Flying with a Baby
We took Melody to Disney World back in February. On that trip, we decided the best option was to fly. Since Melody was under 2, she flew for free. We were both a little nervous taking Melody on her first flight, but we successfully made it through both the arrival and departure flights! We are not professionals by any means. We have literally only flown with Melody twice, but I have my top ten takeaways from both flights that I want to share below.
1. Fly with an airline and airport you are familiar with (and aim for direct flights) - I don't advise flying on a new airline for the first time on your baby's first flight. Every airline has different rules, and I personally like to know what I am getting into. Especially with all of the airline companies' bad publicity. More importantly than the airline, the airport. You don't want to fly out of a new airport and have no clue where to park, where to check in, where security is, etc. when you are trying to keep a child from having a breakdown. There are two exceptions to this in my opinion, a) you are flying with family/friends who are familiar with the airport/airline, b) you are flying somewhere that you are forced to travel a certain airline/airport. Babies are uncertain. You are going to want some certainty on your trip. And to me, the familiarity of an airport/airline is one of the best certainties. Oh, and as a side note, aim for a direct flight. This is especially true if it is your child's first time flying and you are not sure how he will react. If the flight goes poorly, you would hate to know you have to make a second flight on the same day! Of course, this cannot always be avoided either.
2. Plan for extra time needed at the airport - This is especially true if you have a child under two, and you did not buy a plane ticket for said child. You will have to go to the airline counter and get a boarding pass for your child since you technically cannot check in online with your child since he doesn't have a ticket. These lines vary in length. I have heard of some lines lasting as long as an hour. We waited at most 15 minutes, but you cannot count on such a short line. That is also true for security (see tip below). Security will not go as quickly as it once did before little ones. They require a lot more stuff that has to be scanned, and they are just truly an armful. You also have more potty breaks and potentially food breaks. Not to mention if you have a kid that wants to walk through the airport rather than be carried or strolled. Their little steps just can't keep up with yours, especially with all of the distractions an airport can provide.
3. Be prepared before getting in line at security - There are a couple of ways you should be prepared. Before even leaving your home, know the ins and outs of your stroller/carseat if you plan to take it through security and check it at the gate. They will require it to be broken down as small as possible. Leaving Memphis, this was chaos. We had no clue how to break it down any smaller than we had it. It would not fit though the machine to be scanned, so finally the TSA agent manually scanned it. The line really backed up from this. Leaving Orlando, the TSA agents were great. They knew all of the ins and outs of our stroller (they see so many a day I am sure). So they breezed us right through!
You will also want to be as ready as possible before even stepping into the TSA security line. Make sure you have your child out of his carseat/stroller (or ready to be taken out as quickly as possible), and also make sure you have everything ready to put into the security bins. Don't wait until you get to the actual checkpoint to start removing items because you will just get stressed and flustered. This also includes any baby food. The TSA website provides you with the do's and don'ts of baby food, but have it ready. The TSA agent will want to scan it separately to make sure it doesn't contain any illegal liquids.
4. Take a restroom break right before boarding - This is especially important for the little ones. I saw many people having to trek to the onboard restroom with their little ones in tow. I get with potty trained children, this may be harder. They have to pee and/or poop right at that moment. You can't force them to go potty when it is most convenient. However, with a little one still in diapers, you want the freshest diaper possible to prevent any leakage while on board.
5. If you don't have assigned seats, board with the families (even if you have a fussy little one) - I know a lot of people may disagree with me, but I still feel like this is the best option so that you get a good seat. We fly mostly Southwest, so this is a requirement for us. We try and check in as soon as we can, but we usually end up in Group B. So it is vital that we board with families after Group A. I say that because we saw some families of 3 (like us) where the spouses had to sit separately and only one kept the child. Brad and I took shifts during the flight to keep Melody calm. I can't imagine that being the case. You increase your chances of sitting together if you all board during family boarding. Your little one may be fussy, but this gives him a chance to get acclimated with his surroundings, and it gives you a chance to get situated before take off!
6. Make sure to have a bottle/sippy cup/pacifer ready for take off - There is a chance this won't be needed, but you don't want to find out mid-take off when your child is crying from his ears' inability to pop. Our flight to Orlando lined up perfectly with her feeding time, so we fed her a bottle during take off. On our way home, the timing wasn't as perfect. So we had her wubby ready, but I also had a bottle ready to make in case the wubby didn't work. Thankfully it did. If your child is no longer nursing or taking a bottle, have a sippy cup ready just in case. Or if you are brave enough, give them gum.
7. Have your child's favorite movies/shows downloaded onto your phone or tablet - Depending on your child's age, this may not be effective or meaningful, but for Melody at 7 months old, it helped. We didn't have headphones she could use, so we barely turned the volume up, but just the video helped soothe her. She was fussy and refused to nap on the way to Orlando. So we turned on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on our iPhone. This at least kept her attention for a while until the wubby eventually soothed her to sleep. Just be sure and download them before flying!
8. Have all "necessities" in a small bag to carry on and keep at your feet during the flight - This may seem obvious, but I had to throw this together in a plastic bag for a first flight. The second flight I was much more prepared. So we had all of our necessities in our carry on. That was by no means the problem. However, our carry ons had other items too. So many items, it required it to be stowed in the overhead compartments. So I took a plastic bag that we got when buying snacks at the store inside the airport, and I filled it with the necessities. Then I stowed it at our feet so that I could easily reach it to get whatever Melody needed at any point during the flight. This also keeps you from digging through your overpacked carry on looking for that one toy she needs.
9. Make sure you have your child's "lovey" - There is a high probability your child will fuss on the plane. He is forced to stay in one area for an extended period of time. He can't get down and play in the floor. So fussing will happen (don't panic, see the next tip!). However, you have to be able to easily soothe him. Make sure you have whatever item your child needs for soothing. Our child loves her wubby. I think I had 3 of them on the plane with me. I could not risk losing one in the airport and not having it on the plane. Not only could the wubby soothe her popping ears from take off, but it could soothe her fussiness too.
10. Don't panic if your baby cries on the plane - So I know this is much easier said than done. Heck, I panicked when Melody was crying [hence why this is a takeaway tip]. We were both so concerned about upsetting and bothering other people. However, there are two reasons we should not have panicked. One, we were on our way to and from Orlando. Both flights were full of kids headed to theme parks. In this case, parents get it. They understand crying happens and shouldn't judge (although a few always will). Two (and most importantly), your baby isn't crying as loudly as you think. Everything will seem worse than it truly is. When we arrived in Orlando, the lady in front of us was like "aww, I didn't realize there was a baby behind us. How cute!" Melody cried a few times on that flight. Granted, she probably had noise cancelling headphones, but a lot of people do these days. Just know, I am not saying don't try and soothe your child and stop him from crying. Just don't panic and make the situation worse than it truly is.
Below are some of the pictures from Melody's first flights to and from Orlando! We were lucky, and Melody actually did really well.
