Flying for the First Time with My 6 Month Old Daughter

My advice is to not to be hesitant to ask for help when you need it. I wished I would have when I flew with my son when he was little. I didn't, and the trip was miserable.

You're daughter will do best with her mom prepared and ready and calm. And it sounds to me as if you are very organized, because you are collecting lots of data, getting lots of advice, and becoming prepared and ready for the adventure.

Do bring a bottle and let your daughter drink during take off and landing -- the swallowing will help the pressure to change in her ears. If that doesn't work, a F-18 pilot told me once that tipping your head from side to side (shoulder to shoulder, but not that far) will cause the fluid in your ears to move and will allow the pressure to change more easily, too. You can facillitate that by playing with your daughter. I would also bring small toys that will entertain her, and cheerios of something that you can put on the seat tray and let her grab and devour.

When we traveled with out daughter, most of the carry-on stuff revolved around baby -- diapers, toys, favorite blanket, food, etc. And the baby always fared better, had more fun, etc. than we did. :-) (probably because I don't particulary like flying, but the kids always did fine.)

Good luck !!

J., I have a suggestion to ease your daughter's potential pain with altitude changes. Have her suck on a bottle it will relieve ear pressure.Call the airport and check about the stroller just to be safe. Too many rule changes lately! I would also check with the airport about carrying some first aid items such as tylenol,motrin,etc. Enjoy your trip!

J.,

Look in the archives...I think the same question has been asked at least half a dozen times since I've been on MamaSource, which has been about a year...I've answered this before, in detail, and so have others!

Good luck! :)

First, here is a web site I found extremely helpful when we were preparing to fly with our daughter for the first time:

www.flyingwithkids.com

Yes, you can take your stroller through the terminal and gate and right up to the door of the aircraft. There an attendant will check your stroller and it will be loaded as cargo. You will find it where you left it at your destination.

I traveled many times with my son. We never had a problem checking his stroller at the gate. Actually, keep the stroller up until you get down the jetway which is where they take care of strollers and the like. What we did do is buy a travel bag for the car seat and check it. They are usually on wheels as well. It was so much easier and what was great is that there was so much more room for extra toys that wouldn't work for carry on in in the regular luggage. Another bonus for flying with kids is that you get to board first no matter where you sit.

no matter if you fly domestic or international, you can always take the stroller down to the gate, They will tag it at the counter when you check in your luggage , so when you arrive at your destination they will bring it back up to the airplane so you have it straight off the plane.

Make things easy on you, pack toys and things in a bag, they will make you take the baby (and everything else) out of the stroller and seat at the security check and run it through x-ray, you don't want to have to pack things up when you get there... you want it to be quick and convenient for yourself.

Depending on the duration of the flight, try to get bulkhead seating (call in advance or ask for it at check in) because you can ask for a bed for the baby to lay down in which will give you some relief from holding her all the time.

If you nurse, try to do so during take off and landing, or have a bottle ready to help her adjusting with the pressure in her ears.

Have a safe trip!
It gets harder when they are older and want to walk around for 7h :)

We bought the traveling toddle travel accessory, which is basically a t-shaped strap with rings on each end. We used it to attach the car seat to our rolling carry on luggage and it worked great. We have put my daughter in it until she was 3 and she loves being rolled around the airport.

It was about $15 and as long as you have a latch based car seat it works great. It saved us from having to bring a stroller to the airport. You can read reviews from Amazon to see tips on how to attach the car seat and pictures of people using it. I didn't find it any harder to get through security with this than I did with a stroller.

Hope that helps.

We just flew out to Colorado in September (last time I was on a plane was in the 80's). My son was almost 7 months old and I was worried about all that stuff too. I took an umbrella stroller because my other stroller is Graco travel system. When you go to board they will put a tag on your stroller and when you wheel the baby down the plane-hall thing, you'll take baby out and fold up your stroller. When you get off, it will be right outside the plane door and you can put baby in it and proceed down the hall and into the airport. One thing I'd like to point out is to bring an extra receiving blanket or something. The planes we were on didn't have a diaper changing place. The stewards were kind and let me change the baby on the floor in the back. I was able to sit by the window on both flights so I was able to nurse my son and nobody even noticed. And I had a pacifier for him. He did better than I thought he would! I was worried that the air pressure would hurt his ears, but he was better than I was! I just made sure he was nursing or had the bink when we took off/landed. My son was better on the flight up than on the way home. He got antsy and I had to really try to keep him quiet. He wanted to get down and crawl around. Keep that in mind so you can pack things to keep him occupied. Also, keep some toys or whatever you really need for him in a bag that you can keep under the seat. My diaper bag was too big so I took out some toys and kept them near me. I also had all the toys attached to those colorful plastic rings for babies. This way, if he dropped/threw a toy, I didn't have to try looking for it. Those seats are so squishy and if something drops, it's so hard to lean down to find it. That's all I can think of as far as my experience. Feel free to email me if you have anything else to ask!

I'll try to keep it brief:
-yes, you can gate check the stroller & car seat. If checking the carseat, you may want to put it an a bag so it doesn't get dirty/greasy. I bought an inexpensive laundry bag at Bed, Bath,& Beyond and it worked great!

-if the flight isn't full you can get an extra seat and take the carseat with you. But make sure you are not seated by an emergency exit door and you have to put the carseat in the window seat (airline rule, so as not to hinder evacuation in case of emergency)

-Are you traveling with someone else? If so have them board first when they ask for people traveling with small children. This person can get everything situated so you won't be standing in the aisle waiting.

-Make sure during take-off and landing that the baby nurses or takes a bottle or paci. THis will help with the ears.

More than likely a 6 month old will sleep thru the flight. The sound of the engines usually puts them right out! Good Luck!!!

A lot of great advice here. One more.... bring at least 2 extra full changes of clothes for your daughter for the flight! My experience has taught me this -- my daughter ends up peeing through every time, and even twice on one flight due to the length of the flight and not always being able to change her as immediately as I would have liked on the plane.

Hi J.,
We took our 8 month old daughter to Florida in December. Here are my suggestions:
1. Benadryl-give her 1.25ml before you board the flight. This will help her sleep about an hour.
2. Umbrella stroller for tooling through the airport.
3. Security was pretty easy & they were very helpful to us. We flew out of Philadelphia. You should not have a problem.
4. Few toys to entertain her.
5. Not sure if your daughter is able to munch on stuff like pretzels, crackers, puffs, etc. But ours loved to munch on stuff.
6. Layers. I had her in a fleece sweatsuit w/a short sleeved onsie underneath.
7. Her favorite blanket.
She traveled very well & we really had no problems. Good luck!

J., We flew with my daughter when she was a bout a year old. We purchased a seat for her so we took her car seat onto the plane with us. We rolled the stroller right into the front of the plane and then the stewardess took it and placed it right inside the door. The stroller was placed on the fairway for us when we exited the plane. My daughter did pretty well with the whole experience. I made sure she had her blankie and some toys and her pacifier and some snacks.
Good luck
A.

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe you can check strollers & car seats at the gate. I would call the airline and ask to make sure.