Plane travel with a baby

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My wife and I are planning a trip and we’d be taking our 9-month old baby with us. When booking seats on a flight, is it better to get a window seat or an aisle seat?

On the one hand, it seems that easy access to the aisle should be the no-brainer choice since the baby might need to be cleaned off, changed, etc. But then again, it would be inconvenient to have to get up if the person at the window seat has to get up. And there might be more of a disturbance to thre rest of the passengers to have a screaming baby on the aisle rather than the window.

Also, does anyone have advice on how to keep a baby quiet on the plane?

Thanks for the help.

2

There were a couple threads on this a little while back. I’ll see if I can find them.

See if the airline will give you the bulkhead, or front seats in coach. Those are great for kids. I’m not sure about window versus aisle, but I would guess the baby would be too young to get any enjoyment out of a view. I would take what’s most convenient for you, and don’t worry about disturbing people. Screaming babies are all part of the flying experience :wink:

3

Sit at the window and try to enjoy the view. This is a complete WAG, but do you think it would be helpful if the baby was relatively tired and would simply go to sleep after takeoff?

4

Make sure sure sure you bring a bottle for the baby to drink during take off and landing to help her ears decompress.

Get the aisle. You will find if you have to get up and walk around it is much easier.

Bongmaster is right on. It is much better to bring a tired baby and hope they sleep.

Bring your car seat with you. If the plane is not full, and you get cooperative flight attendants, you can keep the baby in the car seat and strap her in the seat next to you. It may take some juggling of passengers but people are usually willing to give up their seat rather than sit next to a baby. If the plane is full, you just check it at the gate. Actually this is where flying southwest with their no assigned seating is helpful.

5

How long is the flight? Are you changing planes? How long do you need to travel altogether?

If this is for a flight under 2 hours you have almost no worries.

The three biggest things to do:

Bring a bottle. Sucking will help clear the ears during takeoff and landing.

Bring extra diapers and food for the little one.

Bring entertainment for the little one.

Bring LOTS of food. Do not rely on airline food for the little one. And extra diapers. More. You don’t know when or where you will get stuck and not having those will be painful. Extra set of clothes incase they get sick.

Gate check a stroller. If you have to change planes, having a stroller to get the little one through the airport is very, very handy. It also helps with schlepping baggage around an airport.

At 9 months the little one isn’t likely to be walking, but if it looks like they will be, I’d recommend the aisle so they (and you) can walk back to the bathrooms a few times with them. Don’t do this a lot and don’t interfere with the service. They will likely be crawling and cruising, so taking them to the back of the plane near the bathrooms is helpful.

If both you and your wife are traveling, book the window and the aisle. Most times the seat between you will be vacant and you can have just a bit more room.

Are you flying at night? If so, get them in their pajamas or sleepwear before you get on the plane.

9 months is tough to entertain, but do what you can. If there are toys they particularly enjoy, be sure to bring them. I’ve found books to be great. They travel well and kids usually will sit quietly listening to them. 9 months may be a touch young for that, though. Bring something new. Don’t forget the return trip. New toys tend to hold attention longer than familiar ones. Wrap them because opening takes time and can be a fun thing to do. It also gives them paper to play with.

Basically I pack my carry on bags full of stuff for the little ones. All my stuff goes into the checked baggage, save for a change of underwear, a toothbrush and maybe some deodorant.

My experience with traveling with tired kids is that you get cranky, tired kids on the plane. I’ve tried to keep them to their normal sleep schedule as much as possible. This is, of course, just my experience. Others will have different ones. You know your kid best.

If I think of anything else I’ll let you know.

6

Going from NYC to Chicago. Baby is a boy, BTW. Probably travelling at night, so hopefully we’ll have a sleeping baby…

This is great advice!

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Hey, as long as you don’t sit near me…
:smiley:

8

I took my son at age 3 months from AZ to FL and he slept almost the whole way. I think that I had the window seat and my husband had the middle, and we just put the armrest up and formed a 3-body pile that was relatively comfortable.

I’ve flown with him at least once a year since then and the key really seems to be sleep. Many toys can be a bad idea as they tend to bash them around and make lots of noise. At 9 months maybe a soft plush toy and before that, keep baby awake as long as possible beforehand. Bring blankets. Being wrapped up really makes a big difference in getting to sleep.

You may wish to bring several five-dollar bills, and make use of the little tiny bottles of booze they sell :wink:

9

When booking seats on a flight, is it better to get a window seat or an aisle seat?

Can’t you just put the baby in the overhead compartment? Should be a perfect fit.

Also, does anyone have advice on how to keep a baby quiet on the plane?

Filling the baby’s bottle with vodka or brandy usually does the trick. Nighty-night, rabbit!
PLEASE KNOW I AM 100%, COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY JOKING.
I plan on having a child one day and being a very good mother.

