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We first flew with our three mini travellers when our eldest was 18 months and the twins were 6 months old. We went to Bordeaux in France and we survived. The airline staff might have looked at is incredulously when we checked in, but we did manage it! So how did we do it, how did we survive Flying with Babies?
Tip 1 – Flying with Babies
We packed a very large picnic the night before for us and all the girls. It is harder than you might think to buy food at the airport that your 18 month old might eat and I really didn’t want to run the risk of not being able to buy formula at the airport for the twins! I also decided that having food packed for us would reduce the stress levels in the airport. You can’t believe how hard it is to buy plain sandwiches for kids in the airport or on the plane. Depends how fussy yours are, but my eldest at 18 months liked just ham or just cheese on plain bread. They don’t want a BLT or a steak wrap as nice as these may be.
Tip 2: Flying with Babies
I packed a spare set of clothes in our hand luggage for all of us, including the adults. If a baby is going to be sick then you need a change of clothes for them and usually yourself! If you’re lucky enough (!) to be sat on a row with other people who don’t have kids the last thing you want is to return to you seat after dealing with the sick still smelling of sick yourself. Yes that’s happened to us!
Tip 3: Flying with Babies
Pack lots of packets of wet wipes in easily accessible places. Not only for the nappies, but for spilled drinks, for the above mentioned sick, for the crayon marks on the back of the seat, or to wipe the man next to you when milk is sneezed! Again I talk from experience.
Tip 4: Flying with Babies
Book meet and greet parking and speedy security. Quick and avoids unnecessary queues that all add to stress and boredom levels. Have a look at my other post for more on this.
Tip 5: Flying with Babies
Chocolate buttons for the 18 month old or whatever works to get you through a tricky situation. Just hand one over.
Tip 6:Flying with Babies
Whether you’re breastfeeding or bottle feeding, a short feed at take off and landing helps babies as they are sucking whilst the pressure changes. We found this worked wonders and stopped ours crying when other babies around us were very unhappy.
Tip 7: Flying with Babies
More nappies than you know what to do with and nappy sacks. You will go through more than you think and the journey always takes longer than you envisage with the transfer at the other end too.
Tip 8: Flying with Babies
A tablet/phone filled up with baby games, or lights for them to follow. There are lots of free baby rattle apps for your phone and the distraction of these works very well for slightly older babies.
Tip 9:Flying with Babies
Accept that they might cry. Don’t fight it, and just enjoy the fact that however long your flight is the holiday at the end of it will be worth it. A friend who was off to Australia updated her status a while ago to say after all it is only a day travelling for such an incredible experience. In that context what’s two hours or even 4.
Tip 10:Flying with Babies
Find enthusiasm and patience. It would help if they sold it in duty free. More useful than some cheap perfume. Fundamentally you need to stay calm and have fun. If you are relaxed then they are more likely to be. Were we? Not really, but the babies were fine, and smiled happily at everyone around us.
Oh and if in doubt – Take the Grandparents!
If anyone has any other tips to add we would love to hear from you.
In our hand luggage we took toys, lots of them, including things which may not really seem plane friendly – small tubs of play dough springs to mind – entertainment for our two (4 years and 20 months) and the children next to us (Aprox 8 years old) for our flight to florida. This kept them busy for far longer than magazines and colouring which seemed more sensible in terms of packing!
