Travel Tips

My friend Fiona is an Australian living in London and has taken 8 long haul flights (count ‘em!) in her son’s first 18 months.  Two of those flights were London to Sydney….BY HERSELF!!  So I consider Fiona to be an expert when it comes to traveling with a baby.  Unprompted, she sent me an email full of tips.  Hopefully these tips mean that John and I won’t resemble this on our flight to France:

• Once you have booked your flights, ring the airline and get your seats sorted out.  Ask for a bassinet seat.  Be prepared to not get one as sometimes there are more babies on the flight than bassinets. If there are no bassinets available ask if there is a block of 3 seats available and whether they can block the seat in the middle – always worth a try.
• Also ask for a fast track pass through security (not sure if these exist in the US).
• Take your Ergo/Baby Bjorn baby carrier.  We plan on bringing our stroller right up to the plane but if you check your stroller than you will want to be hands free as you make your way through the airport terminal. 
• Bring lots of pacifiers because if the baby spits it onto the floor on the plane or in the airport you will need to get a clean one.  The alternative is to buy a pacifier clip that attaches from the end of the paci to your baby’s clothing.  Additionally, you can buy pacifier wipes to clean off a dirty pacifier in a pinch.
• Bring your own baby blankets onto the plane as theirs are not very nice.
• Also bring some infant paracetamol with you on the plane.  Decant a few doses into a little bottle - because of the 100ml rule – they’re really strict at Heathrow.
• Fiona always brings a couple of toys onto the plane but noted that ‘when he was awake he was pretty easily entertained with a piece of paper or a cup!’
• Once you clear security for your outbound flight sit down somewhere and repack your carry-on luggage. Put all the things you’re definitely going to need on the plane in one bag (like a big carryall bag) and put all other things back in the suitcase. Thing that will be in the carryall bag will be bibs, burp cloths, bottles, formula, diapers, wipes, pacifiers. Things that will be in your carry-on suitcase would be things like – a change of clothes for you in case the baby throws up on you – a change of clothes for the baby, your passports etc (i.e. things that you hopefully won’t need during the flight).
• Go and buy yourself a two-liter bottle of water so you don’t have to keep asking the flight attendants for water.  Don’t forget you will need to get the water after security because you can’t take liquids that big through with you. On that point you might want to check what the policy is on premade formula (see below).  I recommend you take much much more than you think you’re going to need.
• When you get on the plane, keep the carryall bag with you and put the other suitcase up in the overhead locker.
• Every time the baby cries on the flight you can offer her a bottle (well, not every time, but it will often quiet them down – especially if they are over tired).  To this end you need to take every bottle that you have with you on the flight. I would also recommend taking the premixed formula for the flight as it’s much easier than spooning the powder into a bottle in the dark with one hand while holding a crying baby with the other. Don’t forget to pack extra pre-mixed formula in your hold luggage for the flight home.  In the US I buy the 8oz cans of pre-made formula and I plan on taking a few of these on the plane with me along with a can of powdered formula.
• If your baby will only take the milk warm (Fiona’s baby got really fussy about milk temperature at around 6 months) you can ask the flight attendant to add an ounce of boiling hot water to the bottle – makes the formula slightly watery but it will be fine.
• If you are connecting through a hot airport/city include something cool to wear for the time in that city/airport.  Fiona had her baby in pajamas and a singlet for the flight and just the singlet when they got to Bangkok because it was so hot!  You will want something warm for the flight given the air conditioning that is run constantly during the flight.
• If you can fit an activity mat in your suitcase I recommend you take it.  When Fiona went on vacation to a resort with a swimming pool area she would set up her son on a sun lounger under an umbrella on his activity mat (this will only work when they are really young before there is a chance they can roll over).
• Take some dishwashing liquid so that you can wash your own bottles.
• When you get to your destination go to the local supermarket/grocery store and buy a big bucket and a big case of 1.5 liter bottles of water.  Each evening or morning we washed the bottles in the bucket with tap water and dishwashing liquid, then we soaked them in the bucket with tap water and those Milton sterilizing tablets (not sure if you have that brand in USA, but it’s one tablet per 5 liters, I measured out five liters using the measurements on the side of a bottle then put a mark inside the bucket up to the right level).  Then we used the counter top sterilizer (brought from home in the suitcase) to make sure they were definitely sterile – we did this because the tap water in certain countries is really unsafe and I wanted to make doubly sure the bottles were sterilized properly. 
• Make sure you have enough adapters for all your appliances – you can take one adapter and then a USA power board so that you can plug in all your appliances at once.
• Take the normal baby bubble bath stuff you use and baby shampoo – although a lot of hotels these days supply it.  On that point – the hotel we stayed at in Dubai offered to sterilize the bottles for us.  Check with the hotels you are staying in.
• Buy some of those insect repellent band things and attach them to the stroller.
• Take baby sunscreen – Fiona forgot to bring it to Egypt and bought some at the hotel for a whopping £30!!!!
• Wrap the powdered formula tin up in saran wrap in case it explodes in your suitcase.
• Oh, and Fiona also always carry around a few of those giant black bin liner garbage bag things – they are cheap, take up hardly any room, and are perfect for spreading on the floor of a filthy bathroom if there are no diaper change facilities. 

Do you have any other tips?  Maybe you could leave a comment or reply with what did or didn’t work for you.

(P.S. I’ve tried to convince Fiona to start her own blog because she has LOTS of great baby tips and takes the coolest vacations with her husband.  The vacations didn’t end when her son was born so she is currently my idol!)

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