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Flying With A Baby
Friday, 08 January 2010
On The Plane So we've flown with Kika twice now and I have to admit that it went better than we expected and were afraid of. We think that the luck favors the prepared and therefore here come a few tips we either had before our flights or found out along the way (and here are a few more for flying with an older baby): 

timing - if you can, plan your flight for the time your baby usually sleeps. We had one night flight, one day flight and no choice in the matter because the US to Europe planes generally fly during the night and the other way during the day due to the time zones, but the night flight was quite a bit better than the day flight. So, if you have a choice, use it. Similarly, if there's a possibility to schedule a shorter day flight for baby's naptime, do so and hope that the plane won't be delayed.

bassinet and seats - we reserved the front row economy seats for both flights. That gave us a little bit of extra legroom and an opportunity to have a bassinet. I don't recommend the exit row seats when traveling with a baby even if you don't plan on having a bassinet. Over there you not only have extra legroom but the draft, too. We asked for the bassinet during our night flight. They only put it up after take-off and remove it before landing (or at other time if asked), so during the take-off and landing baby sits in parent's lap with the seatbelt fastened (unless you have an extra seat with a carseat, of course). For us, the bassinet didn't work well, but the main reason is that Kika is big. For a smaller baby (up to 20lb) it would probably work much better. The problem was that once she fell asleep in my arms and I wanted to transfer her into the bassinet (I made three attempts) she would always wake up. The bassinet was partially overhanging above our knees, I couldn't stand up to it and it was too high for doing this with a big baby while seated. Once she was awake, she didn't want to be in there because it was too confining. And so she ended up sleeping on me and we refused the bassinet on our return flight (this surprised the flight attendants so much that they were repeatedly coming back to ask whether we really don't want it).

pressure changes - for Kika, the take-off was more uncomfortable than the landing, but I nursed her during both, so there were no problems with either. If you want to relieve the pressure babies feel during take-off and landing (this is why they cry at that time) give them something to swallow. If you're not breastfeeding, milk/water from a bottle will do, or even a pacifier (baby is swallowing her saliva). It's possible to nurse comfortably while both baby's and Mom's seatbelts are fastened.

Packed And Ready To Go At The Airport At The Airport At The Airport

boarding the plane - despite the fact that the airlines usually offer early boarding for families travelling with small children (supposedly so that they have enogh time to settle down on board), I think it's better (and that's what we did) to board as late as possible. The Kikd will be restrained for a long time, so why not take another round in the terminal with her (and let the older kids run somewhere where they're not in anybody's way - for example empty gate waiting area).

special assistance lines - on our way to Europe, my husband waited in the check-in line, while I was walking with Kika and we joined him once it was his turn. On our way back, we couldn't repeat this strategy because the Vienna airport was too crowded due to increased security checks after the Christmas bombing attempt. Waiting with Kika in those lines would be unpleasant for her, for us and for everybody around. Luckily, I noticed a special assistance line and our check-in immediately shortened from 2 hours to 15 minutes. Highly recommended when travelling with small children.

baby ticket - even in these times of electronic tickets, I always print and pack the confirmation e-mail, for the "what if" situation. Until now we've never needed it, but when flying with Kika we've learned that it's not just a pointless paranoia. The flight attendant was trying to convince us that we did not buy a ticket for Kika. (We've read about similar cases on some internet forums and people who didn't have the confirmation with them in such cases were forced to buy their baby a new - mostly significantly more expensive - ticket on the spot.) Based on our confirmation, she was able to "find" Kika's ticket in the system after all.  

Bassinet Bassinet Departures Hall in Vienna - extra security  

stroller - we've travelled with an umbrella stroller and it helped a little bit. Mostly during the security check when you need to take off your shoes, jackets, take out the laptop, move stuff through the scanner, hold on to the passport and tickets - you need your hands. Here, the golden rule is that taking the kid out of the stroller is the last thing you do, then the stroller goes through the scanner, parent with kid through the metal detector and reverse on the other end - first, put the kid back into the stroller, then get your shoes and other stuff. On our way back I had her in a carrier when going through the immigration control because she was quite tired by that time and didn't feel like sitting in the stroller anymore.   

diaper changing - I changed Kika right before boarding for both flights (one of them was 8 hours, the other little over 9) and immediately after we got off. She slept through most of the first (night) flight and no changing was necessary (we usualy don't change dring the night at home either), but during the second one we smelled the characteristic stink and in order to maintain the (relative) freshness of the plane air, I took her to the bathroom. I thought I remembered the changing tables/boards there but the first too restrooms I checked, didn't have them. Only the third attempt was successful. The board wasn't exactly large (in fact, it was rather small in both dimensions) but Kika humored me and didn't wiggle too much. As far as I can tell, it's better to avoid diaper changing on the plane altogether unless absolutely necessary.

toys - not too many, not too few. In order to minimize the carry-on, don't take the whole toy store with you, but some essentials are needed so that your bambino isn't bored when awake. We erred on the safe side (better to have more than less). But it seems to me that the rule to have an old favorite that always works and something new to grab attention (can be the toy from the flight attendant) is a good one.

jetlag - it's not directly about flying but related closely enough. For us, this was a bigger challenge than the flights themselves (our time change was 6 hours). We don't have any magic formulas, so all we were trying after our arrivals was to get Kika to sleep during the night and so we put her to bed at about the same (even though local) time. When she woke up during the night and wanted to play, we let her roll in the bed between the two of us, but we didn't turn the light on (so that she wouldn't think it was morning already and time to get up). It took a few days/nights (read: almost week) untl she got used to it.

So that much for our experience in flying with a 7-month old. We expect that the next time we fly, she'll be at least a year old so it's going to be different and this list might grow

Comments
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Martin  - h   |2010-01-11 00:48:43
A keby ste Kikusu hodili do kufra neusetrili by ste na mieste? ;D heh ale nie
inak vyzera na tychto zopar fotkach ze to zvladala uplne v pohodicke
Borka  - Ahojte   |2010-01-11 08:08:02
..Misko, tam hore sa to zda, ako keby si tlacil hrackarsky kocik s babikou..
Miso  - pravdu mas   |2010-01-11 10:50:04
pozrel som si tu fotku este raz a fakt to tak vyzera Vtedy uz bola Kika
kludna (presla cez security a nebola taka naobliekana) a hlavne zvedava ze kde
to sme. Co sa tyka kocika ja mam tiez pocit ze to je nejaka hrackarska verzia
lebo je prilis nizky na mna.
psenicova   |2010-01-13 13:56:34
asi lepsie letiet s dietatom, ktore este nevie chodit, alebo s dietatom, ktore
uz vie chodit (resp. co uz obsedi)...nie s takym co sa prave uci chodit, lebo ja
by som mala momentalne asi velke nervy pri nasej malej, neviem si to
predstavit....
tak vela ludi bolo na viedenskom letisku? kde ti vsetci ludia
isli ?
Iva  - ti ludia su tam asi vzdy   |2010-01-13 19:35:56
len to ide rychlejsie, ked sa da robit aj self-check-in. ked sme teraz isli
naposledy, tak sa nedal kvoli tym zvysenym kontrolam a vsetci museli ist osobne
cez pultiky, takze preto tie besne rady... a okrem toho mali aj zvysene osobne
prehliadky (nakukli do igelitky s Kikinymi plenkami, prelistovali aj jej
knizky...), takze fakt to tam bolo dost na nervy
ale kamaratka co letela o
tyzden neskor hovorila, ze uz neboli rady, iba tie zvysene osobne prehliadky
ostali
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