dgsyd1

If everything goes according to plan, I should be heading back to Blighty in November for a couple of weeks. This will be the first time we've flown with a baby (he'll be just under 9 months old when we plan to fly), so it should be interesting. It will also be the first time most of my family will see him, so we're really looking forward to it. What i'm wondering is does anyone have any advice for travelling with an infant, especially on the long flight between Detroit and Heathrow?

bodmin13

We flew the first time when our son was 6 weeks and then again when he was 6 months. The flight from Tokyo to LA is about the same as LA to London. Make sure that you ask for a bulk head seat and a bassinet for the baby and we used Tylenol for the flight, it keeps them a little sleepy. Favourite toys and blankets are also a good idea. If you can get an evening flight so at least he is more likely to sleep on the plane. We found that the airline crews were very helpful at the airports with helping with bags and providing strollers or letting you keep your stroller and checking it in at the gate.
Good luck and enjoy your trip back
Charlotte

honeymommy

Night flight is the best option as said before. Have a drink for take off and landing as it helps with the pressure adjustment... The baby!!! Not you... LOL

Pack a bag of essentials and keep it easilly accessible on the plane. Baby wipes and daipers and a couple of changes of clothes. Take a few of baby's favorite snacks. Allways better to have something they are used to eating. Children can dehidrate on a plane easily, so plenty of fluids and regular diaper changes.... My kids hated the restrooms for diaper changes as it was so noisey.. So we changed them in the seat... Oh don't forget diaper bags and a larger bag for trash...

The best thing we had was a baby carrier. They do one that converts into a stroller also... Much easier for travelling... The flight employees are very helpful, and will help with bags etc... You can call the airline in advance and ask for assistance....

Oh one thing... do not worry about the other passengers being disturbed... Noone can control a baby's feelings or actions, so if baby gets distressed just do what you can and try to not worry as that will not help....

My twins were about 18mths when we moved from London to LA. The doc gave us phenergen to make them sleepy on the flight...Didn't work... actually made them hyper which we were not told could happen in some children... They were awake the whole flight!!!!!! Fell asleep just as we landed, so we had to wake them up to disembark..... Poor mites....
So if you plan to give anything, check the side effects first... LOL

I remember worrying about them on our first flight, but it was fine in the end, we all survived and there was no blood... LOL

Jet lag on arrival can take a couple of days for adjustment... But soon settles...

Have a good flight... bet the family can't wait to get their hands on him...

Dunca

We travelled back in July with baby at three months. We flew with BA, paid the extra for Premium Economy and requested the bulk head seats. These were fantastic seats. Had enough room to stand infront of seat whilst Sky Cot was still in place. Staff were fantastic, gave us a good motivational speech before take off, along the lines of..."look this is public transport, if people have a problem with kids, they should travel privately etc...etc...", " just be cool about the travel, behaviour begets behaviour, if your nice and relaxed, more chance your baby will be etc...etc..."

Our baby didn't really like take off and landing, but apart from that had a great time. The BA SkyCot allows baby to sit up, a bit, which allows you to have a good look at them whilst sat in your seat, and for them to have a good nose around the cabin, which is v. important if you have a v. nosey baby like ours...Plus skycot is a 5 point harness, we found out, which means if there is slight turbulance, and the seat lights comes on, baby can stay in Skycot (unless its really bad!!!) this is great if yours baby, like ours decides to sleep for the majority of the trip!!!

For the take off and landing our baby managed to equalise with cabin pressure feeding or using a pacifier.

Only additional advice, is I find going East, baby really ignored the time diference, going West baby went with the flow and switched back v. quickly. I found a good rule of thumb flying East, to UK, was that our baby took a day for each hour of time diference. When we arrived this meant that she went to sleep at 5:00AM, through 1:00PM, which was nice!!! but over the next week, got things back on track.

