Here are some tips when traveling by plane with your baby…
If you’re traveling domestically within the U.S., babies fly free until they’re two. They just sit in your lap. (Note: Be sure to give the airline a head’s up when you book your flight.) If you’re flying internationally, you have to pay some extra taxes for the baby, but it’s much less expensive than buying a full ticket, of course. (Note: You can also purchase a full ticket for your baby and have them sit in a car seat next to you, which would be an awesome option, if you have a bigger budget.)
Fly during naps or at bedtime. Flying with a sleeping baby is exactly 1 million times easier than flying with a baby who wants to bounce, walk, crawl, sing, screech, and play for the entire flight. We try to book flights leaving around 7:30 p.m. (Toby’s bedtime), or, if it’s a short flight, around lunchtime, and then cross our fingers that he’ll curl up on our shoulders and nap.
Feed during take-off and landing. Babies don’t know how to pop their ears, so it’s helpful to offer a bottle (or boob:) when the plane takes off + just as the plane begins to descend (which is when you’ll notice your own ears popping), to help ease the ear pressure.
Sit apart on the plane. This is a random tip (and sounds counterintuitive), but we swear by it: If you’re traveling with your husband/wife/partner, don’t sit together; instead, get two aisle seats far apart on the plane. Here’s our story: When we arrived at the airport for our San Francisco flight, Alex and I realized that we weren’t sitting together on the flight. It was too late to change our seats, and I was bummed at first, since I figured it would make the flight more difficult. But we were actually surprised to find that it made things MUCH easier for all three of us. Alex and I agreed to switch off with Toby every hour. It was GREAT for us (we each got frequent breaks to sleep/read/eat/watch TV/etc. and weren’t on co-baby-duty for the entire flight) and GREAT for the baby (it was fun and refreshing to see mom/dad each time we switched and kept things interesting throughout the long flight).
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