Flying advise with baby

Brego888

Hi all
Our daughter is 9 months old and we are flying to the Canaries in 2 weeks.
Does anyone have any advise for how to prepare for the flight and how best to manage during the flight itself?

Cakerbaker

Use a sling for boarding, it’s so much handier having both your hands for hand luggage / passports / just getting sorted.
Pack a selection of toys and snacks. Bring them out gradually throughout the flight. Download some cartoons on your phone / tablet.
Bring spare clothes for baby and a spare top for yourself / other people who may be holding her in case of accidents.
If breast feeding feed on take off and landing as it helps with ear pressure. I’m not sure if the same applies to bottle feeding.
We always check in the buggy with the luggage so we can forget about it and.not have to deal with packing it all up at the boarding gates. We use the sling in the airport. An advantage of checking in the buggy (in a case) is that you can fit loads of extra bits like nappies / beach towels etc in around the buggy which saves space in other luggage.

Milly33

Had the sling also when travelling and it was great.

Only tips i would have is to have everything to hand and travel as light as you can.
When taking off/landing wait until the hostess's are asked to take their seats before getting the bottle ready. Give a bottle on way up and landing and this will help with their ears.. The pre made formula if using is so handy to have, as you can warm it up by leaving it out.

Bring a few nibbles that are neat to eat and also ones that they have to concentrate on eating like some ceral, or something along those lines.

I made up a little crinkly blanket with buttons on it for my little ones first flight, she spent ages playing with it.. So bring maybe something new and also a good oldie she likes.I would try and avoid any loud toys or musical things as you will just annoying other flyers...

Dont be afriad to ask the stewards for help either i was quite surprised at how nice they were

fixXxer

Bring some calpol or similar if you can in case the ears become a problem. We had a flight from Dublin to Zim once, middle child was 18 months and had ear pain so bad she screamed the whole flight. The flight attendants were worried so they called for a doctor over the intercom. It was just the ears, but we'd left our medicine bag in the check in luggage by mistake so we had nothing on hand so we were stuck for hours.

Brego888

Thanks guys.
Any issues to be aware with what can come through security in relation to food and liquids for feeds?

fixXxer

OSI wrote: »

Medicine, formula and food for baby are allowed but expect them to test it.

Or make you taste it.

andreac

If you are bringing formula, id advise bringing the premade up little bottles you can buy. They don't open them, just put them in to a machine and scan them. Or you can buy in advance and collect after you go through security. That's what we did when we went away last year.

But you can basically bring whatever you need food/drink wise for baby through security. Just give yourself loads of time as it can take time to go through all that stuff at security. Maybe look in to one of the fast track passes if it's going to be a busy time when you are flying. It's well worth the few euro.

lashes34

OSI wrote: »

Medicine, formula and food for baby are allowed but expect them to test it.

Be careful of medicine over 100ml - it can only be brought with a prescription. We took the larger Nurofen from Dublin lately with no issues. Baby had laryngitis and doc said to take nurofen but no script obviously. On the way back from Southampton airport it was taken off us as it was over 100ml and we couldnt prove we needed it. Ready made formula wasnt a problem so I dont know if we just got unlucky. It never happened us before. They did let us give her some before they took it as she was due a dose!

Sundew

Get some ear defenders for baby. Our little one was very sensitive to noise and these were a blessing around the aircraft! They have been discarded since she turned four.https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001D13V8S/ref=twister_B07BMPPVW1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

You can get tiny travel bottles of calpol. Use it!!!!
Ignore the “ baby haters” you will spot them a mile off and try and chat to the “mammies” in the queue. They will be your savior if you need them. We have had some lovely people take our little one on their knee and we have equally had the “ daggers” from usually middle aged travellers with no other family in toe! We find it usually is middle aged travellers!

If the worst happens keep your sense of humor....!

On a recent flight there was a man with a small baby in front of us who had been split up from his wife. She was at back of plane. Baby screamed before and during takeoff because it wanted its Mammy. An irate 50 something year old English woman verbally attacked the Dad and screamed that she had not paid her money to sit beside a screaming baby!!! She also turned around and gave out to my 4 year old! Absolute “beech!”
My hubby tapped the Dad on the shoulder and told him not to worry about it and then he shouted out “ where was Louis Armstrong when you needed him!” ( for the benefit of yours truely in front!) it got a good laugh from some of the businessmen who were aware of what was going on!

Cakerbaker

In Dublin T1 there is a family lane for security. We’ve used it 3 times and there’s only ever been one family ahead of us. It’s saved us a lot of time queuing and not having to deal with resulting meltdowns is great. I’d recommend it if that’s where you’re flying from. Or check whatever airport you are flying from to see if they have similar.

sillysocks

Ziplock bags!
Have your carry on bag organised with things in ziploc bags. So nappies and wipes in one. Snacks in another,spare outfit in another. Then when you’re needing stuff you just need to look for one of the bags rather than pulling out all individual stuff. Handyfor going to do a nappy change on the flight to just bring the small bag too as the nappy changing on a flight is small.

Actually on that note change the babies nappy in the airport as you are just about to board and hopefully it’ll save a job on the plane!

Aand bring enough nappies and food for 12/24 hours in case of delays.

SeaFields

Cakerbaker wrote: »

In Dublin T1 there is a family lane for security. We’ve used it 3 times and there’s only ever been one family ahead of us. It’s saved us a lot of time queuing and not having to deal with resulting meltdowns is great. I’d recommend it if that’s where you’re flying from. Or check whatever airport you are flying from to see if they have similar.

We've been on a few family holidays now with baby & toddlers. The Spanish ' tourist' airports seem to deal with it very well and make the process very easy in both arrivals and departures in terms of passport control and security, etc.