Baby's first airplane trip

jcf

Hi ,
This week we will be taking our 6 month old on a plane for the first time ,
The flight is approx. 2 hours long.
We are a little worried about how to handle it if he gets sore ears , what's the best cure ?

We are flying Aer Lingus so we will be treated well ...we hope :

Anyway anyone else who took their young babies on a flight post here your experiences/advice .


Cheers

galah

took our then 5 months old on a trip to Germany last month, flew aerlingus as well - can highly recommend them! They were absolutely brilliant. We were allowed to board first, they were great at check-in, bringing the pram was no problem (and we got it back in one piece and undamaged ;-)), the changing facilities at the airport were grand, everything went really well.

For the ears - well, I breastfed our wee one for take-off and landing, but he didnt seem to have any issues anyway, was only doing his usual 'I'm sleepy' fussing for a bit mid-flight, and slept pretty much the entire flight through (both ways). I guess 'sucking' is a general cue for sore ears, so bring a dummy or a bottle if you're not breastfeeding.

One tip - bring a carrier or sling to carry baby in around the airport - while Dublin was no problem (you can keep the pram up to the gate, and when returning you get the pram pretty much when you leave the plane) - but at our destination, the pram was delivered with the main luggage, and it was a bit of a treck from the gate to baggage hall! Wouldnt have fancied that walk with baby and hand lugagge etc in my arms! It's just handy to have your hands free

have a nice holiday ;-)

growler

done 4 flights with our 5 month old now and would advise: keep the changing bag close to the top of your hand luggage, bring a dummy in case of earache / pressure, try and time flights to coincide with nap times, bring a few toys to keep them amused if needed, ireland (and spain) seems to be ok with bringing premade bottles through to airside UK seemed convinved that a bottle of aptamil would expode at any moment. the sling is a good idea, but thus far our buggy has been waiting at the bottom of the aircraft steps on arrivsl each time. Check if the flight is full when you check in, if not dont feel shy about taking up a spare seat for the little one.

RachaelVO

I did a huge amount of flights with both mine, even when babies! First my daughter, then 20 months after her birth my son!

I always had bottles ready for take off. As soon as I could feel the pressure changed, I fed him/her and I did the same when I could feel us coming into land. It certainly did the trick for mine, the sucking motion relieved whatever pressure changes there were!

You'll be surprised how not so bad it really is. Aer Lingus will fall over themselves to help you. When we were travelling with my daughter, she was 11 months, they put a seat between us, so she could have her own seat during the flight, and then on one of our laps take off and land. They couldn't have been nicer!

Just remember, if you're stressed about travelling with baba, baba picks up on it, just remember the nappies, wipes, change of clothes and bottles, and you can't really go far wrong

Enjoy your trip

3DataModem

My twins have flown over 20 times each in first two years. Best thing for ear pain in my experience is sucking... soother or bottle or anything else.

uck51js9zml2yt

we have flown with our now 18 month old on numerous flights without a problem.
you will be asked to take bottles of milk out of the bag at xray in Dublin but there was never a problem with quantities'

were are you flying to? We might be able to answer specifics.:D

neonman

We've used these with our little one.

http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Banz-Hearing-Protector-Earmuffs/dp/B002SW3F0A

Worked out great we've gone on a 3hr flight with her when she was around 9 months and then just recently 8hr to the US but she is now 20mths old.

She was great on all fights (beginners luck)

dublinlady

Just brought by then 13 weeks old on 3 hr flight with aerlingus. They were fab - really kind - flight wasn't full so they gave us an extra seat to make it easier! No prob bringing bottles thru - I had 4 x 7 oz bottles of cooked boiled water with me and at other end on return flight I was made taste one but that was fine!
I gave her calpol 45 mins before take off for prevention of painful ears - and worked a treat - she genuinely didn't seem to notice we were moving at all!! She slept the whole way - I gave her a bottle at very start and offered her one at end ( she didn't take this one til after flight) and she had her soother so I think the sucking helped with the pressure too.
Had my baby bjorn carrier - needed it without doubt!! We checked in our pram in a stokke pram pack so didn't have to bother with that and it's free to do that.
Had a blanket for plane and get just in a sleep suit - it can be cool because of the aircon.
I had baby in carrier and we had a wheels hand luggage and then the changing bag - worked well!
I'd say be organized and it's not a bad experience!!

jcf

Hadassah Teeny Flesh wrote: »

we have flown with our now 18 month old on numerous flights without a problem.
you will be asked to take bottles of milk out of the bag at xray in Dublin but there was never a problem with quantities'

were are you flying to? We might be able to answer specifics.:D

Ok thanks , it's Barcelona - Dublin ...