Travelling with a Baby

We recently took a trip down to Esperance to visit P's family. There are only two ways of getting there from Perth

Option A : Drive 8 hours

Option B : Fly for 1.5 hours and pay an exorbitant price for it

Despite the cost, we went for option B obviously. Having a newborn, I wasn't yet ready to face the long drive, as it probably would have stretched out to 10 hours with all the stops/feedings. 

Only SkyWest flies there and the planes are tiny due to the low demand. Small planes = big turbulence :( 

I was really worried the night before the flight thinking about how S would cope, whether she would get bad pain from ear popping, and crossing my fingers that she didn't scream the whole flight. We came well prepared with her dummy, back up dummy, and two bottles of milk so that she would have things to suck on. 

Well I needn't have worried. The airlines give you mini seatbelts that attach to your seatbelt, so they are connected to you the whole flight. S happily sat on my lap upright during takeoff and landing. We rubbed gently behind her ears, she sucked on her dummy, and didn't have any issues with ear popping at all (or if she did, it didn't bother her). After take-off I lay her down on my lap (still attached with the seatbelt) and she drifted off to sleep! I guess the vibration and noise from the engine was nice and soothing for her. She slept the whole way, and did the same on way back. 

Overall, her first flight experience was a success. A short flight like this was a good idea to get her used to flying as we're now planning a trip to Singapore which is a bit longer (5 hours), but now I know that she will be able to handle it well. 

If you're planning on plane travel with young babies, here's some of the things I would recommend to make your trip easier and less stressful:

Carrier

 

We have an ergo, and used this in the airport as we didn't take our pram. It was so much easier to have her in the carrier rather than carry her around in our arms, especially considering the flight was delayed. It was also safer carrying her this way when crossing the tarmac. 

Pacifier or Bottle

 

S used a dummy during the flight (let's be honest, she pretty much uses one all the time), and didn't have any issues with ear popping. Not sure if it was just a coincidence, but I would still make sure she had one next time. If you don't use dummy, a bottle would do the same thing.

Airline Pillows

 

Get a couple of pillows from the flight attendant to put over the arm rests to assist in their sleeping, and to protect their heads in case of turbulence.

Spare clothes

There was another baby in the row in front of us who was probably around a year old. She did a projectile vomit about 15 minutes into the return flight which proceeded to get on both parents, herself and the seats. They didn't bring spare clothes so it was a pretty messy flight for them. Lesson learned. 

What else have you found useful on flights with babies?

Riette

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