Printable View
Hey guys,
Looks like we might be heading to the Uk sometime soon (DH has just won a massive music remixing competition, I'm sooooo proud of him - but that's another story!) - and am just wondering if anyone has done a long haul flight with a baby.
How disruptive can it be? How was your baby? Did they sleep much? Get jet lag? Were they ok on the flight? How old were they when you did it?
Thanks so much.
Sue xxx
Hopefully didispunk can come on here and reply to you. She has made several trips O/S with babies and is about to make another one (3 kids 3 and under). Or you could PM her I'm sure she would answer.
Sorry I can't give a personal response.
Ooohh, thanks Kim, might just see if I can send her a PM!
cheers
Sue xx
Hi, we took DD to America last year when she was 3 and a half months. She handled it very well. We asked our travel agent to book our flight to leave at night because DD was a great sleeper at night. The planes have sections that bassinets can be attached to so make sure you ask about that. As for pressurizing her, I had been told the best way was to BF or Bottle feed her while taking off and landing. As she was not due at these times, I used a syringe with some water in it to make her swallow. We had no problems with her at all.
Hope this helped a little.
My 10mo DD and I just got back from 6 weeks in the UK last week.
The flights were 2 very different ones. On the first one we left at 6am, which in hindsight was a terrible mistake, I had to get her up at 3am to go to the airport and she barely slept for the entire first flight of 14 hours. We arrived in the evening, had a great nights sleep, the only sign of jetlag was waking at 5am for the first two days.
On the return flight we left at 2pm, she had her afternoon nap as usual and then about an hour before regular bedtime she fell asleep and we slept almost the entire journey, bar an hours transit in Dubai. The jetlag, however, has been another story. The first few nights were horrendous - I only got 2 hours sleep one night as she was awake and screaming if I tried to get her back to sleep. On Saturday night I scoured the net and found advice to get them as much daylight as possible to counteract jetlag, so went out from breakfast to sundown yesterday, and it worked! Just as well because I was near desperation point!
I agree with the advice to feed on the way up/down - we had no probs with ears doing that. Also, with the basinet make sure what the policy is with your airline - a lot of them guarantee on booking but actually the priority on the day goes to the youngest babies. Ww got one on all our flights but DD wouldn't go in it. Also, on a turbulent flight you might be better keeping them on your knee anyway because they can't stay in the basinet when the seatbelt sign is on.
If your LO is eating solids when you fly it's worth keeping in mind that you are allowed to take more liquids etc through but need to taste them, and they took my cool packs off me at Heathrow but I just got the cabin crew to put the lunch box in their fridge.
We flew with emirates and they were very good. They have strollers in Dubai so you don't have to get yours off-loaded in transit.
My biggest issues arose because I was travelling alone with DD, I'm sure that travelling with someone it would be a breeze.
GTG now, but if you have any more q's ask away because it's all very fresh for me right now!
We went to UK when DD was 5 months old, I did one leg on my own with her and the other with her and DH (on my own was easier in some ways DH not a great flier, and a baby can't ask "how much longer" :-)) - I think at 5 months was quite easy compared to how would be now, she just fed and slept with a little playing in between. Before they start solids if BF is a good time I reckon. I have written a thread on it before, will dig it out for you or just PM me with any specific questions - looking at your ticker your DD might be a similar age when you fly.
But, she prob slept 60% of flight, no jet lag on way there, some on way back (two not so good nights but then ok), she didn't mind the flight at all in fact noise of engine prob helped with sleeping, we had a bassinet. Flew Etihad with an hour in Abu Dhabi, just used an ERGO carrier in airport.
Awww, thanks so much for the great responses guys, that makes me feel so much better about it. I just had visions of it being an absolute nightmare!
Thanks again!
Sue x