Now that I am grown and have a family of my own, we like to travel. I want to share a few tips I’ve acquired pertaining to traveling with babies.

Be Prepared When Flying with Babies

As you are probably aware, every child is unique when it comes to…well, everything. The first time I took our daughter on an air plane, she was only 2 months old. I had more than one person give me “the look” that clearly said “Great…this is going to be a LONG and noisy flight.” Of course I was worried and didn’t want to have the screaming kid on board, but we had to get on with it.

I made sure of 2 things. 1, That I had her bottle prepared for takeoff and landing so she could move her jaw (similar to us chewing gum), and 2, that she was wrapped snug in her baby blanket.

To my surprise, she did not make a peep the entire 3 hour flight. Great! I even got some compliments from a couple passengers saying my daughter was “well behaved.” Yea, it felt good.

Once our travels had ended and we were heading to the airport to go back home, I felt confident that our girl was going to be a perfect gem.

As soon as we stepped in the airport, in the front door, not even in line for security yet – my daughter spits up all she and I both. If you are a parent, you know how that smells. I ran to the restroom, cleaned up best I could and went through the security check-in. After passing through security, yet again, we have spit up. By this time I am almost ready to join her in vomiting considering the rank smell coming from my shoulder.

Again, I cleaned up the best I could and continued to our terminal for boarding, pretending I did not reek of spoiled milk.

For the next 2 out of 3 hours our daughter was quiet. The last hour became a challenge with many tears and whaling involved. I gave her a bottle during takeoff and landing as I did the last time, and it did helped. She slept the entire most the flight – through the stench, through the turbulence, and through my squirming from needing to use the lavatory for more than 2 hours.

With this story, I have 7 useful tips for traveling with babies.

Tip 1: Bring a bottle or receiving blanket for breastfeeding during takeoff and landing.

Tip 2: Bring a baby blanket to keep them snug and comfortable.

Tip 3: Bring a change of clothes for baby and also yourself.

Tip 4: If possible choose your seating wisely. Aisle seats are highly recommended.

Tip 5: Travel during normal nap times or bedtime. If this is not an option, keep your bundle of joy awake as long as possible then let them sleep on the air plane.

Tip 6: Take a baby Bjorn wearable carrier with you. My arms were tired beyond tired carrying our daughter around airports.

Tip 7: Ignore the dirty looks. Babies cry, families travel and that is it. It is only now that I can feel empathetic toward parents traveling with small children.

Have fun! Babies are only babies for so long, and it’s important to make those memories while you can. Later you can look back and smile at how terrible the crying, stinky, whiny traveling situations were and think “good times, good times.”