andycoppock

I went with a 2 year old and she was fine - the younger they are the easier they find it! They don't need as much room to sleep, they're easily entertained by puppets, tv, food and colouring books, and they're not the ones clock watching - they just get on with it!

I wouldn't think twice about travelling again with young ones Its more about how you'll cope with having them on your knee the whole way - but Oz is more than worth a bit of discomfort for 24 hours.

emma75

My boys are 8 and 4 now. I first flew to Oz when my eldest was 8 months old, not a problem. Then did the Oz flight when my eldest was almost 5 and youngest 2, again not a problem. We booked night flights so they slept, and when they were awake they watched tv and played, fab little flyers! My youngest took his first flight when we went off to Menorca for a week and he was only 10 weeks old. We worked out the other day that both boys have almost done 40 flights, it really is not a problem!

muditha

Thank you all for your inputs.

lonndongeek

Alchohol and drugs. For the baby though, not you!

asprilla

I think you'll be fine. There was a couple on our recent flights, they had a very young baby (1 or 2 months) who cried a lot. You could see it was very stressful for the parents.

The crying does not really stress out the other passengers too much... Its the parents of the crying child that get stressed !

It starts to become a real nightmare when they can walk and run. We went last year when our son was approx 18months. First leg was an 8 hr flight, he cried for about 3hrs. 2nd leg was a 13.5hr flight, he cried for 4 or 5 hrs. In that time I walked him up and down the plane, probably over 100 times. Our son is not a good sleeper at the best of times. I did not sleep for over 36hrs... Probably the most stressful time of my life. At the end of the first leg I said to my wife "we are NEVER doing this again".

About 4 hrs into the second leg, I hit this psychological "wall" - I realised that things can't possibly get any worse ! and from that point on for the next 9hrs I didn't feel so stressed out (even though his behaviour was terrible). And by the end of the 2nd leg I was saying "we've survived, we can do this again."

And yes our return flights from the UK to Aus were also a complete nightmare.

But with a 5month old child you should have no problems !!!!

asprilla

I forgot to mention - changing dirty nappies on a plane, is a bl**dy nightmare....


There were plenty of amusing moments on the flights though.. some that I can think of, off the top of my head :

a) the bit when we were on one of our many "aisle tours", when my son grabbed an old gent's gin + tonic, poured it on the carpet, then waited for the guy's reaction. Needless to say the gentleman wasn't too happy.

b) on another aisle tour, the little fella ran up behind an air hostess and slapped both his hands into her bum. She turned around and thought it was me grabbing her !!!!

c) the part in singapore airport when I was running around with him, my wife was yelling "don't do that, he's just eaten his dinner" ... and then 30 seconds later he was covered in vomit head to toe. (his, not mine).

andycoppock

We were flying from Greece to the UK, and Tia was 1 at the time... she puked all over us. All OUR clothing was in the suitcases, so it was a bit of a gross nightmare... and a bit went onto the poor chap sat next to me!

I'm sure my wife would prefer to fly to Oz with a 5 month old, as opposed to flying at 5 months pregnant again! Her ankles swelled up like balloons and she was sick at every take off and landing bless

Andy

cresta57

The best time is when they are still an unfertilised egg, that way there's no screaming little brats to deprive the rest of us grumpy bastards from our poppy naps