Flying advice

PeachyBella · January 2014

I'm taking LO to see my parents next week. We'll be on a direct 1.5-hr flight.bAnyone done it before with a young baby? I'd love any tips y'all have to offer!

barista411 · January 2014

I flew with DD when she was only a few weeks old and it was so easy! This is seriously the best time to fly with LO. I checked DD's car seat but looking back now I kind of regret it. They get so banged up when going through with luggage. I would check it at the gate or see if your parents have one or would be willing to get one so you don't have to deal with checking your carseat. I also wore DD in my moby wrap which I loved having her close and feeling like she was protected from germs. I did have to take the moby wrap off going through one of the security checks but the rest of them they just ran the wand over me to make sure I wasn't hiding anything. I BF so I don't have much advice about bottles and formula. The actual flight was really easy. I fed her during take off and landing and she just slept during the whole flight.

MWagner10 · January 2014

Yeah we are flying on the 30th and I'm a pumper. I would love to hear some advice!

YummeeCookee · January 2014

Thanks for the tips, Liz. We are making a trans-Pacific flight w DD next month. I had been wondering about juggling all the baby gear we will need.

PeachyBella · January 2014

Very helpful! Appreciate all the advice, especially on the "Infant in Arms" designation!

Amcabbott · January 2014

I'm flying at the end of the month H will be just over 3 months. I'm nervous because it'll be about a 3 hour flight and he's not a very content baby so I'm afraid he'll cry a ton and we'll be "those people" with the inconsolable baby! Thanks for the tips so far!

MJM291982 · January 2014

Most of my tips have been mentioned already. I always overpack and took way too much of his stuff. Next time, I'll travel way lighter and prob just carry him in the wrap instead of his big ole stroller. Maybe if we had the caddy it would have been easier. We also checked the rock n' play as one of our pieces of luggage so he'd have a place to sleep at my MIL's and it's super portable so we could take it with us to other people's houses for naps. We didn't worry about the car seat base. We just installed the car seat in the rental car without the base.

We gate checked his stroller and carseat. You are allowed one carry-on and one personal item, so we each had a backpack, and I had a little cooler for his breast milk and DH had his diaper bag. Again... Too much stuff. I'll try to consolidate better next time.

DH dropped me off at the door, put our luggage on one of those carts. I waited while he parked the car and took the shuttle with the baby to meet me inside.

We had to show his birth certificate at check-in, FYI and it had to be the real one, not a copy. You can take breast milk through security, just pull it out seperately and they test it.

Feeding him for take off/landing worked great. The sucking helps with the ear pressure. I breast fed him under a nursing cover and no one even knew he was there. We even had people comment on that and how he didn't make a peep.

Not sure which airline you're flying, but southwest does family boarding. I could have sworn that they used to do it first after the passengers that need assistance, but now they let the whole "A" group board first. So if you want to sit together, you still end up going pretty far back in the plane. Might have to pay that extra $12/ticket for early
bird seating next time

Airports are germy places. Wash your hands as often as you can and keep the baby covered up so strangers don't try touching.

It was pretty easy and I've heard this age is easier to fly with them than when they get older and require more entertainment, etc. You'll do great

Good luck!

laceface89 · January 2014

I flew with my LO at 3 and 5 weeks. My older sister lent us a carseat so we didn't have to deal with that. I also used a wrap in the airport and that helped a ton.

If you can, it helped for us to get LO asleep right before boarding. The trip out he slept the whole way. On the way back he cried till falling asleep right before take off. Our flight attendant was amazing and made jokes about it, helped everyone relax. This was on a 30 person plane, it was tiny!

Oh! one thing I was unaware of before. On some planes only specific seats have infant oxygen masks. We were informed after we were all buckled in and ready to go and had to move seats. It might be useful to ask about it before you sit/buckle in case you need to be in a particular spot.

sands42 · January 2014

I flew with my 3 year old and my 2 week old in November by myself. Direct flight got cancelled- had to wait 4 hours for another flight that wasn't direct. It was a 14 hour day.

You will be fine- babies are easy to travel with when they are little- it's when they get to around 1 year old when it becomes the worst the travel because they want to get down and run around.

Glitteraati · January 2014

Thank you so much for these tips! I'm flying 6 hours across the country when LO will be 12 weeks and she cries constantly, so I'm terrified about the flight. Praying she does well

3Dewdrops · January 2014

I flew with LO and my 4 year old at 6 weeks. I wore LO in the moby wrap in the airport and was going to gate check the carseat since I heard they can get banged up. While DH's company wouldn't get LO a seat to himself the gate agent did so I ended up getting to use the seat. He slept almost the entire way, longer than he had been sleeping at that age. I think the flight is 2.5 hours? His carseat fit great, the Graco snugride 30. I heard some carseats make it so the seat in front can't recline. I just tilted his seat back more than I would in the car. I preferred him laying back more to sleep anyway. Take off and landing didn't bother him. He didn't peep the whole flight.

I fed him near the end. I was glad my youngest DD was on the other side of me because I would not want to nurse sitting next to a stranger. I don't usually NIP but what can you do.

It was an Airbus 320 I think. (for carseat fitting reference)

YummeeCookee · January 2014

MJM291982 said:

We had to show his birth certificate at check-in, FYI and it had to be the real one, not a copy.

I was wondering about this. Anyone else have to do this, and what airlines? I am only worried about it bc I still don't have DD's even thought I ordered it 2 days after we got home from the hospital. My state is notoriously slow, disorganized and inefficient with these types of civil services, so DD will probably be a year old before I ever see the birth cert.

barista411 · January 2014

YummeeCookee said:

MJM291982 said:

We had to show his birth certificate at check-in, FYI and it had to be the real one, not a copy.

I was wondering about this. Anyone else have to do this, and what airlines? I am only worried about it bc I still don't have DD's even thought I ordered it 2 days after we got home from the hospital. My state is notoriously slow, disorganized and inefficient with these types of civil services, so DD will probably be a year old before I ever see the birth cert.

----------------
I had to show DD's birth certificate every time we checked in. They also wouldn't let me check in online either because of this.

If you don't get BC on time I would call the airline ahead of time and see how thy would like you to handle it.

Preppytraveler · January 2014

I flew from singapore to Phoenix at 5 weeks and back at 8 weeks, 25 hours of travel time. Everyone had really great advice, we ended up getting delayed and just overpack diapers and outfits, just incase and formula if necessary. Also with a flight as long as we had our son did great, but don't be afraid to be that person with the crying baby...it happens and it isn't as mortifying as it seems and just remember, most people on the plane have been parents

but I really think it is the easiest time to fly! Good luck!

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