Traveling with a newborn — or any tiny human — can be daunting for any mom. In particular, flying with a victual leaves a new space to navigate (no pun intended). No matter how seasoned of a traveler you might have been surpassing rhadamanthine a parent, bringing a child withal adds a new level of preparation. This can be stressful if you don’t have a well-spoken plan.
With proper planning, your vacation with your newborn, infant, or toddler in tow can still finger like a vacation. It can be an spanking-new opportunity to make lasting memories with your family and reset physically, mentally, and emotionally as a parent. Read on for our top travel tips for vacationing with a little one.
How Old Does a Victual Have To Be To Fly?
This is a personal decision, and there are many factors to consider when flying with a baby. Experts recommend that, at the minimum, babies should be full-term and no younger than 7 days old surpassing flying.1 Many parents wait until 3-4 months of age surpassing flying with their victual in tow. This allows time for the baby’s immunity to build up. Plus, you might find it helpful to requite yourself some time to establish familiarity with your little one’s sleep habits, daily routine, and personality surpassing embarking on a big adventure.
Flying With a Baby: Where To Go
Once you’ve decided that you — and your newest family member — are ready for your first vacation together, it’s time to get planning. Finding baby-friendly destinations is the first step in making this happen. The options are uncounted for where you decide to jet off to, but there are a few key ways to guarantee you’re choosing a foolproof, baby-friendly destination:
Read Reviews
Whether looking into hotels and resorts or privately owned rental properties, reading reviews from former guests is a vital step you won’t want to skip while making travel plans. Keyword searches within reviews can tell you a lot well-nigh how infant, toddler, or kid-friendly locations are.
Compare Suavities and Property Specs
Researching suavities misogynist onsite is flipside key piece of vacation planning with a baby. In particular, consider scoping out properties with onsite laundry, full kitchens, and bathtubs (versus standing showers). Trust me, these factors will make your stay with your little one much increasingly efficient and enjoyable!
Depending on how much time you plan to spend at your property of nomination while on vacation, you might moreover be interested in seeking out properties with suavities and offerings like kiddie pools, onsite childcare, and kids’ clubs. While these are not necessarily crucial for a superb vacation experience, they can add value to your family’s time yonder from home.
Ensure General Baby-Friendliness
At the yellowish minimum, you’ll want to ensure wherever you’re staying is baby-friendly. Is there space for a pack-and-play or crib in one of the bedrooms — and a high chair in the dining area? Better yet, is there an option to have the necessary victual gear set up and waiting for you upon arrival?
Consider furnishments and plane decor if you have a tiny tot just beginning to crawl (or walk). Without all, you won’t want to spend your vacation worrying well-nigh racking up spare fees for damaged property (or injuries).
Research Family-Friendly Activities, Attractions, and Eateries
Wherever you consider traveling, research activities and attractions that will alimony the whole family happy and entertained. Whether that ways stroller walks through quaint shopping villages, laidback days on the beach, or the excitement of full-fledged yuck and theme parks, determine your family’s priorities and go from there.
In addition, you’ll want to consider restaurants and eateries — expressly if you have a kiddo with supplies intolerances or allergies. Preparing a list of child-friendly restaurants in whop can eliminate the stress of making last-minute meal reservations in a new area.
Flying With a Baby: Travel Checklist
While you’ll want to be well-packed and prepared for your flight with your baby, it’s equally smart not to overpack. Sticking to the essentials ensures your hands can tend to your victual as hands as possible en route to your destination. Here’s an essential travel checklist of must-pack items for any parent planning on flying with a baby:
- A diaper bag backpack with insulated compartments for bottles, a small waffly pad, and a unscratched space for baby’s travel documents (birth document or passport)
- A gallon bag with a few diapers, wipes, diaper cream, burp cloth, and a transpiration of gown for victual (and a wet bag for soiled victual clothes)
- For breastfeeding mothers: a small cooler/pump bag, a breast pump (wearable is spanking-new for travel), breastmilk storage bags, breast pump wipes, a cozy nursing cover, nipple balm, and an uneaten set of nursing pads
- For formula-fed babies: pre-measured formula, victual bottles, and bottled water
- A familiar, favorite soother for victual (such as a lovey)
- A few small toys and books
- A lightweight victual blanket
- Extra pacifiers, if your victual takes them
- Antibacterial wipes
- Snacks — for you and the baby
- A baby carrier to wear victual and/or a travel stroller
- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-approved car seat
8 Tips for Flying With a Baby
Flying with an infant requires strategic planning, but it’s not impossible. Some moms plane find the early months to be platonic for traveling. Without all, babies wilt increasingly mobile (read: squirmy) as time goes on. Why not take your youngest withal for an venture while they’re still sleeping many hours of the day? Here are some tips for flying with a baby:
1. Consider Flight Times (And Your Baby’s Temperament)
When booking your next getaway, consider what flight times make sense for your family. When my daughter was an infant, flying during daytime hours worked well considering it unliable her to sleep normally at night. Then, when my son joined our family, I learned the nonflexible way that flying early in the morning and late at night would disrupt both my kiddos’ sleep schedules (despite them resting on the plane for those flights).
As you typesetting your flights, consider whether you’d prefer smoother sailing (aka a sleepier little babe) in the sky or fewer sleep disturbances through the night upon landing. What works for one family might not work for another!
