10 Things to Take When Flying with a Baby
Dear lilioftheworld.com reader, here is Lili, your co-editor. We received lots of positive feedback and interest on our most recent article about tips when travelling with a baby. Therefore, we thought it might be useful to build up a bit and focus on the items to take with you when flying with a baby.
We were heavy travelers even before having our baby. Unfortunately, the Covid situation in 2020 and 2021 slowed a bit down our pace. Still, we managed to travel 12 times in our baby’s first year. Far from being able to call ourselves experts, we wanted to share our checklist of 10 things to take with you when flying with a baby.
10 Things to take with you when flying with a baby:
- Passports
- Food
- Diapers
- A changing mat
- Wet wipes
- Spare clothes
- A pacifier/ something for chewing
- Toys
- Disinfectant/ disinfecting wipes
- Snacks for you
Let me explain why you would need to take these things when flying with a baby.
1.Passports (or other necessary documents)
I’m sure you are always taking your own documents with you when travelling, but make sure you also take the ones for your baby. No matter how young she/he is, she/he will need a passport for cross-border travelling. You might need other documents if one of the parents is travelling alone with the baby. Check the requirements prior to your trip.
2. Food
Even if you are breastfeeding the baby, I would suggest you take AM (adapted milk) with you on the plane. Anything can happen during a trip and you might stay on board longer than planned. Therefore, prepare an extra quantity of food for the little one.
3. Diapers
Similar to food, extra quantities of diapers are never redundant. Even if your baby is having certain habits at home, travelling is an extraordinary situation for this lovely little human. It can cause stress which results in behaving differently than she/he does at home.
Please do not have the impression that when flying with a baby, you should have lets of luggage with you. As you see from the photo above, lightweight travelling is also possible. You just need to take only the necessary stuff.
4. A changing mat
Trust me, you will have to change diapers at different locations and surfaces. If the baby is young, you would like to ensure highest possible level of hygiene. That is why bring your own changing mat. This way, you will also feel more comfortable that the baby will not pee here and there, for example on the airplane seats.
I received this travel set as a present and I’m quite happy with it.
5. Wet wipes
When on the go, wet wipes are your best friend. It is neither recommended, nor convenient to use the water on the plane to wash your baby after poo, so wet wipes can help in case of “emergencies”.
6. Spare clothes
As previously said, flying is unpredictable and so is the baby’s behavior. Even if the baby does not pee or poo, it can be that you spill some water over her clothes during turbulence. Having an extra pair of clothes at hand can also be very helpful with regards to changing temperatures at the airport, in the plane or when boarding.
7. A pacifier/ something for chewing
You might have experienced some discomfort during take-off and landing. This is because of the changing pressure in the cabin. As an adult, you know that chewing or swallowing help you equalize the ear pressure and you do it intuitively without even noticing. Unfortunately, the baby does not have this instinct yet, so you should help your little one. Chewing something definitely helps in this situation. Alternatively you could time the feeding to take place exactly during take-off or landing.
Additionally, some babies are calming down when chewing a pacifier. This can come at hand to relieve the discomfort of the unknown environment for them.
8. Toys
You are sometimes bored during a flight, right? So is the baby. Bring some toys or be prepared to adapt some of your belongings as toys to entertain your little love. Moreover, toys the baby is used to, can help the baby feel more secure in the new environment.
9. Disinfectant/ disinfecting wipes
If the baby is young, you will not be that worried that he/she would touch everything around him/her (airplane seats, tables, etc. are not the cleanest thing you can imagine). However, once the baby is about 6 months old, it is definitely curious about everything it sees. Therefore, right after you board on a plane, make sure you wipe everything around you with a disinfectant wipe.
10. Snacks for you
There are many things which make you feel stressed when travelling with a baby- be it the crying, the new situation in which you have to take care of someone else all the time, etc. The last thing you want to worry about is food. You will need a lot of energy to handle this stressful situation, so having a small snack with you is never redundant. It is true that many airlines do serve food, but do you really want to wait for this when you are starving?
I hope the tips above about things to take with you when flying with a baby are useful. Let me know your thoughts.
Also check our other articles on the topic travelling:
