician, baby’s ears are less developed than adults, thus are more likely to suffer from the pressure change occurred during taking off and landing. Direct flight avoids the problem of multiple taking off and landing, so babies will be more likely to go through it without too many problems.
3) Try to choose short distance flight as the first travel. Babies could easily be in sleep during the whole flight (that is if you do the right thing during take-off). And even if they are awake, it’s easy to entertain them and keep them interested for just a couple of hours comparing to four or five hours.
4) Have baby sucking on a bottle during take-off and landing. This was an advice given by my pediatrician. The bottle could have formula or just plain water in it. The important part is the sucking action. It helps baby to adjust the pressure in their ears better. Plus it helps baby to calm down and maybe even fall into sleep.
5) Adjust the feeding schedule according to your flight time ahead. This way, you can avoid that your baby wanting to be fed the minute you are about to be boarded, the minute you are above to leave the plane, or you are in a hurry to transfer flight (also give yourself extra time to transfer flight when travelling with a baby).
6) Change diaper before you board the airplane. Unless your baby decides to do a pooh in the middle of the flight, you normally don’t have to worry about changing diaper on the flight (which could be extremely challenging, thinking about the narrow seats and the tiny bathroom on the flight).
7) Carefully planning the things your bring onto the airplane. A well organized diaper bag, enough bottles for feeding, some handy common medicines, a set of baby’s clothes, and most importantly, your baby’s most favorite toys. We packed all the baby things into one handbag, and that was the only bag we take onto the plane.
8) But while try to bring everything necessary on board, always keep in mind that you need to bring the least possible amount of things with you. Check in as many pieces of luggage as possible, even some small bags that normally you carry onto the airplane. You will need that extra hand to deal with you baby.
9) Baby’s car seat will be a help for long distance flight. But since both of our trips were short distant, we found it’s easy to just let the baby to sit on our lap. Stroller could be helpful if you need to transfer flight in a big airport. But if you are on direct flight, check it in as a luggage.
10) Make sure yourself is well rested the night before. You might not be able to enjoy the normal nap during the flight. Instead, you will need extra energy to keep up with an alert baby during the flight.
11) Bring an extra blanket for your baby. The airline has blanket but it’s not a guarantee that you can get one. If your baby falls in sleep during the flight, you need that for the protection against the normally cooler temperature in the air.
12) One last tip to mention here. If your baby falls in sleep during the flight, be prepared that he or she could wake up the minute the plane landed. When we tried to put her into a car seat afterwards to drive an hour to her grandma’s place, she was screaming hard. It’s only understandable that after a boring flight, she wanted some fun to run around on her feet.
Well, that is all I have from my two-time experiences air travelling with my baby. One thing I haven’t mentioned is that for both times, my husband was with me and had the honor to carry our magic baby bag. I got the luxury to just hold my baby all the time. You might want extra preparation if you are travelling alone with your baby (bring even less things onto the plane, giving yourself even more time if you need to transfer, making sure someone there to greet you when you get off the plane, etc.)
Good luck with your air travel with your baby. If all goes well, it’s a fun experience, both for you and your baby.
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