I’m thinking about going someplace for Thanksgiving, but there is no point if I can’t bring the baby.
Do I need to buy a ticket for a six month old?
If I don’t buy a ticket, do I just hold her for the entire flight?
Do i have to let the airline know I’m bringing a baby?
Do I bring the car seat?
Do I bring the stroller?
How much breastmilk can/should I carry and how can I keep it cold?
How can I keep breast milk that I check cold? (As a male, I cannot produce breastmilk so I pretty much have to carry four days worth with me. We will test her to see if she can have formula just in case.)
I’m thinking about going someplace for Thanksgiving, but there is no point if I can’t bring the baby.
Do I need to buy a ticket for a six month old?
No, except on some international flights.
If I don’t buy a ticket, do I just hold her for the entire flight?
Yes, unless you are lucky enough to get an empty seat nearby.
Do i have to let the airline know I’m bringing a baby?
Yes.
Do I bring the car seat?
I have seen some people do this, but I have seen flight attendants refuse to let them use them because they don’t have some kind of special FAA sticker on them or something.
Do I bring the stroller?
Yes, you can roll the stroller down the jetway, then leave it by the door of the plane. They will (hypothetically) store it in the plane and unload it first, and it will (hypothetically) be waiting for you on the jetway when you get off. This has worked fine for us every time but one.
How much breastmilk can/should I carry and how can I keep it cold?
Regulations about how much liquid you can carry will probably screw you up here. Of course, the baby’s mother can bring on as much as she can store, plus she can make more while on the plane.
How can I keep breast milk that I check cold? (As a male, I cannot produce breastmilk so I pretty much have to carry four days worth with me. We will test her to see if she can have formula just in case.)
Oh, so the mother is not travelling with you? That’s a tough nut then. I think pack/ship stores can ship frozen stuff overnight. You could ship a bunch to your destination and have them put it in the freezer for you. Formula, if your baby will drink it, is far and away the easiest solution to this problem.
We’ve been looking into this as well (okay, I confess that my wife did most of the research). I’ll back up Shirley, except to add that for domestic flights you have two ticketing options:
Don’t buy a ticket and carry the child on your lap. If the flight isn’t full you can put them on an available seat, unlikely on a holiday flight.
Buy a ticket for the child and bring a carrier/car seat.
Check with the particular airline, but it is also likely that you can stow a stroller and carseat at no additional expense.
And good luck with your travels! Should be an adventure.
We’ve just sorted out flights for daughter who’ll be 6 months when we fly.
We had to buy a ticket - £16/$8 each way - and had to add the car seat as an item of hold baggage (this was chargable with the airline we’re using, might not be for others).
The pushchair (stroller?) is carried free, and we’re expected to hold daughter on our laps.
She doesn’t receive a baggage allowance, so her stuff needs to be included in our overall allowance.
Assuming you are in the USA (you did say Thanksgiving in your OP), thinking about traveling by air during the holiday with a baby means you will pay through the nose. You should have booked your travel three months ago.
As for the challenges of traveling with a baby, you need to contact the airline(s) you wish to travel right now and see what sort of rules they have when it comes to infant travel. For example, Southwest Airlines has an easy set of rules to follow, the required documentation you need, how to travel, etc. Good luck trying to find anything cohesive about infant travel with Northwest on their web site. On the other hand, Delta has quite a bit more information than Northwest when it comes to infant travel and it’s easier to locate, but it’s still a mess compared to Southwest.
You should also seriously consider travel insurance. Airlines just love to dump passengers when something happens these days (“Sorry, it’s weather-related so we don’t give a squat about you. I can’t help you with rebooking or a place to stay overnight. Next!”) and you don’t need the extra aggravation.
Lastly, realize if you really do want to fly at any time during Turkey week, it will be very crowded, your fellow passengers won’t give a damn you are carrying a child, and weather problems can screw up a fun time in nothing flat.
Thank you and have a pleasant flight with SDMB Airlines. That will be two dollars, credit or debit card only, for the water.
