Flying with a Baby: Top Tips

Before flying with our 5 month old baby for the first time, we were petrified. We had no idea how he would behave, if his ears would hurt, if he’d cry the whole flight, how to travel with a stroller, or if he needed a boarding pass. Ah! Plus, we were nervous about how everyone else on the flight would react to us flying with a baby. We USED to be those people who would scoff when we would see a baby begin down the isle (shame on us).

Our first flight was two hours, and it was a HUGE success. People asked us what we did to keep our baby so happy, calm and quiet. Since then, in Jackson’s first year of life, we flew with him 12 times: 6 round trips, and all were amazing flights! Here are my tips for flying with a baby that will ease your fears and make for a smooth flight for everyone.

Flying with baby is easy with these 10 tips

1.| Timing

Flying with a baby is easy breezy if baby sleeps the whole time! If possible, schedule your flight to take place over a nap or bedtime. Baby will be tried during this time and will likely fall asleep because of their typical schedule, lull of in-flight white noise and movement.

2.| Takeoff and Landing

Everyone knows that babies have more trouble adjusting to altitude and pressure changes, especially during a flight. Get baby above 10,000 feet after takeoff and below 10,000 feet when landing and you should be in the safe zone. How can you do this? Nursing, bottle feeding and pacifiers are a great way to get baby’s ears to adjust. I’ll also use this pacifier clip to tag an extra paci on his clothes. Sometimes, if I can safely hold Jackson’s feeding until a takeoff or landing, I will to help ease the flight pressure.

3.| Seating

One massive perk to flying with a baby is primary boarding! Different airlines will run this differently but if you get to choose your seat (either ahead of time or when boarding) opt for isle seats or if you can, the first row. The first row has extra room baby can be on the floor playing or you can stand and rock baby if the seat belt sign is off. The isle also allows easy in and out access to walk baby or stand to rock baby during flight. Remember, you aren’t allowed to have an exit row. Baby may not be ready for that responsibility!

4.| Toys

For your flight, pack your baby’s favorite toys. Then pack more! You want to make sure you have lots of options to keep baby entertained. Take advantage if you get a free carry on! If you want, download videos to an iPad or phone for your baby to watch. These are Jackson’s favorite toys that keep him entertained and occupied.

5.| Milk and Snacks

Whether you are flying with a baby or alone, TSA HAS to let you fly and go through security with your breast milk (if this applies to you). Depending on your flight length, pack milk plus extra to be safe or if there is an unexpected delay. Use a cooler to keep milk cold. Pack an insulated water bottle so that once you get through security, you can get warm water to heat bottles in flight. TSA allows a “reasonable amount” of milk to be carried with you. I’ll do a follow up post on traveling with breast milk and pumps to go into more detail.

This goes for snacks and regular milk or formula, too. Take as much as you want, as long as you can justify the amount in the event security asks (we’ve flown several times and no one has asked). For drinks, make sure they are in a container that you can take the lid off. I once packed a juice box, and it was taken because security can’t verify the liquid. Also, pack lots of snacks. We take puffs, Cheerios, cereal bars, fruit snacks, and take the in-flight snacks too! I love using this container because not only does it keep snacks safe but is also a way to work on fine motor skills and keep baby occupied trying to get the snacks out.

6.| Flight Length

If you can, schedule a shorter flight (sub two hours) or a flight with a layover to get an idea of how baby will do before flying over seas or doing a long haul.

7.| Baby Gear: car seat, stroller & base

For our flights, we flew with Spirit and Southwest. Both were super helpful at easily giving us luggage tags at the gate and allowing us to check our stroller, car seat and base free of charge. It’s an airport rule that you can go through security with your stroller items. Our experience is that our airlines easily and happily checked our stuff before getting on the flight. Google or call your airline to see how their protocol.

8.| Baby Boarding Pass

Some airline require a boarding pass for baby to fly. Some require you have their birth certificate to verify they are under 2, so they can fly on your lap for free. Usually, this means waiting in the full service line at bag check (even if you aren’t checking any bags). Call ahead to see what your airline specifics are. I’d recommend having your birth certificate either way, just in case!

9.| Be Early

We were one of those couples who would take our chances getting to the airport only an hour before our flight took off. When we started traveling with Jackson, that definitely changed! Traveling with a baby or child adds time! Time you can’t account for. You might have a poo blowout, snack purchases, delayed time at security, who knows! Add an extra hour to give you plenty of time to avoid unforeseen time sucks and still being able to make your flight.

10.| Breathe

You gave birth! You got this mama. What’s the absolute worst thing that could happen? You will get where you are going, baby will forget if he has a terrible experience and you’ll arrive at your destination with baby’s first flight in the books.

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