Flying with your baby

Finally after almost a month of traveling we are home: all exhausted and ready to get back to our calm and boring life for a while. I apologize for taking forever to write this post, but even after two months of being home I can’t get all the things sorted out. Every day is such a rush and a total mess, but if you are reading this, chances are, you are a parent yourself and you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Today I wanted to address a very scary and curious for any parent thing – taking your baby on an airplane. If you are looking for a fast answer, there it is: taking your baby on an airplane is all right and not scary and you can totally do it and get out of it alive.

 

Here are a few things to consider:

Sleep. How many times a day does your baby sleep and for how long? This is important because if your baby sleeps for two hours straight, then you can get a flight during his nap time and hope that he’ll sleep through the whole thing. It’s also important to remember that if your baby only falls asleep when you are rocking him, it’s going to be harder to put him down. My daughter normally requires a lot of walking and rocking, but on all the planes and busses she did amazingly well and fell asleep while breastfeeding. Honestly, if she didn’t fall asleep like that I don’t even know what I would have done. I had no plan for it whatsoever.
Note: There are going to be some pictures from the bus, because we spent 5 hours in it. After that bus airplane was piece of cake. But we did the exact same thing so it's all good.

Food. Obviously, if your baby is bottle fed you need to prepare as many bottles as you might need for the duration of your flight. Have everything accessible and ready for use, because in the small space of your seat when your baby is crying of hunger the last thing you want to be worried about is assembling everything and measuring the amount of formula that goes into each bottle. If your baby is breastfed then you got lucky and you don’t need to do anything. Also, I would recommend bringing some yummy purees, they will be a great distraction (if your baby already started solids). We brought some pureed carrot, which she’s never had before. Also, it was the first sweet thing she’s ever tried, so that helped to sweeten up the mood.
 

Stroller/ sling/ car seat. Most airlines let you bring your stroller and the car seat for free and only take it away right before boarding. If you are planning on bringing them, check if your airline allows it (yes, there are some rare ones that ask you to pay for it). Check your airline's gate checking policies just to be sure. Bringing a stroller is also very handy because you can put some of the bags in it. We only brought our car seat, because half of our trip we were either on a car or a bus and we simply didn’t have space for it. If we were just to fly somewhere we would totally bring it.
 

Entertainment. The biggest issue that we faced was boredom. It was the only reason why Sofi started complaining towards the end of our flight. Kids are very curious and need constant change of scenery, which you can’t exactly provide on an airplane. So, be sure to bring their favorite toys as well as some new ones. Plan different kinds of activities, because even adults wouldn’t be able to do the exact same thing for 2/3/8 hours straight. Get some books, rattle toys, stuffed toys, rubber toys – anything you can think of. Also, you can Google some fun games that you can play in closed space. It will give you some ideas.
 

Window seat. I feel like anyone with a kid will understand this one. With the window next to you, you can relax a little more because you are not stuck between two people. Also, if you are breastfeeding, it will give you a little bit more privacy.

Day flight. My husband suggested this one. If you are flying for the first time and are nervous that your baby is going to cry the whole time, just pick a flight during the day, so if your baby does cry a lot at least you’ll know that people are not sleepy, so it might make you feel better.

I don’t know if it helped at all, but I feel like this might be the reason Sofi didn’t cry – breastfeeding during the take-off and landing. I read about this somewhere. Apparently, sucking during taking off and landing helps to release some of discomfort from change of pressure. I don’t know if it’s true. I don’t know if it works. We did it and our child didn’t cry at all.

Dry cold air. Once you take off, the air inside the plane will get very cool and dry. I would recommend bringing some baby cream in a small travel size container (all three of us ended up using it because cream for babies is very gentle and universal, so you can put it on your hands and face as well) and some warm outfits with a little blanket, especially if your flight is long. The blanket is also going to be useful if you have to breastfeed your baby and want to cover up.
 

Comfortable clothes. This is not necessarily for traveling with kids, but for traveling in general. Airplanes are not very comfortable. Dry air does unspeakable things to your skin, meals are not great, stress is high and moving around with luggage is exhausting. So don’t make it worse by putting on makeup and wearing high heels with skinny jeans. Get as comfortable as possible: snickers, extra cozy socks, comfortable stretchy pants and a loose shirt. Same goes for your baby. Believe me, it is going to make your journey way less miserable.

Vaccines. Depending on a country you live in and the country/place you are going to, you need to consider if your baby is protected against common diseases. I don’t know exactly if there are any restrictions on traveling before your baby finishes all their vaccines so consult your pediatrician on that. Because the last thing you want to do is be in a hospital in an unknown place, especially if you are going to another country, because probably your baby has completely different defenses than local people so even the treatment might be less efficient (or at least that’s what I believe. Better be safe anyway).
Regardless of vaccines, you should let your pediatrician know that you are taking a trip.

Pack light. This goes for both your big suitcase and your carry-on. I am really bad at packing and planning my outfits, so I always end up not using half of my clothes. But when you are traveling with a baby, and a car seat, and a stroller, and a huge stuffed toy that you can’t leave at home because it’s your baby’s favorite, and a billion other things, you really don’t want to have anything useless. Consider that you might use the same onesie twice. Also, you might not be able to do your laundry during your trip, but baby’s clothes are tiny. You can wash them by hand and they’ll dry really fast, so you really don’t have to bring a whole separate outfit for each day.

Baby’s energy and character. All babies are different. Some are more whiny that others, or get easily bored or upset, or have high level of energy and require more effort to keep them in a good mood. Our baby didn’t cry once during both flights that we took. On the other hand my grandmother told me that when she was flying somewhere with my mom, she cried the whole 3 hours without stopping. You know your baby and their energy level, so take it into account.
 

Your energy and character. Sure, there must be some very lucky people who rarely get stressed and nervous and are always on top of everything (personally, I almost don’t believe that it’s possible, but if you are one of them, then good for you), but if you are a little bit more on an anxious side then take this under consideration as well. Traveling is a lot of stress even without kids, so it’s better to be mentally prepared.

I am a very anxious person and I know that traveling makes me nervous, stressed and sick. The day before I make sure to eat a lot because I know that there is a big chance I’ll feel too nauseous to eat on an airplane. I’ll be sure to have some relaxing music on my phone or a movie to distract myself. Smells also help a lot if you want to calm down, so if you have a smell that relaxes you, spritz it on yourself or on something else that you can take with you. In other words, if you know that you’ll need some moral support along the way, prepare it, because traveling with a baby is tough.

The most important thing to remember is: You can do it! Whether you are doing it alone or with someone, don’t worry, it’ll all be over before you know it. Yes, there is a chance that you won’t enjoy this experience. Yes, you might bother some people and it might make you very self-conscious and uncomfortable. Yes, it might be the longest flight in your life. Yes, it might be a battle. But in the end of the day it’s really just about getting somewhere. Think about it from this perspective: it is only a few hours (even if it’s 12 hours, it is still better than 20), a lot of people fly with their babies all the time and they are alive and well, if anyone on the plane is bothered by your baby’s cry, they can suck it up, and who cares anyways, the most important thing is the safety of your child. Try to remember how lucky you are to be a parent and how much you love your child and it’ll be all right.

I hope I managed to help you even a little bit with your traveling. I want to encourage you to travel and explore even with kids, even if it seems scary. And even if you have a horrible experience, one day it will be a very funny story.

Stay positive and happy. Good luck to you all!
Here is a little vlog from our first flight. It's the first video I've ever uploaded, so I hope you like it :)