Oh...And...You can buy (they used to give them away!) a flight log for your baby, which the cabin crew take to the captain on the flight to fill out flight details and sign them off. We thought this was really cool, great little log for baby in years to come when they start moaning that we never take them anywhere!

So hope this helps, have fun, and dont forget to bring back as much, tea, chocolate, marmite, pot noodles, birds trifle and HP sauce as space will allow :-)

Duncan

DaveC

Some excellent advice above. In June we did a return trip from Dallas to Edinburgh with our 5 month old daughter with BA. BA air and ground staff were fantastic with us, I can't recommend them highly enough.

We bought a portable DVD player ($200 from Target) which proved invaluable on the journey. Our daughter loves Baby Einstein DVDs so that kept her amused on the daytime flight back. On the night flight over she slept most of the way, helped no doubt by a generous dose of Benadryl (sp). The drugs didn't work on the flight back so we had to work harder entertain her. I think I must have walked most of the way across the Atlantic bouncing her up and down.

We took an umbrella type stroller with us - I recommend it for going between gates at the airport. We handed it to the staff while boarding the plane. They always found a place to store it and had it ready and assembled for us when we got off.

I was worried about having a screaming baby to the extent that I bought a family sized pack of ear plugs to give out to fellow passengers. In the end I didn't need them as she only cried during pushback and taxying to take off. That may be because the cabin got hotter and/or started to pressurise.

As long as passengers see that you're trying to comfort a crying baby then you should be OK. I think we've all been on flights when the parents ignore their screaming / misbehaving children.

Bon voyage!

Yosser

I wish my flight was as easy as yours was Dave.

I took my 18 month daughter on AA last time. She is a tad hyper you see, and I had to spend 6 hours in and out the crapers, as she thought playing with the tap and sink was hilarious!!! thats all well and good, but 6 bloody hours.

I'm going to England on Thursday, my daughter will be 4 in October, still hyper as ever, I'm dreading the flight. like most of you have said it may be easier as its a evening flight, my wife spent $30 on books, crayons etc etc, I will be taking the benadryl, not for my daughter .... for me

Thats a good idea about the DVD, I will see if i can borrow my sister-in-laws.

DaveC

Hey if you're flying BA this time you can snag yourself a couple of tins of Stella. I'm sure that'll tastes better than the benadryl.

Good luck with the flight. We were told that it's easiest to fly with young children before they can move about on their own. I guess we'll find out next year, our littl' un is now crawling and hauling herself up on to her feet.

honeymommy

OMG YES!!!! I flew alone with my 4 children ages at the time... 3,3,5 and 7..... What a nightmare that was!!!!!!!!! Oh and did it twice... LA to newark to UK then back again UK to Paris to LA....... I needed a vacation when I got back... I was a wreck.....

Never change flights in Paris with small children!!!!! I got no help except a finger point in the right direction down 2 flights of stairs!!!!....

:scared:

DaveC

Blimey, you deserve a medal for that!

How are tricks now that you're back in the UK? Hope things are going well.

Ash UK/US

Sorry but I had to laugh... I can just picture that happening

Hubby and I travelled back to the UK when our daughter was 2 months old... as people said the flight crews are really good with kids... I could not fault BMI they gave us diapers and a little baby pack (had travel size talc, baby oil etc) without us asking... they kept offerering to warm bottles for us and really cooed over Emily.

I will also be travelling back (alone this time) with her in Oct she will be about 8.5 months then... should be interesting.

Oh one more thing... what ever you plan to use on for his/her ears bottle, paciifer or whatever be sure to start and use it a few mins after they close the plane doors... my daughter started to cry every time just after the doors were closed must be they start altering the pressure then.

Ash

Yosser

[QUOTE=DaveC]Hey if you're flying BA this time you can snag yourself a couple of tins of Stella. I'm sure that'll tastes better than the benadryl.

Flying with AA again, I have enough miles for a free flight next summer. They don't have stella though, hopefully there have some Amstel, I'm quite into drinking that at the moment, anything is better than the american weasle piss.