That first long haul flight with a new baby or your young child can be nerve racking. Will the pressure hurt their little ears? Will they sleep? Will they cry? Will I cry? So when it comes to tips for flying with a baby, or tips for flying with a toddler, who better to ask than the travel blogging community? I recently reached out to a bunch of families who travel frequently with babies and young children and asked them to share their best tips and tricks.
Dress Appropriately – Family Globetrotters
I started traveling with my daughter when she was 3 months old and at the age of 9 now, I have come to learn that what you and your family wear is a major contributing factor in the comfort of a long-haul flight. This is applicable to every member of the family as the care takers are also subjected to the aftermaths of discomfort, being sick and acclimatization to the varying temperatures on the flight.
Although dressing comfortably seems to be a no brainer, its important to ascertain what that means for your child. Layers help with the fluctuating temperatures, dark colors mask the possible remnants of dirt, food and sick whilst a simple change to actual pajamas can indicate to the baby or toddler that its bed time. Of course, it’s important to also pack extra clothing. I’m not sure why babies have such a wonderful knack of throwing up ON you when just a 2-inch tilt of the head would have avoided such a debacle! Wear easy to do up shoes so they can be taken on and off without bother and bring an extra pair of socks, so they walk around the plane without contaminating the pair they need to wear when they disembark.
Use a Jetkids BedBox- As The Bird Flies Blog
While not a cheap piece of travel gear, we have found the Jetkids BedBox has easily paid for itself with our toddler son. We did three return long-haul journeys in a year with him (from 18 months to 2.5 years old) and while using it was nowhere near as smooth as the brand’s adverts will make you believe, we did find that it helped our son sleep and also provided a safe area for him to play when sitting on a plane between my partner and I. It’s basically a box on wheels that has a top you can take off, rotate and extend a little to block the foot-well in front of your seat. It’s targeted at pre-school children but I have to say that any child over 18 months will struggle to spread out and lie flat on it, but with a little positioning and by resting body parts on a parent, it can provide much needed horizontal sleeping or playing space for most toddlers and it stops them escaping too. It comes with enough space to carry a few snacks and toys inside and our son loves having responsibility for pulling it through airports, and he can also sit on it and get dragged along when he’s tired. It’s true that some airlines do not allow for the bed feature to be used during flight so be sure to check before you invest but we’ve found more accept it than those who don’t, as long as it’s not used in an aisle or window seat.
Have a plan of attack – Zest in a Tote
Use a travel approved car seat – The Family Voyage
Our kids always slept great on flights when we had them secured in their car seats, especially rear-facing. Even when awake, the kids are calmer in their car seats because they’re used to that environment and they just sit calmly and use free apps on their tablets for most of the flight! Their car seats have also kept them safe through many nasty rounds of turbulence. Check out our comprehensive guide to travel with car seats here.
Try to fly when baby is sleepy – Have Baby Will Travel
Specifically order a child’s meal – Our Globetrotters
Children’s meals on long haul flights can cause a bit of confusion. Booking a child’s ticket does NOT automatically entitle you to a child’s meal, you still need to contact the airline at least 48-72 hours prior to pre-order this. Children under 2 sitting on a parents lap, however, do not get their own meal, they may be offer jarred baby food but that’s it. If you want a happy compromise so your under 2 year old still gets feed, order a child’s meal on your own ticket. When they come around with ordinary meal service there’s always spares so you can be fed too!
Be prepared! – Have Diapers Will Travel
My number one tip for flying with babies and young children is to be prepared. I try to get as much organized as possible before the flight, so that once we’re on the plane, we are ready to go and have everything we need to hand. This preparation starts with when we book the flight; not only do we try to book flights at certain times of the day (we try to avoid early morning because there are often a lot of business commuters who don’t want to be bothered, and instead aim for morning nap time so hopefully baby will sleep!), but we make sure we choose our seats carefully, and make sure we know the general layout of the airport we are flying in to and out of (especially if they have a great play space the kids!) See more about what else to do BEFORE flying with a baby.
I also pack the diaper bag to make sure we have plenty of everything that we need, including lots of snacks, entertainment (coloring books, stickers, new toys, books, etc), a change of clothes in case of a spill or diaper issues, lots of wipes and of course, lots and lots of diapers (I pack one diaper for every hour of travel). I also pack a Ziploc bag with one or two diapers, a travel pack of wipes, and a change of clothes; this bag goes in the seat back pocket so it’s easy to grab if I don’t want to get the whole diaper bag out.
Above all, I tell people not to panic or worry too much about the flight – chances are, it will be just fine. My youngest son flew over 15,000 miles in his first year, and although I was nervous before each flight, he did great most of the time. Remember: even if baby screams the entire flight, the flight can’t last forever and you’re probably never going to see those people ever again!
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