December 2011 Moms

Flying with LO

Hello ladies,

I was hoping for some tips and advice for traveling with DD this summer.  I know many of you lovely ladies have already flown with your LO?s on both short and long flights.  We have quite a long one this summer and DD will be 18 months and to be honest, I?m super anxious when I even start thinking about it.  Like every other mom flying with LO?s you want to minimize the melt-downs and lack of activities to keep them busy, both for your sanity and everyone else?s on the plane.  I know that everything?s not going to be smooth sailing and I?m fine with that, but I just want to be prepared to deal with what comes.

A little background on DD: she?s very adventurous, talkative, curious and is currently going through a heavy tantrum phase.  I?m hoping that calms a little over the next month or so, but I?m not holding my breath.  The reason I describe her like this is that my best friend has a little girl the same age, (they spend a lot of time together too) who is timid, rather quiet, and laid back.  They are both sweet-natured, smart and so fun but my daughter just has that extra fire in her, if you know what I mean Wink

We are traveling from Fresno, CA to Accra, Ghana in July and we will be gone until the first week in August.  My husband is from there and is leaving this coming weekend to go first, then my mom, DD, and I will join him in August.  I?ll have some help from my mom but we fly from Fresno, CA to Dallas, to Houston, to Istanbul, Turkey (overnight in Istanbul, Turkey with a hotel thank goodness), hidden stop (meaning you don?t get off the plane) in Ivory Coast, and then to Ghana.  We?ve been before so I know what to expect on the flights but never with a baby.  I know we?ll be fine when we are actually there but the flights are so daunting to think about and calculate the amount of hours we?ll be in an enclosed space.  The longest flight is from Houston to Istanbul (13 hours).    I have checked into bassinet service but we are still waiting on confirmation for that. 

I?ve been doing some internet searches and reading different articles about flying with children, but who better to ask than all of you with the experience?  Any advice, tips, warnings, links, etc would be greatly appreciated however small. 

TIA ladies!

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Re: Flying with LO

  • RizziBRizziB member

    Wow - that's a long trip! 

    We have flown with DD several times, including a couple weeks ago, but the longest flight was only 3.5 hours.  Although it adds to the expense, on a long flight it would be great for your LO to have her own seat, even if you have to hold her in your lap at times.  The extra space made the trip more tolerable for us when DD was awake and wanted to play.  Also, we checked as much as we could and kept carry-ons to a minimum.

    For the long flight, make sure to have plenty of snacks!  I haven't had any problems flying with bottles of (cow) milk and fruit pouches for DD.  I just bring a separate mini cooler (from my Medela PISA) with the frozen ice pack and send it through security.  I would definitely suggest a couple of outfit changes for you and LO in case there are any accidents.  As for toys, I've heard to get new stuff but I typically bring things that I know she really likes.  If you have an iPad or iPhone, there are baby apps that can also help keep LO entertained.  

    As for the other passengers, other than keeping DD from kicking the back of the other seats, I try not to worry too much about what they think or if they're annoyed by having a baby close by.  Hopefully you have understanding people near you.  Good luck! 

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  • That's actually very helpful advice, thank you!  I would have LOVED to have bought a seat for DD but at $2,400.00 a person (and that's the cheaper flight/seats) I can't afford to get her one.  Next time we go though, probably in another two years, I will have to. 

    I had been wondering about bringing her liquids onto the plane because of their regulations but it sounds like they may make exceptions.  I'll definitely check into all of that.

    Thanks again for the advice!  Much appreciated :)

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  • Flown a few times with the kids - most recently was a 4 hour flight to Mexico in December.  We didn't purchase a seat for DS but if there is an open seat they will always give it to us.  So always ask!  Most are willing to help when you get to the ticketing area or gate - especially on such long flights!  And if you have your own seat bring your car seat on the plane.

    One thing - bring milk!  On our flight to Mexico there were only 4 small containers of milk total.  Luckily they gave us 2 but that was after a lot of please, please please, this kid only drinks milk, he's going to scream the whole flight if we don't have any!  I would have thought for sure they'd carry more milk!

    Extra clothes - I swear every trip one of the kids has leaked through.  So extras for LO as well as you in case you pick them up and don't realize they leaked until it was too late. 

    I don't have a lot of other ideas.  We are all flying to Paris in July so I would love to hear ideas of what else to pack on the flight. 

     

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  • RicolaRicola member

    We are going to Germany in August and the flight there is 10 hours overnight, the flight back 11 hours during the day. For the flight there we were able to get a bassinet, but back they were already booked. 

    I am also dreading it already, especially with the different time zone thrown in, too. I pinned some articles on Pinterest to prepare, but haven't gathered all the info from them yet. Maybe you want to check them out, too: 

    https://www.aintnomomjeans.com/2012/05/tips-for-flying-alone-with-kids.html

    https://www.parenting.com/gallery/50-ways-entertain-kids-plane?pnid=363362 

    DS born 12/2011
    DD born 03/2014

  • Thanks Ricola!  Much appreciated and those articles have some really great info.  I pinned them too :) Thanks again!
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