My mind is always racing in the lead up to a trip with Baby Weekly Flyer. As a weekly business traveler, my routine is down solid. But when you throw kids in the mix, things can change quickly. All of the sudden, you have to worry about checking bags, entertainment options, sleeping times and going through security with no TSA pre-check.
The last time we took Baby Weekly Flyer on a flight, it was the first long flight clocking in at over 3.5 hours, and while successful, I’ll just say the first long flight didn’t go exactly as planned.
For our upcoming flight with Baby Weekly Flyer, we made sure it was in the sweet spot, less than 2 hours on a plane. We felt that with entertainment options, food and a well rested baby, we can get back on track with another smooth flight. We’ve reserved 3 Economy Comfort Delta seats and booked the flight before well before nap or snack time.
So with this flight I’ve been mulling over two items, do we use a car seat in the Economy Comfort seat and what entertainment options do we use?
Car Seat Or Not To Car Seat?
The car seat we used last time was the Costco car seat with wheeling adapter. We weren’t quite sure whether or not to use the seat now that Baby Weekly Flyer is sitting up and moving around well. But in the end, we decided the time is not quite right to take the seat away. We are going to run it back with the car seat in the Economy Comfort seat. Not sure when is the right time to remove the car seat. When did you stop bringing the car seat onboard?
Entertainment Upgrade
We are upgrading our entertainment options on this flight. Baby Weekly Flyer will have the usual go-to toy along with a few “new” and interesting ones. But this time we are bringing along an iPad with downloaded movies and children apps for entertainment.
What are your favorite iPad apps or movies to take along for a baby / child on a flight?
Bottom Line
A little pre-planning to get organized can help take away any anxiety from traveling with kids. Make sure you have multiple toys and entertainment options to get through the flight. Snack packs and hand wipes come in real handy for distractions as well.
Any tips from the well traveled family travelers out there are greatly appreciated. I usually check out Mommy Points and Pizza In Motion for tips since they’ve been there and done that for a while now. But I’m sure we’ll get through it just fine, because what could go wrong on a 1.5 hour flight with a baby anyway?
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The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
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Isn’t traveling with kids always an adventure? We most recently got back from a trip to Hawaii with our 3 month old and our 19 month old. We may be a little insane but we enjoy travel and didn’t feel like we had to stop when we had kids.
We just recently stopped using a car seat on the plane for our 19 month old. We purchased a CARES harness and we have had a lot of success with it. It has been used on at least 5 flights ranging in length from just under 2 hours all the way up to 5 hours. I love it and our little one seems to like the wider range of motion he is allowed. He is way too wiggly and unpredictable though to allow him to fly without any additional seat belt.
Good call on the iPad! We just made the investment before our trip to Hawaii and although I think we may have used it more than our little guy did, it was well worth it. His favorite app by far is Magic Fingers. It is a pretty simple cause and effect app and it doesn’t take more effort than he can give to it. A lot of the educational apps are still just a little too old for him. He does love the flash card apps that eflash apps makes.
Good luck on your flight! I wouldn’t be too worried about a 1.5 hour flight. If all else fails, ask the flight attendant for some extra drink cups for your little one to play with. That can entertain my son for a good30 minutes.
We’ve flown with our grandson twice,once when he was 9 months and again at 18 months old. We used his car seat- a Costco Scenera- It’s lightweight and fits well in airline seats, which makes it easier when traveling. We just strapped it to a roll-on bag). He’s a very active child, so keeping him secure in his familiar seat worked well for all of us.
During the first trip, he was armed with a bottle and his favorite blanket. We had a few toys packed, but he fell asleep by the time we leveled off each way and slept through both flights. Bliss!!
The 2nd trip, he had his sippy cup for takeoff and his older siblings kept him entertained with snacks and a couple of favorite toys. Fortunately, he didn’t fuss at all, making for a very pleasant experience for us and the passengers around us 🙂
We also prefer bringing his car seat as rental car seats can be expensive and from what I’ve read, they are sometimes in questionable shape. We’ll probably continue bringing his own car seat until he’s ready to move on to a booster seat. Then we’ll possibly look into getting a CARES harness if he’s still so “active” lol. Happy Travels!
Why no Pre-Check? As long as you get the three beeps, you can bring through any kiddo’s with you under 12 years old.
Ok, Crying Baby. we all hate it right?
Well when my daughter was a baby we found a simple solution to stop her from crying. It’s rather simple and my cousin who’s a Pediatrician told us about it.
Babies cry on the plane when the plane pressurizes or depressurizes. This is because of an inner ear condition.
The solution-Give them something to suck on. A bottle of water, juice anything.
It works! Please pass this on to everyone. I tell parents on flights. Many don’t believe it. The ones that try it are always happy to learn it.
Of course if the baby is just over tired then you’re out of luck.
Our daughter’s 18 months old and we take her everywhere. She just had her 52nd flight (just over 100k miles flown) all as a lap child.
For long flights (over 5-6 hrs) we try to fly overnight so she’s more likely to sleep. She likes the white noise of the engines. Also agree with the bottle during takeoff and landing. Another tip is to have a few plastic bags to use for garbage as she makes a mess with all her snacks and foods. Ipad is key for us for both movies and apps but never give it to her before you take off because you’ll have to turn it off and she won’t like having it taken away.
There will be dream flights where she passes out for. The entire flight and others where she will want to run around and scream her head off if she can’t. Such is life. I stopped worrying so much about it.
Admittedly we did try benadryl when she was 4 months old but found that it only got her to sleep for 3 hours. It didn’t help for our 12 hour flights so we just stopped. She hasn’t used it since.
I would not do medicine. It often has the opposite effect on children and babies and could backfire on you. We stop using car seats around 12-14 months, and use a CARES instead. I don’t know how old baby flyer is, but if they are too big and in a car seat they can kick the seat in front of them (economy comfort won’t have that issue!) but kids also like the ability to use the tray table and move around, when possible!
Agree with still using Pre-Check. 12 and under can go with you no problem. Even before my husband had it I would take C through with me to avoid her waiting in line too long.
I know we already emailed about this today, but we still lug the darn car seat at 3.5 years since she is so much more comfortable and confined in it. Plus, it is a better solution for the rental cars than using theirs. I imagine when she no longer needs it is cars (moves to a booster) will be when we stop bringing it on planes.
The CARES Harness is uber convenient for packing, but my kid was not anywhere near as comfortable in it. I still use it sometimes when I am flying solo with her since I can’t carry everything, but it never works out as well as the car seat. The Costco Scenera is a good light-weight and inexpensive travel seat.
If we had multiple young kids we would probably have to do things differently, but since it is just her we have the “luxury” of bringing the massive car seat – though we do book E+ and/or bulkhead so she can’t kick the seat.
We use our Britax Marathon and a Go-Go Babyz- Best travel investment ever! Our little guy flew with us at 3,5,6,10,11,12 and now 15 months. Our longest trip so far was to India, and it went surprisingly well (longest segment SFO-HKG). We try to keep him well fed and give him extra bottles and he seems to be happy. I’ve only lap-childed once and it was a complete disaster. I will NEVER do it again and do not recommend it for others.
I’m not above using “medicine” but thankfully we’ve never had to. Our doctor gave us some Rx ear numbing drops. We keep that and children’s benadryl in the diaper bag at all times just in case.
He’s a big flirt so usually he entertains himself by engaging other passengers, but he also likes stuffed animals, books, and helping me play angry birds on my kindle.
Hi Erica – Magic Fingers looks like it will keep baby entertained for at least 30 minutes, and the lite version is free. Thank you.
Also wasn’t aware that children could go through TSA Pre Check. Heck, baby weekly flyer almost has Global Entry, last step is just the interview 🙂 This is welcome news.
Thanks for all the tips.
Your child is used to his car seat, so bring it, realy until you move up to a booster seat which can’t be used on the plane. I agree with the person who strapped the seat to the rolling bag. There are even gadgets you can purchase that allow you to strap chair plus child to the roller bag and turn it into a “stroller”.
The most trouble we had flying with small children was when our son was still potty training and HAD to go while we were landing. Some very grumpy flight attendant after that one.
Try sound touch app or one if their other apps like it, my little one loved that one