Travelling with babies...your thoughts please!

Booknut

<font color=green>I couldn't figure out why people
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
As our baby's birth is approaching and the panic starts to set in I find it quite comforting to spend hours planning our first holiday together as a family - and of course what better place to go to then Disney. ;) Nothing like deeply immersing yourself in Disney to avoid thinking about labour too much :thumbsup2

I have never travelled with children, much less a baby and have no idea what it will be like. I do realise a lot depends on what your child is like but I would really love to hear your thoughts, opinions and mostly importantly your experiences on travelling with little people under the age of 1.

Do you think long haul is too cruel for a baby? Would you compare it to a long car trip? Do you think flying anywhere is too hard on a baby and that its better to just drive somewhere? Have you flown anywhere with baby and wished you hadn't?!

We will be flying to Lisbon at the end of February to see my family, one of my uncles is not doing well and I know he wants to meet the baby as soon as possible so she might have her first flight at 3 months. But its only about 2 1/2 hours away.

Anyway, sorry for rambling on and on. Look forward to hearing all your thoughts! :grouphug:
 
Hi Eloise

We took DS to WDW when he was 10 months old. I was a bit nervous but he was good as gold. He slept on take off and then ate and played and slept through the flight :) We did but him a seat I don't think I would have travelled with him on my lap at that age. We flew on Virgin and got an infant care chair for him

JosephVirginChair.jpg


I bet our trip next year will be harder with DS nearer 3 years old ;)
 
We have recently returned from the Carribean with our 10 month old. As we had booked the holiday before she was born and she is our first child, I didn't know what to expect and I was worrying about taking her on such a long flight (especially as I hate flying too!).

I needn't have worried though, she was really good during the flight, even managing to nod off as we took off (even though I was crying!). The hardest part for us was to keep her busy, she just kept wriggling and fiddling with anything she could lay her hands on, even though we had brought some of her favourite toys on board. She was definitely happiest when one of us gave up our seat and she had plenty of room to sit by herself and play.

Although I wouldn't have chosen to go on a long haul holiday with a little 'un (it was my Sister's Wedding & I couldn't miss it) We had no worries and she had a brilliant time playing in the pool all day with her cousins :) mind you, it took two weeks to get her back into her nightime routine when we returned, due to the five hour time difference :eek:
 


since we live overseas (we're americans), we have travelled very long distances from the time both of our kids were born (on home visits every year in addition to going to disney, etc.)...

the trips when the kids were infants were the easiest, since they slept most of the time (even on the 12 hour non-stop flights)...once they got to toddler age and up, it sometimes got more challenging....mainly because i ended up staying awake much of the flight to make sure they were ok...

but the flights from about the age of birth to about 2 years, were easy...

during the months they were nursing, i always nursed them on the way down (as we were landing) to keep their ears open.....nursing as you land was easier than i thought it would be....

actually the most challenging part was carrying all the stuff on the plane that we needed....change of clothes, diapers, snacks, toys, etc....

after a mishap with my daughter (the older of our two kids) i started carrying a change of clothes for DH and me as well...

on the taxi ride from JFK to LaGuardia (to catch our internal domestic flight) DD, who was 2 years old at the time, got car sick and vomited all over DH...
i had lots of clothes to change DD into, but nothing for poor DH....who is terribly tall and you can't just pop into a store in the airport to buy him new clothes...from that day forwards, i had changes of clothes for everyone, not just the little ones, in the carry on bags...
 
What I found was, travelling with my little ones was very easy till they started walking! once they found their feet they never wanted to sit and that made for some very trying trips.

As some else said the hardest part was all the stuff you have to cart around.
 


Well, we took Shelby to Portugal when she was 6 months and she slept most of the way on my lap, the worst thing for me was taking off and landing as she wasn't nursing, and is very strongwilled so wouldn't take her bottle either! She didn't cry though so I guess it wasn't that bad! We then took her on a 40 minute flight to Jersey about two months later and she was a little bit more challenging as she was starting to pull up and crawl by then and hated being confined to a lap, luckily we had a spare seat in the isle that we were in so she sat there quite happily with her toys.

