Next week, my wife and I will be taking out 13-month-old daughter onto a plane for the first time. The flight is only 60-65 minutes. I don’t expect the plane to even be at capacity, but there’s a chance it could be full. We’ll be in coach.
My main concerns are about bringing the baby’s extras along … namely a small ice-pack bag for two sip cups/bottles and her diaper bag (on the smallish side). Can we expect to bring those things on, plus a carry-on bag of clothes each for ourselves?
Our daughter is an excellent and experienced traveller by car. We have taken dozens of 3-4 hour drives with the baby, and she is fine. By nature she is content, and (90% of the time) easy to calm down.
Do we have to worry much about her ears? Are there unexpected things we might need to consider?
Take-off and landing are hard on the ears, because they can’t clear them very well. Screaming is a great solution, but isn’t always nice for the other passengers! Sucking on something will also do the trick nicely, so have a pacifier (if you’re into that), bottle or sippy cup handy.
A few books are nice, and a favorite toy or two. The flight is nice and short, so you don’t have to worry about bringing everything in the house with you.
A change of clothes for the baby is a must, in case of the unexpected. Changing tables in the heads on most airplanes are pretty sad, so if your little one agrees, it could be easier to change a wet diaper on the seat. You might bring along a couple of those perfumed plastic bags in case of a poopy diaper, everyone will appreciate it. Wet ones fit in a barf bag.
Bring her favorite snack and favorite beverage. Don’t count on the airline for anything when it comes to kids.
You’ll be fine! Take a picture for the scrap book!
Based on my observations of parents with todders during my aviation escapades, I can make the following recommendations:
If the airline is a reserved seat carrier (i.e., not Southwest) then buy a ticket for the child. You do not want to be stuck with her in your lap in the event the aircraft gets stuck on the taxiway for three hours due to weather delays.
(Heck, I don’t know if they even allow this anymore… but I’ve observed parents who at some point have decided that not buying a ticket for their child was a mistake, after all.)
Don’t schedule the flight for late in the day or for such a long day of traveling that the kid gets cranky and inconsolable… cuz many won’t sleep en route.
Dress her in comfy, layered clothes and sneakers or sandals.
Introduce her to the flight attendant when she gets onboard the plane, and make sure the flight attendant knows it’s her first flight. She’ll possibly receive a small toy or gift during the flight, at a moment when you need her distracted or consoled.
and last, but not least…
Do not dress your hyperactive child in hiking boots and feed her a starbucks venti hot chocolate with extra sugar before boarding a plane where her assigned seat is your lap. I once saw an example of this error in which mom, dad, and everyone in the adjacent rows may still have the bruises to show for it.
Our daughter is too young to sit alone, so we did not buy her a ticket. We’ll have to gamble on the weather (they wouldn’t disboard for a three-hour delay? I rarely fly, so I wouldn’t know).
Flight is first thing in the morning. The flight is really our only travel of the day.
Check … this is her everyday wear.
Hadn’t thought to do this … good tip.
She’s way too young for coffee and hiking boots. No problems there.
If your child has a cold/runny nose, consider asking the flight attendant to request a ‘slow descent’ on the landing approach. Slow descents are usual, however quick descents are sometimes used to fit flights into the pattern more efficiently. If you have requested a slow descent (for a real reason), the pilot will (hopefully) not accept a quick descent if offered. Better to be a few minutes late, or drive around for a while, than hurt a small child unneccessarily.
I learned this the hard way – sitting in front of a 2-year old with a runny nose. We did a quick descent into Seattle, and everyone shared his pain.
The first time I ever flew (at age 22), the pilot both rose sharply and descended sharply. I was perfectly healthy, yet my ears were killing me for about a day afterwards. I thought that was typical of all flights, and I was thinking “Damn, this sucks … I shoulda drove!”
Fortunately, the return trip was gentle … much like a bus ride. My ears were A-OK. That restored my faith in airline travel.
…
Upon your advice, I am considering asking for a slow descent next week, regardless of my daughter’s health.
I usually fly Continental, since they’re the only ones with a nonstop from Norfolk to Houston.
When I fly, my little girl is always with me. She started flying at about 6 months, which was no problem, since she slept the whole time. Now that she’s older, 16 months, she doesn’t sleep unless she’s really tired, but she is a generally happy baby and is usually content to spend the flight snacking and looking at her books/playing with toys. I bring a couple of small toys, cheerios and goldfish crackers, her sippy cup with water, and a jar or two of food. I also bring her car seat and stroller and gatecheck them.
When you get there and get your boarding pass, ask if they have an empty seat next to yours so that you could put the car seat there. They often do, and if so, you won’t have to pay for the seat. I’ve heard that you can buy a seat for the baby and if the plane isn’t full, you will be refunded, but I’ve never tried that, so don’t take that as gospel. I think you are usually allowed two carryon bags per person, so your bag situation shouldn’t be a big deal. On some airlines, baby items aren’t supposed to count against your carry on limit, but again, that’s something I’ve never tried, because I don’t want to get there and find out that they’ve changed the rules.
