Flying with an Infant

[DonaldDuck]

I need some advice on flying with an infant. My DD will be almost 3 months when I take my trip to WDW. She will be sitting with me in my seat. What do you do about a carseat once you get to Florida? Do you check a carseat in as luggage? And can you keep your stroller with you on the airplane? This will be my first trip with a child. Any help is appreciated.

[HappyCamper]

I only have one tip for you, DD. My family doctor is a wise and wonderful man who once gave me a prescription of Auralgan drops for my DD's ears when he learned we'd be flying. He advised that I should use this until my DD was 7 and that he'd give me a prescription for it whenever needed so that her ears wouldn't cause the excruciating pain that the change in pressure does to little ones.

Just a few months ago, my sister flew here with her 3 year old and commented about the baby crying during landing because of the pain. Her drinking, chewing, etc. didn't work.

Just so happened that my little DGD, who lives with me, had just had an earrache. Before my sister flew home, we put the drops in little neice's ear. Neice still thanks me for the medicine that made the boo-boo go away in the airplane. My sister said that her daughter didn't experience any discomfort at all.

It's not expensive and it's well worth it's weight in gold. You may want to ask your pediatrician about the drops for your infant.

Debby

[TiggersPal]

Hi, Donald!

I have 4 sons so I feel pretty qualified to answer your question, especially since my first son took 4 round trip plane trips before he was 18 months old.

First of all, take your car seat with you. If you don't purchase a ticket for the baby, the airlines will let you put it in an empty seat by you, (IF THERE IS AN EMPTY SEAT). What I do is call the airlines a few days before you leave and tell them you're traveling with a lap infant but ask them to give you the window seat because the middle seats are the last to be assigned and if by some chance that middle seat next to you is empty, you can put the baby in the car seat in the window seat and you can sit in the middle. Now, understand that airlines only permit car seats to be in the window seats so they don't block access to the aisle.

And make sure your seat will fit, I think 16 inches wide is the max for airplane seats, and we had to look to make sure ours would fit. Ours is one that is a carrier that fits into a base and we just took the carrier part, it works fine to be used without the base. That made for one less thing to carry.

Next, if you get to the airport and the flight is totally booked, the airlines will gate check the car seat and stroller both for you. What that means is that when you step off the airplane into the jetway, they are both usually waiting for you right there. Or if you just have the stroller with you, then you will pick up the stroller there. They put a luggage tag on it that says "gate check". So when you check in your baggage, you get to keep whatever you're gate checking until you step onto the plane. You just take the baby out and leave the stroller or car seat in the jetway near the plane door and they pick it up there, put it in the plane and put it back in the jetway when you get to your destination.

I never have known where they put those strollers, etc., to make them so easy to reach but they are ALWAYS there waiting for us.

ANd it's nice to have your child's own car seat with you when you travel because we got to Orlando one time with our oldest son and the car rental place didn't have ANY car seats so we had to hold him on our laps all the way to Disney which is quite illegal and extremely dangerous. Even though we had reserved a car seat, they didn't have any, so we were out of luck.

Also make sure you take 2 times as many diapers as you think you will need, somehow flying always makes them poop! And ziploc bags for soiled clothes or diapers if you have to change one in the plane and I don't recommend that. It's almost impossible to do that in those tiny bathrooms not to mention what if you have turbulence!

Also an extra shirt for you or DW because babies always throw up on you, too, it's a law of nature, I think.

I would encourage you if you can at all afford it to buy a seat for your daughter. Sometimes if you call the airlines directly they give you a 50% discount on the baby's seat. I have done it both ways, both holding a baby and in the car seat and they do much better in a car seat, not to mention it's safer. If you have turbulence, it can be very dangerous.

That said, I'm not lecturing, honest, because I'm not sure as of now whether we will be able to buy a seat for our 8 month old when we fly in October, so I'm planning on having him in his sling while we're in the plane if they allow that. With 6 of us going, and plane tickets more than $350 from Little Rock, financially that's nearly impossible. So I'm not necessarily following my own advice! LOL

If you have any other questions about traveling with a baby, please don't hesitate to ask me, I feel like a pro at that!

And have a GREAT TIME!