Most airlines won’t make you buy a ticket for a 6-month-old, but that means you won’t get a seat for the baby, either. You will have to let the airline know that you have an infant travelling with you – on Alaska Airlines, you do that at check-in. I would poke around the airline’s website before you purchase tickets, to find out what their policies are. You can gate-check both the stroller and carseat, so that they are waiting for you at the door of the plane when you arrive. This is easiest if you have a carseat that snaps into your stroller, of course. If you don’t, there are other options – you can get neato carseat roller thingies, like this, and then maybe buy a cheapo umbrella stroller when you arrive at your destination? (I’m assuming you’re travelling solo with baby – if another adult is going with you, then one can roll the stroller and one can lug the carseat).
If you don’t get a seat for the baby, then yeah, you’ll have to hold her the whole flight. At 6 months, this is probably still do-able – we flew with our son when he was 4.5 months, almost 7 months and almost 8 months, and we didn’t get a seat for him. He slept most of the way (but they were only 2- or 3-hour flights). Bring quiet-ish toys, paper for the baby to play with, etc. Definitely bring a complete change of clothes for the baby, and maybe an extra shirt or something for you, in case of blowouts/other big messes. If she’s eating solid food yet, bring some Cheerios or other bits you can feed her. And bring an empty bottle that you can fill with water once you’re past security – even if she isn’t used to it, sometimes the novelty can help keep her entertained! (Bring a water bottle for you, too.)
If you already wear your baby in a carrier (Moby wrap or Baby Bjorn or whatever), I would definitely wear that to the airport (as long as it doesn’t make the logistics any trickier). I did that with my son, and it feels much safer with all those people around. If you do, you’ll have to take the baby out at the security checkpoint (but you’ll have to take her out of the stroller or whatever, too), and you might not be able to wear her during takeoff/landing (which seems totally backwards to me – the baby is easiest to contain when I’m wearing him! – but that’s what the flight attendants told me). But we put our luggage in the stroller/carseat combo and the baby was on me and that was pretty easy.
I don’t have any direct experience with traveling with that large a quantity of expressed breast milk, since I was nursing when we flew. We did bring a couple feedings’ worth of frozen milk, but I don’t know if it was even noticed. It certainly didn’t cause a fuss. Here’s the TSA page on flying with milk/formula. You’ll have to get ice packs and/or a cooler, and it won’t be easy, but you can probably make it work.
Travelling solo is pretty tricky. I did it on one trip with my son, and it was a hassle trying to keep all our stuff contained and still be able to, y’know, go to the bathroom. And there’s no, “here, take the baby for a sec so I can get a toy/bottle/whatever out of the diaper bag.” People were usually friendly – it helps that he was just getting into a very flirty stage – but there is a lot of stuff to keep track of.
If it were me – especially if you’re flying solo with her – I would make my first trip with a baby at a time OTHER than Thanksgiving. Air travel that weekend is insane anyway, and the extra hassle of all the baby arrangements would suck all the fun out of it for me. It’s not at all un-do-able, but it is going to be STRESSFUL.
My advice to you about traveling in a plane with a baby is … don’t, if you can avoid it.
Many people have trouble on planes with their ears hurting. I myself have had experiences where my ears hurt so bad I thought any minute blood was going to start shooting out of them.
On a 14 hour flight back from China this year, a couple had a two-year-old that screamed in agony because of his ears for hours, and called mama, mama, over and over, screamed until his voice was too hoarse to scream anymore. At that point there was nothing that could be done.
it was traumatic.
the problems is often due to blocked nasal passages that do not allow the interior pressure of ear to equalize with the exterior.
Talk to your doctor and see if there is something you can give your baby to dry up his nose before flying.
The problem with the baby being tied to an adult is that in the unlikely event of an accident there is a tendency for the baby to come between the adult and a hard object, like the seat in front of the adult or a bulkhead. The usual result is an adult with minor injuries and a crushed, dead baby. I’m sorry if that’s blunt and disturbing, but it has happened. (It has also happened in car accidents, which is why you should keep the baby in the car seat and not on your lap)
Holding him isn’t much better - infants have been known to become projectiles during an accident. Past a certain point there is no way you can keep a grip the child. A minor bump, yes, but a real impact, no.
Really, the safest way for your infant to travel is in an approved car seat properly secured to an airline seat. Of course, that does require you to purchase a separate ticket. Airline accidents are so rare, however, that you are unlikely to face the above scenarios and thus the FAA allows children under 2 to be held in the lap of an adult.
