Flying with an Infant
Darian has now flown six times. As long as he’s sleeping, sucking on his binky, nursing, or chewing on something during take off, landing, or any changes in air pressure, he’s his normal self. One time, he wasn’t doing either of those things while we landed. He didn’t want a binky or to nurse. He just wanted to grab things. After landing, he started crying in pain. I nursed him for a couple of minutes, and his ears popped, and he was fine. My biggest concern was his ears popping, but that’s easily solved. I really don’t think that flying with an active infant is that difficult. Here’s what we do to keep him calm and quiet:
- Don’t stress. If he starts crying, I tell myself that he can cry as long and as loud as he wants. Once I accept that fear and any social anxiety that goes along with it, my stress is gone, which not only helps me find solutions but helps Darian feel more calm and relaxed.
- Activities. I have lots of activities for us to do together. We sing the itsy bitsy spider, play with toys, discover what’s in the airplane pocket in front of us, play with the tray table, read one of his books, and talk to the people next to us who think he’s cute.
- Swaddle. When he seems fussy or overwhelmed, I swaddle that boy as tight as I can. He’s strong enough to break free if I don’t do a good job. Once he’s snuggled with a binky in his mouth, he will quietly look around and be content.
- Diaper changes and distraction. Sometimes it’s not always possible to change his diaper right away or when he wants it changed because of the fasten seat belt sign. So far, he’s done two giant poops right at take off. Got to love his timing. We had to provide a lot of distraction to keep him happy until we were able to change his diaper. The second time, they just wouldn’t turn off that darn sign… for forever. So I just went and changed him “at my own risk.” It was fine, and the pilot turned off the sign two minutes after that, but we had a leaky diaper. Sometimes two minutes means a lot! (There is usually only a changing table in the front restroom of domestic planes.)
- Bouncing. Gently bouncing a baby stimulates the vestibular system or nerve, which helps the baby reorganize and calm down. To help Darian easily fall asleep, we swaddle him, pop the binky in, rest him on my legs with his feet on the side of my body and his head near my knees. Then I push down on my toes with my heels in the air while I quickly provide small but rapid bounces. Sometimes my nervous knee takes over, and this soothes him the best. On overnight flights, he usually just goes to sleep after we put him in his bed.
- Darkness. Sometimes it’s hard to fall asleep when it’s too bright, or if there is so much going on, Darian gets overstimulated. I put a light blanked over my shoulder and put him close to my chest. This helps soothe him as well. If he’s lying down. I hold up a blanket or figure out how to prop one up so that he has a little tent.
- Water. Because I’m nursing, I have to drink a lot of water. The air circulation in airplanes doesn’t help because it causes everyone to dehydrate faster. I try to drink double than I need to when I fly. And for the day proceeding and following the flight, I try to drink 4 liters of water instead of the recommended 3 liters. This way Darian will have enough to drink when he needs it, especially because he’s getting dehydrated as well!
The younger they are, the easier. Because he’s not crawling around yet, he’s content bouncing and flying around while we’re sitting in our seats. We’ll see how it goes as he gets older.
