International travel

Dasha420

 Hello ladies, 
I'd like to know what anyones opinion or experience is with traveling with a new born internationally by airplane. It would be a 12 hour flight - possibly straight through. 

How old do you think the child should be?  Taking in factors such as vaccines and air pressure on the airplane along with anything else I can't think of at the moment.
I know I did think about this for a while and I don't remember if I've posted anything similar. If yes, forgive my lapse in memory. 

I will ask the pediatrician next week but I was also wondering if anyone here can weigh in on this matter. 

Please and thank you. Much appreciated. 

AmmyBelle

I haven't done this yet, but in August I plan to with my own LO, so I've asked around about it. The consensus that I reached from STMs I know and the doctors I spoke to is that 3 months is fine - she'll have all of her vaccines for the time being, and she'll still be little enough that she'll likely sleep for a lot of the trip. The air pressure thing is annoying - but if she's sucking on something (breast, bottle, pacifier) she should be alright.

Bellodomani

I traveled internationally with my son when he was like maybe 8 weeks? So maybe not ideal on the vaccination front, but great from a portability standpoint! He was just like a blob, flight was 17 hours and no big deal. He loved the soft carrier and we were breastfeeding, so it made for a pretty low maintenance situation, other than his tendency to blow out his diaper every time a plane takes off or lands

gampster

FTM here but my doctor said minimum 4 weeks. Depending on when baby girl makes her entrance we have a flight booked home 5-6 weeks after birth which hopefully means we will have both passports already. 

LondonToSavannah

We flew with our first when he was 2.5 months old after his first round of vaccinations. Like everyone else said that age is a breeze, he slept of fed the entire time. The pressure did not have an ill effects on him. We flew Chicago to London nonstop. We had the bulkhead seat and the airline provided a bassinet that hung on the wall, it was perfect. 

Flying with him  internationally at 16 months was a flipping nightmare...lol

Dasha420

@LondonToSavannah haha. The "flipping nightmare" comment made me laugh.

I was thinking around 3 months since its inline with the vaccines and she'll still be so tiny. 

@gampster I forgot about passports!! Can't just shove them under a boob and walk through security like that. ^-^

LondonToSavannah

We expedited the passport and had it in 2 weeks from application.

I would've used a more colorful term for flying with him at 16 months but that would be naughty. lol

Bellodomani

@LondonToSavannah Oh man, even flying across country at that age is horrific, so glad we didn't have to travel internationally. Having come out on the other side of things, I think the absolute worst age to fly with is like 11 months (or whenever your kid starts to walk) until like 2 years (or whenever your kid starts to give a shit about the iPad).

Bltbear82

Totally agree, we traveled a fair amount with DS1 before he started walking and it was a breeze. Our longest flight was 9.5 hours at 15/16 months. I'll take flying NYC-LA alone with an infant over wrangling a toddler on an overnight international flight any day. Less gear was required but way more patience at that point. 

proudparent2b

Wow, you ladies are ambitious! I'm not even looking to road trip with my son until he's over five months old!

LondonToSavannah

Bellodomani said:

@LondonToSavannah Oh man, even flying across country at that age is horrific, so glad we didn't have to travel internationally. Having come out on the other side of things, I think the absolute worst age to fly with is like 11 months (or whenever your kid starts to walk) until like 2 years (or whenever your kid starts to give a shit about the iPad).

Yes! And to make it even more enjoyable he didn't sleep AT ALL, either way! Omg, we wanted to murder everyone. I told my DH I'm never flying with anyone ever again, lol.

We have a break for now, my DH is going on his own this summer for a wedding. I think we won't have to attempt again until Christmas 2017, which would put this 2nd kid in the horror flying age. Can't wait.