2. Consider a Car Seat Plane if Your Victual is Flying as a Lap Child
It’s worldwide for airlines to indulge children under 2 years old to fly for self-ruling when seated on a parent or caregiver’s lap. However, the Federal Aviation Administration says an tried child restraint system is the safest place for children under 2.2 If you take the increasingly cost-effective route, consider bringing a car seat anyway. If there are unshut seats upon boarding, most airlines will indulge you to bring your child’s seat on workbench — self-ruling of tuition — for safer flying. If not, you can gate-check your car seat and retrieve it upon landing.
When selecting a car seat for air travel, you’ll want to consider portability and ease of installation. You’ll moreover want to ensure your car seat’s measurements are within the allotted range for air travel (typically no wider than 16 inches).3
Cosco Scenera NEXT Convertible Car Seat
One option is the Cosco Scenera NEXT Convertible Car Seat. It’s lightweight, affordable, and certified for watercraft use, making it an spanking-new investment.
Doona Car Seat & Stroller
If you’ve got a victual who’s 35 pounds and 32 inches or less and your upkeep allows, the Doona Car Seat & Stroller is flipside wonderful option. This system simplifies travel and makes getting virtually airports a breeze!
AmSafe’s Child Aviation Restraint System
For forward-facing older toddlers and young children between 22 and 44 pounds, AmSafe’s Child Aviation Restraint System — wontedly known as CARES — is flipside option. This FAA-approved restraint system supplements the existing watercraft seat whup for increased safety – and packs up quickly.
Whatever car seat you segregate to take for your trip, you won’t regret it. In wing to offering widow peace of mind in the air, bringing withal your car seat ensures safer road travel once you reach your destination. While rental car companies typically have a selection of car seats, your own is unchangingly the most trustworthy option regarding history and cleanliness.
3. Bring Your Stroller to the Gate
Most airlines will indulge you to gate-check your stroller upon boarding, which is helpful when getting virtually the airport surpassing and without your flight. If you’re worried well-nigh your kiddo’s ride getting damaged in transit, some compact, lightweight strollers like the GB Pockit can be folded up and carried on workbench for overhead storage.
4. Pack a Waffly Bag Within Your Diaper Bag
Flying with a victual ways you might have to well-constructed your normal duties — like waffly diapers — differently than at home (or anywhere else). Airplane restrooms are space-limited (side note: trammels with your flight retrospective to determine which, if any, has a waffly pad), so it’s a good idea to have your waffly essentials on hand and ready to go surpassing takeoff. That way, you won’t have to worry well-nigh lugging your diaper bag into the restroom.
A gallon bag with a couple of diapers, a small pack of wipes, diaper cream, and a transpiration of gown should do the trick. I moreover recommend dressing your victual in easy-on, easy-off gown (think: two-piece pant and top sets, zipper vs. sawed-off onesies, etc.) and waffly your little one’s diaper in the airport restroom as tropical to boarding as possible.
5. Bring All the Essentials
Apart from a small waffly bag, you’ll want to fill your diaper bag with all the important stuff: a snifter or two with formula or breast milk (breastfeeding mothers are unliable to siphon a pumping bag and baby’s milk), baby’s favorite small toys, workbench books (or victual magazines — I love Highlights Upper Five to save space), snacks, and a cozy victual blanket.
Depending on your baby’s needs and preferences, you might moreover want to bring a soother — like a pacifier or lovey — and any medications. Lastly, while babywearing is not typically unliable in the air, having a good carrier can be handy for everything leading up to and pursuit the flight.
6. Think Ahead for the Bulkier Items
Flying with a victual inevitably yields a longer packing list, but you can cut some major corners regarding the unwieldy stuff. Traveling with diapers, for example, doesn’t have to midpoint packing an unshortened suitcase full of diapers. I love using my kiddos’ diapers as padding for other unwieldy victual gear, like our travel crib. Toss several packs of diapers in your checked victual gear delivering bag, and voila — no widow tons (or luggage fees!). Ensure you have a sturdy delivering bag to protect your most valuable gear.
You might moreover opt to have diapers delivered straight to your destination — or plane grab them withal the way from the airport to your hotel, resort, or rental home.
7. Squint Into Renting Victual Gear
If you aim to pack light, squint into victual gear rental services like those offered via BabyQuip. There, you can rent out everything from cribs and pack and plays to sound machines and toys to strollers, wagons, upper chairs — and much increasingly — from fellow parents in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Australia, Europe, and beyond.
8. Have In-Flight Activities Prepared
It’s unchangingly smart to have hands-on entertainment planned for your little one’s journey. Expressly if you have an older victual or a toddler. Simple but constructive toddler airplane activities include:
- “Decorating” the watercraft tray table with easy-to-remove stickers or sticker books
- Doodling on an LCD writing/drawing tablet
- Mess-free coloring with Crayola Color Wonder Coloring Books
- Fidgeting with suction cup spinner toys
- Taking turns looking for subconscious images in toddler seek-and-find books
I’d moreover recommend packing your child’s favorite stuffed unprepossessing or doll. A simple repletion item can make a big difference on travel day! Additionally, permitting your little one to siphon their toddler walkabout can be a fun (and practical) way to alimony their special belongings hands wieldy and in one place.
Flying with a victual is no easy feat. It is completely doable and can be worth the uneaten planning and preparation. No matter how your trip with your tiny tot goes, take a deep breath. Babies will be babies, but everyone else on every watercraft started as one. So, whilom all else, remember to requite yourself — and your little one — lots of grace. This is a new wits for both of you! Unscratched and happy travels.