10

I flew with Bubbaleechie when she was 6 weeks old and I can second the advice about bringing a bottle.

I made sure the bottle had a “slow flow” type teat on it, as this made her have to work harder to get to a drink. The more she was sucking on the bottle the less she was crying about the pressure in her ears.

Also I wore a harness with her in it. This meant she could snuggle close to me and was warm but also I had my hands free to juggle the meal on the flight and baggage.

The maternal and child health nurse recommended I take a dummy for her to suck on just in case the bottle didn’t work. I took one but didn’t have to use it.

In between feeds she slept and we got compliments at the end of the flight on what a good baby she was. :slight_smile:

We are flying again in December and I plan to use all the above methods again. Think the coolest thing about flying with a baby is the special baby seatbelt they give you that you put around the baby and hook through your seatbelt.

11

Just remember, everyone on the plane, especially people who fly a lot, hate you.

They hate you for even thinking of bringing your little rugrat on their already stressful trip.

Just telling it like it is…

12

Only those who do not have children of their own hate you and even then only a small intolerant minority. The others will probably be fairly sympathetic.

Don’t worry if the baby cries, and most importantly don’t get upset about it, the more stressed you are the more stressed bubs will get. So the baby cries a little, big deal, that is what baby’s do. As long as you have done all you can to ensure bub’s comfort then sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

13

Hi there,

I have travelled by plane with my daughter every 3-4 months since she was born (she’s now three). Here’s my advice, FWIW…

If you can afford it, IMO it is worth it to book a seat for the baby. Many airllines will give you a discount on a seat for an infant (for Northwest, it’s 50% off). There are several advantages to this…most importantly, it’s much safer for the kiddo to be in a car seat if you encounter turbulence. Second, most kids are used to their car seat and know they need to stay in it…with my daughter, once she was in her carseat she just assumed this must be like a car ride and didn’t even think about asking to get down…if she had been on my lap, she would have been squirming all over the place. Also most kids can sleep in their car seat and will nod off as soon as the engines start up. Getting a seat and taking your car seat also ensures that your seat will make it there in one piece, rather than hoping it will survive the luggage gauntlet :slight_smile: .

If you do this, the car seat and the kiddo have to be by the window.

Take several plastic bags for dirty diapers, wet clothes, trash, etc that you don’t have anyplace else to put.

At that age, food and a couple new toys were the best distractions. Usually she would sleep for most of the flight.

I’ll stop for now (slow typing one handed with my newborn on my shoulder!) but let me know if you want more info…

hill (long time lurker, first time poster)

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Remember DON’T flush nappies down the toilet

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Welcome hill o beans :slight_smile:

Great fun to type one handed whilst holding bub isn’t it.

16

I used to fly constantly and crying children never bothered me. In fact, most people I know who fly are not bothered by children, let alone hateful toward them. If you look around a plane while a child is crying, you’ll find the vast majority of the passengers just going about their business, with just a few people, whom seem to think they’re on a private jet, getting upset.

There was another post about flying with kids here.

17

Bring your carseat anyway. Often there is an open seat that is unsold and they will let you use it. If not, they can put the carseat in one of the closets at the front of the plane, or you can do the thing where they take it down at the very end when you board, and bring it back up to you when you get off the plane, so it doesn’t go through the luggage thing. You may want to ask if the plane is fully sold ahead of time.

18

Get a seat for the baby, it is really the safest way to go, not to mention easier on mom. Gate checking a stroller means that it will meat you at the exit door (and you will be the last ones off the plane anyway!).

The FAA requires that the baby in the car seat be in the window seat. This is to prevent problems exiting the row in case of emergency.

As for cranky people, screw 'em. I had a bitchy lady siiting in front of my baby who complained loudly the whole flight about my parenting skills, the appropriateness of me breeding at all, etc, because the baby’s feet were hitting the back of her seat when she reclined! He was too young to understand the problem or to heavily discipline, he thought it was a game. Not only would she not raise the seat to solve the problem, but the flight was not full! She could have changed seats, but then she would have missed out on the fun of being a bitch the whole time. The guys behind us said it best- if you don’t want to be near families, buy a first class ticket or don’t fly discount airlines (we were flying JetBlue, absolutely the best)! The flight crew were lovely BTW, and knew exactly where the problem lay.

19

Please refrain from using stereotypes such as this. Many people who complain about disruptive youngsters are themselves parents(to judge from all the ‘when my kids were that age I would never let them …’ blah blah blah comments I hear/read). Most likely, your average screamer-objector has raised a houseful themselves.

20

NY to Chicago? Direct flight of maybe 2.5 hours? You have nothing to worry about. Just be sure to bring that bottle and, as someone else pointed out (great advice), stay calm. Be as prepared as possible, but beyond that have a thick skin if things do go wrong.

Good luck.