We are flying for the 1st time longhaul with both Harley and Shelby at Christmas and I am very nervous to say the least, but we have my parents and two friends coming with us too so hopefully we can all take it in turns to entertain them. Shelby has got her own seat too so I am hoping that she will sleep for some of the way. I am planning on buying lots of little toys and wrapping them up for her, then she can have something new for each hour on the plane!

HTH
PS Labour isn't that bad! You will be fine, and it's true you do forget about it when you have them in your arms!:)
 
actually the most challenging part was carrying all the stuff on the plane that we needed....change of clothes, diapers, snacks, toys, etc....

after a mishap with my daughter (the older of our two kids) i started carrying a change of clothes for DH and me as well...

Yes, I didn't realise how much kit I needed to take for DD, including extra food & nappies in case of delays etc. And also we had to taste every meal and have a drink out of all our pre-made bottles, which I know is necessary but still a pain to re-pack it all away afterwards. On our return the airport staff only gave my bag a cursory glance and I didn't have to taste anything :confused3

We didn't think to pack a change of clothes for ourselves either, and after DD knocked over his drink my DP spent a few uncomfortable (& sticky) hours looking like he had wet himself until he dried off :rotfl:
 
I have to second the person who said when they are toddlers it's much more challenging than younger babies.

Ashleigh has been to tenerife (4hrs and 20mins) when she was around 5 1/2 months old, she was fantastic going,she slept more a less after take off,and woke on landing where she just had a look around the plane and never cried,coming home she was poorly she had a bad chest when we had landed home it turned out to have been broncilitis.So as you can imagine the flight home was pretty bad.
She's flown 3 times so far in her little life,and each time has been different,she likes to have a snoop,play,and have a walk.

Hope you have a nice easy flight Im sure you will.
:cloud9:

Love piccie also above :goodvibes
 
Well, we took Shelby to Portugal when she was 6 months and she slept most of the way on my lap, the worst thing for me was taking off and landing as she wasn't nursing, and is very strongwilled so wouldn't take her bottle either! She didn't cry though so I guess it wasn't that bad! We then took her on a 40 minute flight to Jersey about two months later and she was a little bit more challenging as she was starting to pull up and crawl by then and hated being confined to a lap, luckily we had a spare seat in the isle that we were in so she sat there quite happily with her toys.

We are flying for the 1st time longhaul with both Harley and Shelby at Christmas and I am very nervous to say the least, but we have my parents and two friends coming with us too so hopefully we can all take it in turns to entertain them. Shelby has got her own seat too so I am hoping that she will sleep for some of the way. I am planning on buying lots of little toys and wrapping them up for her, then she can have something new for each hour on the plane!

HTH
PS Labour isn't that bad! You will be fine, and it's true you do forget about it when you have them in your arms!:)

Just reading your post, if you wrap little prezzies for plane journey customs will open them! to check
 
Thanks for all your advice everyone. Kaylee, your son is adorable! I have never seen those seats before, they're really cool. Was he comfortable sleeping in that position? And was that just regular economy or is that seat one of the larger ones in premium? He looks pretty comfy (and angelic!) :cloud9:
 
We travelled with DS last December when he was 14 months and he was fine. Like Kaylee we got DS the infant care chair. We had to take things at a much slower pace but it was great - a bit more realxing for us too! We will be travelling again in 4 weeks with DS who is 25 months so will let you know how that goes! I reakon the younger they are the easier it is!
 
Flying is much easier than driving with infants/young children, at least in a plane they can move around and its easy for you to entertain them, we found it far more stressful to drive to Burgandy france than to fly to florida! and at least if they get ill you can understand what the doctor is saying ( unlike us in france)
 
The one piece of advice I would give is:

Buy a seat on the plane!!!!!

It can be very difficult holding a child for 8 hours, it is possible if there are a few family members but can be very tiring and uncomfortable.
 
Thanks guys for the comments on DS :hug:

We were in Economy, the seat is called an Infant Care Chair, sort of like an insert into the seat (5 point harness). Request the chair when booking and ask for it again at check in and as soon as you are on the plane.

DS was fine sleeping on that no problem at all :thumbsup2
 
We have been travelling with our LO since she was born. We took the ferry to Ireland when she was 3 months and went to Florida when she was 6 months. She then went on the eurostar to Paris when she was 10 months. We love it! However, as others have said once she got walking it all became more stressful ( ;) ), but well worth it! Get planning those trips! :cool1:
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Latest posts

Top