Surely (well, pending my next paragraph), an infant safety seat is preferable to either Mom’s arms or a Baby Bjorn, but as you point out they aren’t mandatory. So, in cases where there isn’t one, it’s not obvious to me that a Bjorn is more dangerous than simply holding the baby. Yet that (holding instead of, uh, Bjorning) seems to be the requirement forced on stargazer.
Don’t Call Me Shirley makes mention of having run into additional, FAA-specific, requirements on infant (car) seats. This strikes me as curious - you’d think an infant seat would have to be pretty damn bad to be worse than a parent’s arms. Do you know anything about this? Will flight attendants really require that parents take a baby out of some car-approved infant seats and hold him/her during takeoff and landing?
This reminded me of a similar experience; it was a holiday trip. The only difference was that my flight wasn’t - thank God - 14 hours, though it seemed an eternity at the time. And the poor kid (under 12 months) had a cold. You can’t teach a small child or baby to yawn or swallow, much less to hold the tongue against the palate while swallowing (don’t know why that helps more; only know it does). Nursing/bottle feeding will help some with equalizing pressure in the Eustachian tubes, but it won’t do it all. Older kids can sometimes be induced to chew gum, which is another old standby for equalizing the pressure inside the various open spaces in the skull, one that nearly always seems to work.
Some years back (but subsequent to the above experience), a friend did travel with a child prone to ear problems, and Benadryl helped. OTOH, I think doctors are a lot less prone to prescribe that. Talk to your pediatrician, and see what (s)he advises, is the best thing I can tell you.
I do know how much your fellow passengers will love you (not!) if your baby does much crying in flight. Depending upon temperament of those near you in the plane, you could get verbally reamed, if you have problems with the baby; which kind (cursing, lectures, erudite comdemnation) depends on their own nature and experience. Of course, you could win the lottery, and get all three. Good luck, really. I’m afraid you’ll need it.
For some kids, but not all. With our doctor’s approval, we tested some on our little guy a couple of weeks before his first flight, and it didn’t do a darn thing.
This might be a good thing – if it had worked we’d have been tempted to use it regularly, because he’s a crappy sleeper!
The ear thing varies, too – my son didn’t have any trouble with his ears on any of the flights. I was all prepared to nurse him on the way up and the way down, which is the traditional wisdom, but he didn’t need it. He’s a big fan of his pacifier, though, which probably was just as effective.
Honestly? No, just holding baby probably isn’t any better, infants have been crushed under such circumstances, too, but it has the weight of tradition behind it. Actually, the regulations specify held in the lap as opposed to, say, “restrained by the adult”. Airline personnel are not free to interpret regulations, they must follow them to the letter.
Yes, because, again, they can NOT do anything other than follow the regulations. Only a carseat approved for use on an airplane can be used for that, otherwise, yes, you have to hold the baby. The airline can NOT make an exception for you.
Check your carseat - it may already be approved and if it is there will be something on it saying that it’s so approved. I know private pilots who get ahold of these to safely fly their own young children around as they aren’t allowed to bend on the regs, either.
There probably are perfectly functional and suitable carseats that don’t have the approval because the manufacturer never sought it. Too bad, it can’t be used on an airplane. Some manufacturers bother to get this done, some don’t.
AND CAN WE PLEASE NOT ADVOCATE DRUGGING CHILDREN FOR THE CONVENIENCE OF THE ADULTS? Really, that completely disgusts me. First of all, many children do not require medication at all to fly - I never have, and neither did two of my three sisters (my other sister used to get motion sick in the car all the time, so yeah, we assumed air travel would be a problem, too). Second, up to 20% of children have a paradoxical reaction to Benadryl - instead of sedating them it makes them HYPER. Oh, yeah, THAT’s a big help! Other OTC decongestants can cause motion sickness and dizziness.
IF your child might have a potential problem - congestion, for example, or you’re looking at a 12 hour or longer flight - go to the doctor and ask about whether medication is advisable and what to use and how much. Cripes, it just disgusts me the way people just cavalierly suggest drugging children.
And yeah, I know how annoying a kid with ear problems, or fussing, can be. I just grit my teeth - or offer to help if the parents are looking overwhelmed. Holy crap, what does it say when we prefer to drug children instead of cultivating a little tolerance for them? If you’re that traumatized by the kid in row 26 crying YOU take the drugs so you’re unconscious and YOU deal with potential side effects.
