Flying with babies

Hi! I am a first time mum with a 6 month old baby boy. In September, ie when he is about 9 months, we are flying to Sweden for a family wedding. We are a bit afraid about a 25 hour flight with a baby who may or may not be crawling by then... is there anyone who has survived this experience and has some tips or stories they can share?

Thanks

When someone gets back to you, I would like the outcome if possible. I am only going to Perth from Tassie, but would appreciate any tips.

I haven't surivived a trip that long, but I did survive flying with a 9 month old almost crawler. The thing I found was to feed our son on take of and landings if possible, there was one landing where he wouldn't feed so I gave him his dummy. Try and get a spare seat next to you if you can so that bub can sit or lay on it. I lifted the arm rest and layed our little boy down with his head on my leg. I flew on my own as we were on our way to see hubby who was away with work. The air hostesses were great they took him for me so I could eat and offered to take him at other times through at the flight. I also took some pandal with me and had to use it once as he wasn't settling, it calmed him down a bit and he eventually went to sleep. Make sure you pack some of your son's favourite toys, dummy's, bottles even if he is breastfed (for water/juice), and any other comforters he has that you are able to carry on. Our flight was 6 hours and I was lucky enough to work it around sleep and feed time, he was due for a feed when we were taking off and then slept for half the trip. The other thing is he may want extra feeds whilst flying, as I found our little boy did. Good luck and Happy Parenting and Flying

Last year I took my then 4yr old and 16 month old to the U.K. 25 hours was a long time, I wont lie to you but I managed and I didn't spend my 4 week holiday dreading the flight home. I consulted my G.P. before the flight who checked his general health then gave me the ok to administer antihistamines if necessary to help him sleep. This was a great safety net to fall back on and yes, I used it. Be warned though, every time we experienced turbulence I had to remove him from the bassinet and hold him which was disruptive to his sleep. Check directly with the airline that they have a bassinet booked for you for every leg of the journey not just the departure point. My flight consisted of 1x 5hr stretch and 2x8hrs so there was plenty of opportunity for the boys to run around and expend some energy. If any other passengers or the hostesses take an interest in your baby and want to take them off your hands, let them!!! Enjoy the break. Also don't worry that a crying baby is getting on other passengers nerves, it's not like you want them to cry so don't feel guilty, they will get over it. Enjoy your trip!!

Hi,

We took our little girl to USA when she was Ten months old...not quite walking, but definently crawling.

I found that having a basinet seat helped a lot with free hands time, so you could eat a meal and put them down to sleep since a baby is usually strapped to you the whole time if you dont have a seat for it. It was recommended that we get something to help her sleep, but we decided against that, as she is normally a pretty adaptable child, so LUCKY for us, it didn't seem to worry her.

Coming home , we had more leg room,but no basinet (she was past the age limit) , that made things a little more difficult, but it was still not too bad, the airline seated us in a empty row so that we could have more room.

We pretty much stuck to the same routine we have at home with her eating and such, just making sure that she was sucking for take offs and landings (of which she fell asleep on all occasions) coming back to Australia she slept for about 8 hours, so that wasn't too bad.

I am a nervous flyer myself, so this was a real test for me. The staff of our airline were fantastic and made us feel very welcome, and other passengers usually understanding, one commented to us that all the children were very good on the flight, which was a relief as ours cried for about a hour, not too bad for 28hours of travelling though, which involved , cars, planes, buses and trains!

Hope you have a great time!!!!!

Thanks for this- it is reassuring and helpful! Did your baby have jetlag? Did you try to get her on to the time for your destination during the flight or just let her body work it out at the other end? Did she take a while to readjust when you got back to Australia in terms of sleep patterns etc?

Thanks again

I flew to the UK when my first child was 18 moths old and I was 8 months pregnant. We also travelled a lot throughout Europe with my toddler and a new baby and then of course back to Australia again.
On long flights I always broke the flight up by making stopovers. That way we could all stretch our legs and the girls could start getting adjusted to the new time differences. I also took a lot of finger foods on board, colouring in pencils, books, toys, etc. I also tried to choose flights that tied in with their sleep routine. Even though my girls have been on over 30 flights doesn't mean smooth sailing. You can be prepared but it all depends on your child at the time as to how your flight will turn out. Just remember to take drinks for taking off and also landing.

i have not been in a plane before but i was on a bus trip for 36 hours with a friend from kalgoorlie to bordertown and we administered something from the doctor which made her drowsey at nap times so we could have her sleep and time to ourselves. as a bus is small if not smaller than the plane.

hi there,
there is a natural calmative from a health store or chemist it called " infant calm" try it it really helped my kids when i had them in the car driving to QLD from nsw (that was a 12 hr trip).
and ive also been told to get your baby to suck on a bottle during take offs.
hope i was of some help

Does it cost extra for the bassinet? If I told the airline I would be travelling with a nearly 8 month old would they book one for me? Would I need one for a two hour flight?
I don't think I'm looking forward to it at all now as I'm going by myself, hubby's staying at home.
Kristy

I recently flew in a plane with a nearly 10 month old baby..
yes, they do get fussy when you take off and land, but they do give a little baby belt that clips onto yours.. mind you if the baby likes moving alot, best to have a seat empty next to you!!
my daughter was ok.. some flights they charge you for extra things bassinets etc,
for a short flight i wouldn't recommend getting a bassinet, as baby would most likely fall asleep on you, but for a long flight look into it..
airlines and doctors also recommend that you don't fly with a baby younger than 6 weeks.

My son was fine on our flight. He had a feed on take off but as landing took longer he didn't feed for the whole time. But he was quite content to suck on his dummy. I managed to get a seat vacant beside me on the trip up and back so my son could sit on the seat and play, while still attached to my seatbelt. He had about 40 minutes sleep both ways which was enough for him not to be too crabby. If travelling by yourself the flight attendants will mind bubs if you need to go to the loo. I found that they were more attentive and helpful. I flew Jetstar and had no problems.
kristy