Aaah this is SUCH a fab and useful post!! *Hopefully* next year will be the year we go abroad for the first time with the boys. We’re desperate for a ‘proper’ holiday — it’s been 6 years since the last one. I can’t wait to go on a plane with them — although I’ll be printing this and taking it with me before we do!! 😉
Great tips Karen. Ours were 5 and 8 when we first flew with them (to Florida of all places) but my step sister has always flown with her son since he was a baby. Love the one about taking the grandparents. Always a bonus if you can manage a night out on holiday whilst they babysit x
Fab tips, I agree take lots of snacks, baby wipes and games for the kids to play! Our son was two the first time we took him on a plane and a portable DVD and some raisins and chocolate got us through! X
Great post, it is so daunting traveling with little ones for the first time, we once made the mistake of not taking spare clothes when Joe was a little older, epic fail on our part and the one time we need them x
The idea of travelling with little ones scares the hell out of me! hopefully these tips will help when we do decide to take the plunge and book that flight! #mondayescapes
Fab tips! We just had a couple of flights qith our little ones and dis a lot of these. I didnt find it too bad bit sadly hubs said he found it too stressful, think he could have done with reading tips 9 and 10 lol! #mondayescapes
Great tips, great point about the nappies it always takes longer than you think and the spare clothes :).It looks like you had a lovely time away as well – some great photos x #MondayEscapes
I should have read this on Monday as that was the first time I flew with TIn Box Baby. Luckily it went really well. I’m crossing everything for our return trip! Feeding on take off really helped as did waiting for everyone else to board the plane first. There was no standing in a line and we avoided the scum for locker space. We even managed to move to empty seats that we knew we free because everyone else was already onboard #MondayEscapes
Great tips – back ups, more back ups and extra wipes are definitely good whether that’s food, nappies or clothes. Plus positive mental attitude (or the acceptance that even the longest flight has to end eventually!) #mondayescapes
Fantastic tips Karen, I think it’s better to be over prepared then under – and you’re right you can never have enough snacks, wet wipes and nappies! Thanks for linking up with #MondayEscapes
1. Fold neatly few of tesco see through bags, and hang them from your sit elbow rest. You’ll have rubbish to put in it before you know it. 2. Give kids some calpol up to the age of I think 5 it hurts them much more when landing/ taking off( tip from a lady in boots at the airport) works magic, when they don’t suck from the bottle any more. For older children just before landing give them a bubble gum. 3. Have a spare bag ( I use my fave tkmaxx) shopping bag, the reusable kind. The bag is perfect, because I can put it on my shoulder as an extra. I use it for all the coats, teddies, scarfs etc. 4. Don’t take too much food in the suitcase. In sure children in Spain/France or wherever your going are also eating pouchers, milks, corn snacks etc, that you can find in uk. 5. Relax, as long as you have all your kids, money and passport you will manage.
In our hand luggage we took toys, lots of them, including things which may not really seem plane friendly – small tubs of play dough springs to mind – entertainment for our two (4 years and 20 months) and the children next to us (Aprox 8 years old) for our flight to florida. This kept them busy for far longer than magazines and colouring which seemed more sensible in terms of packing!
Aaah this is SUCH a fab and useful post!! *Hopefully* next year will be the year we go abroad for the first time with the boys. We’re desperate for a ‘proper’ holiday — it’s been 6 years since the last one. I can’t wait to go on a plane with them — although I’ll be printing this and taking it with me before we do!! 😉
Great tips Karen. Ours were 5 and 8 when we first flew with them (to Florida of all places) but my step sister has always flown with her son since he was a baby. Love the one about taking the grandparents. Always a bonus if you can manage a night out on holiday whilst they babysit x
Fab tips, I agree take lots of snacks, baby wipes and games for the kids to play! Our son was two the first time we took him on a plane and a portable DVD and some raisins and chocolate got us through! X
Great post, it is so daunting traveling with little ones for the first time, we once made the mistake of not taking spare clothes when Joe was a little older, epic fail on our part and the one time we need them x
The idea of travelling with little ones scares the hell out of me! hopefully these tips will help when we do decide to take the plunge and book that flight! #mondayescapes
Fab tips! We just had a couple of flights qith our little ones and dis a lot of these. I didnt find it too bad bit sadly hubs said he found it too stressful, think he could have done with reading tips 9 and 10 lol! #mondayescapes
Great tips, great point about the nappies it always takes longer than you think and the spare clothes :).It looks like you had a lovely time away as well – some great photos x #MondayEscapes
I should have read this on Monday as that was the first time I flew with TIn Box Baby. Luckily it went really well. I’m crossing everything for our return trip! Feeding on take off really helped as did waiting for everyone else to board the plane first. There was no standing in a line and we avoided the scum for locker space. We even managed to move to empty seats that we knew we free because everyone else was already onboard #MondayEscapes
Great tips – back ups, more back ups and extra wipes are definitely good whether that’s food, nappies or clothes. Plus positive mental attitude (or the acceptance that even the longest flight has to end eventually!) #mondayescapes
Fantastic tips Karen, I think it’s better to be over prepared then under – and you’re right you can never have enough snacks, wet wipes and nappies! Thanks for linking up with #MondayEscapes
1. Fold neatly few of tesco see through bags, and hang them from your sit elbow rest. You’ll have rubbish to put in it before you know it. 2. Give kids some calpol up to the age of I think 5 it hurts them much more when landing/ taking off( tip from a lady in boots at the airport) works magic, when they don’t suck from the bottle any more. For older children just before landing give them a bubble gum. 3. Have a spare bag ( I use my fave tkmaxx) shopping bag, the reusable kind. The bag is perfect, because I can put it on my shoulder as an extra. I use it for all the coats, teddies, scarfs etc. 4. Don’t take too much food in the suitcase. In sure children in Spain/France or wherever your going are also eating pouchers, milks, corn snacks etc, that you can find in uk. 5. Relax, as long as you have all your kids, money and passport you will manage.