Of course I am not referring to anyone who consulted a doctor or whose child actually had a problem requiring medication It’s the “drug 'em to keep 'em quiet and managable” that pisses me off.
Speaking as a frequent flyer, if you don’t sedate your infant/young child, please please please carefully consider whether it is absolutely necessary to bring your child on the plane. I know I’m not alone when I say this: whiny/screaming/sniffling/noisy little kids are in the top 5 of my list of things that drive me absolutely batshit crazy. I can literally feel my blood vessels start to constrict and my patience snap like 2-year-old stale pretzel. Airports are already hectic and stressful enough, little kids only compound the issue. I’m sure it would be an inconvenience to stay at home or, if you do take a trip, leave the kid in good care, but parenting comes with a lot of sacrifices.
I don’t mean to single you out in particular, Broomstick, you simply made a point that I wanted to make a reply to, one directed at all conscientious flyers.
Did you miss it? I did not advise getting hold of some Benadryl. I’m also the one who mentioned that it is no longer sold OTC for children (or did they merely put it behind the pharmacy window? my grandkids are grown), and I recall why; it’s because some parents were over-using it - and that it doesn’t always work that well as a decongestant in small children, anyway.
The friend’s child I mentioned had already been through repeated bouts of ear infections, and they had determined through experience that Benadryl was helpful. Of course, he was also given an antibiotic (prophylactically, IIRC, but the young child in that story is now in his mid-20s. I could be fuzzy about whether or not he had an infection at that particular time).
I was merely trying to explain the problems, and some possible responses. The brain is a delicate organ, and it alters - sometimes quickly, and often dramatically - in response to some meds. I cannot, personally, take Benadryl, or any drug of that class. It doesn’t sedate me, or make me bounce off the walls. Benadryl makes me bounce off the ceiling, and I’m an old lady who doesn’t bounce well. I felt it keenly when they took phenylpropanolamine off the market, and it took some adapting for me to be able to take pseudoephedrine instead. Ephedrine compounds merely make me nervous and affect my sleep. My body clearly doesn’t like any kind of “upper”.
I am not now, nor have I ever been, in favor of shoving pills down anyone, child or adult. As a chronic pain patient, I do everything I can to avoid increasing oral pain meds - including rub-on gels and lidocaine patches. And a lot of the time, I just grit my teeth, and try to distract myself with a book, or a computer game.
Pax?
stargazer mentioned pacifiers. They are often very effective, especially with babies who are enthusiastic at sucking. I’ve occasionally wondered, over the years, whether the couple whose sick baby “entertained” us all on that holiday flight had some aversion to them. They were immigrants of some sort, and obviously embarrassed by the problem. But feeling sorry for them - and most of all, for the baby - didn’t help the headache I got from the screaming at all.
I also happen to think that hobscrk777 has spoken words of wisdom. If I had, or were responsible for, a very young child, and also felt I absolutely had to travel, I would travel by surface, if at all possible. I do realize, however, that intercontinental travel is an entirely different matter; that’s hours vs. days.
Well not this time I guess. I was all set to go, but then I checked to see the earliest she could get her flu shot. She can’t get her flu shot until late December because technically she isn’t six months old until then. No way am I bringing my non-immunized child on a plane through all that crowd during Thanksgiving weekend. I will have to wait until late January.
Actually, I’m not a parent. Nonetheless, I have learned to tolerate some of the noise and furor of young children because, ya know, they’re people and not loud luggage. Maybe we should sedate YOU for the convenience of babies.
I agree, parents should carefully consider the wisdom of traveling with young children, but sometimes it is necessary, and other times it is reasonable.
I am absolutely against routine sedation of children solely for the convenience of others
Certainly, a child with an ear infection - or an adult for that matter - probably WILL need something to prevent pain before a flight. That is a medical problem, where, as I mentioned, it is entirely appropriate to medicate as directed by a doctor.
And right after my post we have hobscrk777 who apparently thinks drugging kids and knocking them out during flights is not only acceptable but desirable. It’s THAT attitude I’m opposed to, not responsible medical treatment for a real problem.
