Flying with my 5 month old??? Can someone give me some advice?!?!?

Question

travelling with my 5 month old (its only a 2 and a half hour trip) just need to know some other mothers experiences!?!? help...

Answer 1

.Not recommended.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, flying with people who hold the harsh opinion of answer #1 makes it difficult as a parent--you feel like you're always annoying someone.

Flying with a 5 month old should be relatively easy. I flew with my son when he was 2 months, 4 months, 7 months, and 1 year.

Make sure you have a bottle, pacifier, (or the boob & a shield!) ready as soon as the plane starts taking off. It's essential that you have the baby suck on something until you reach the flying altitude. (Which occurs just after they start passing out drinks.) The sucking reaction will help the baby's ears pop. Do this on the way down too.

Since your baby is 5 months old, s/he's probably looking at things pretty well by now. Have new toys or interesting things for them to hold.

Or, even better, try to plan nap time for during the flight. If your baby goes down easily, this is like gold. If your baby doesn't go down easily, you better not try it--the overly tired baby may insist on crying the whole flight.

My pediatrician suggested that I give my baby a small dose of Tylenol. Personally, I only like giving it to him when he's teething and hurting...but have carried it on the flights in case it went terribly wrong.

Your baby's at a nice age to fly...old enough to travel...young enough not to want to crawl/walk/explore.

The best thing is to be calm. If you're calm, your baby will be calm. Hopefully you'll sit next to someone who's had a kid. Months 2 & 4 were the easiest for flying with my son.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Just handle it like you would when you go out for a drive in your car. Take things for your baby to look at, a pacifier or bottle for her to suck on during landing and take-off to relieve the pressure in her ears, and make sure you are relaxed. You might also ask your Dr. about giving your baby some Dimetapp, it will help with the ear pressure and also might help your baby sleep. Often babies sleep through much of plane trips anyway. And ignore the people around you who give you dirty looks, I took a 10 hour flight with my baby and as soon as I got on the people around me were giving me dirty looks and rolling their eyes and saying things like "oh great." One of them was probably the first person who answered your question on here! It's hard to not let those people get to you, but just do your best to ignore them. At then end of our long flight I had people coming up and telling me what a good baby my daughter had been on the flight, I think they felt bad for jumping to conclusions.

Answer 4

If he/she can sleep through the flight of course that would be best, but you don't want your baby to sleep during takeoff or landing because that's when they're most likely to have ear problems. Instead you want to nurse or bottle feed them (whichever you normally do) during takeoff and landing. You should also give him/her baby sudafed half an hour before the flight's supposed to take off--this also helps to prevent their ears from getting plugged. But be careful because it's red and can be messy!
In case he/she won't sleep for the rest of the flight, pack lots of his/her favorite toys in your carryon.

Answer 5

As repeatedly recommended above, yes, have your baby be sucking on something as the plane is taking off and landing (pacifier, bottle, breast) to relieve ear pressure. Also, one tip I learned firsthand is to ask to be seated by the engines - the "white noise" sound of them soothed my 2-month old to sleep, and (even better) their noise masked any crying she did, so we didn't end up getting any nasty looks. It made a HUGE difference!

Answer 6

I flew with my sons when one was 4 weeks old and again when my other one was 2 months old. I had no problems at all!!! Like stated before, try holding off feeding him until take off. Make sure you change him right before you board. And keep the binky handy if he uses one, and a few toys (quiet ones of course) But 2 hours is not time at all! He will probably sleep most of the time! Make sure you "preboard" and take your time!! Don't let anyone rush you! And you will get lots of lovely "looks" from kid haters....I always laugh at them! I guess they can fly first class or drive if they don't like it!!You really shouldn't have any problems....other than getting through security is a pain. Just remember not to rush, and get there ahead of time.
I actually prefer flying with children under a year rather than when they get to be 1 or 2....now we drive!!!!
Good luck!

Answer 7

hey, i made a ten hour flight with my son when he was 4months, and a few one hour flights in between 4 and 7 months, for a two and a half hour flight i'd try keeping him up until just before you are boarding and then giving him a feed, if he's in a carseat on the plane he should go to sleep, babies are usually really easy to travel with at that age though! just take a few toys like rattles and hanging toys that you can play with while he's still in his seat.

Answer 8

I made sure my 5 month old was extremely tried by the time we had to fly. He slept most of the flight...

Answer 9

My friends took their 6mos old with us to the bahamas, they kept him from his nap and waited to feed him until the plane took off,,,,, He ate and then took a nice long nap.. he was really tired but not overly........ on the way home he was awake a lot and they took his favorite toys and got him his own seat so that he would not be stuck on their laps the entire time!!

Answer 10

o well sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I always gave my kids dimetapp about an hour before flying. its an antihistamine and it helps open the ear drums so they dont "pop". ask you pediatrician if this is recommended. My ped. is the one who gave me that advice to start with. and to those who "hate" people that take kids places. deal with it or become a hermit and dont come out, cause us parents "hate" people that complain about our kids.

Answer 11

make sure you feed him a bottle on take-off and landing. it will help his little ears not to pop. by the way----you previous repliers---shame on you. you don't own the world. it would be dangerous to give any baby under age one"something to knock it out", why don't you (the person who suggested this) take something to knock yourself out.(check with your pediatrician--under age 1 decongestents can kill a baby.)