I learned on our last trip that carrying the car seat through the airport was a pain, because it is so bulky. This time I put my daughter in the sling, put her carseat in the stroller and piled the carryon bags on top of it. It was so easy!
Please do tell us you’re kidding. 300 other passengers, the flight crew, and the airline’s schedule should be compromised because of a snotty two-year old?
I have never flown with either kid on my lap- no thanks. I have always bought an airline seat then strapped the car seat into it. That way, the kid is comfy in familiar surroundings, and I have it handy at the other end. And I don’t have to hold the baby the whole time, which can make a short flight seem very long.
Stroller are easy- gate check it. This means you wheel her right up to the plane, then they tag the stroller, fold it up and send it down a slide straight to the luggage hold doors. Last thing in is the first thing out, and it will meet you after the flight at either the door of the plane or at the end of the jetway.
About buying a seat for an under-two year old- on a “regular” airline, they will usually sell it to you for half the adult fare. Southwest and JetBlue do not, because you are already getting a discount fare.
Also, you can only put a car seat next to the window, it is an FCC reg IIRC. A car seat between you and the aisle could conceivably slow you down in the event of an emergency, so they require the kids to be furthest from the aisle. That’s fine, unless you are flying with two kids and can’t sit between them. Yuck, tough flight for all of us…
Go to your local thrift store and buy a couple of bags o’ toys off the wall o’ toys. Wash them well. Buy or make a fabric bag, and dump toys in. Take with you. When baby gets restless, pull out a ‘brand new’ toy she’s never seen before. When she gets bored, put it away and pull out a new one. Repeat as necessary. By the time you get back to toy #1, she’ll have forgotten it.
Here’s what I did around that age. Wore cargo pants with duplicates of things in various pockets. You don;t know when you need to quick draw a pacifier, wet wipe, diaper, 1-2 pairs of pants in case of accident, candy for the descent, juice, water, snack, toy, etc. Take a couple of everything because that whole trip to the airport, through check in, departure lounge, on the plane, deplaning, getting out of the airport, takes a long time and can be stressful.
Bring it all with you and have back ups in reach by either hand. you don’t want to have to try get to the overhead locker or unzip the bag shoved under the seat in front of you or any of that.
We’re flying Southwest, so I’ll just have to gamble that the flight is not full. It never occurred to me that a car seat would be allowed onto a plane.
Perhaps soaking the child’s binky in blackberry brandy will help. You may want to bring along a flask for yourself as well. Another option is to pulverize a Xanax tablet and mix it with some milk in a bottle. Nighty-night, rabbit!
(What? I keed, I keed! Sounds like an excerpt from “AbFab’s Guide to Parenting” or something…)
Passengers with small children are allowed to board the plane first. Make sure you get there earlier enough to take advantage of this. If there’s no assigned seating, this will allow you to choose the seats you want (you will not be allowed to sit in a row with an exit since those passengers are expected to help if an emergency exit is required).
Many planes have a row of seats at the front of the coach section that doesn’t have another row directly in front of it (sometimes it faces a backward-facing row). This row is usually close to the bathroom and flight attendant service, and it has more leg-room and generally more room to fuss about with your baby and other stuff. The disadvantage is that it has no food trays.
Or you might consider the back row, which is close to a bathroom and to flight attendant service.
There is an unwritten rule of courtesy that if you took advantage of pre-boarding, you should allow the other passengers to deplane ahead of you. They’ll get a little testy if they’re held up on the way out by you and the baby and the baby’s stuff.
Check your car seat to see if it’s FAA certified for airplane use before bringing it on board. Most are, but some aren’t. Definitely bring it if it is certified though - the worst that can happen is the flight is full, and they ask you to free up that seat and gate check the car seat.
If you have a camcorder with a flip out screen and if your child is into the video age yet (I don’t remember if mine were watching videos by 13 months), tape some of the videos onto a camcorder tape - you should be able to do this with a vcr and some a/v cables. My daughter thought watching Pooh on the tiny screen was the coolest thing about the flight. Definitely ask to preboard as well.
No, I’m not kidding. Nobody’s going to be inconvenienced – it’s just that one of the options flight controllers have to balance the holding pattern is a fast descent. Taking that option away for a particular plane isn’t going to make anyone late for anything.
And yeah – 300 people, the flight crew, and the airlines schedule should be compromised because of a snotty two-year old. Because if they weren’t, the snotty two-year old could be rendered deaf. Permanently.
Which I should have mentioned in my post, but I didn’t want to stress anyone out. If your kid truly has a serious upper respiratory infection, don’t fly with them. It isn’t completely safe.
