WHEN IS IT SAFE TO TRAVEL WITH A NEWBORN BABY BY PLANE? In general, doctors recommend you wait to fly until your baby's immune system is better developed. This could be as soon as one month for full-term infants, though most doctors recommend anywhere between three months and six months.
Typically, air travel is appropriate for most healthy, full-term infants. However, before you fly with your baby, consider: Your baby's age and health. Your baby's health care provider likely will discourage unnecessary air travel shortly after birth.
While you can't always fly at the optimal time (based on your child's age, that is), it's great when you can. The best times, most agree, are between three and nine months, when kids aren't yet mobile, and any time after age two or three.
Experienced traveling families already know this, but in most cases the hardest time to travel with a child is from when they become squirmy and mobile by about 9 months old until they hit the age of reason bargaining/cartooning/snacking at about 18 months.
Book Flights Outside of the “Witching Hour”
With young babies, the later in the day, the more fussy they become. I learned the hard way not to book a flight in the 3 to 7 p.m. window. Travel with baby is best done in the morning because babies are better rested, happier and therefore more adaptable.
Here are a few ways to help prevent discomfort that's caused by popping ears during take-off and landing. The most common methods, especially when landing, involve encouraging your baby to drink or eat, or to suck a dummy.
According to Doug and Sanjay, the back row of the plane is the best place to sit when traveling with a baby for 5 reasons. Over the next shot of the aircraft's galley, they explain that since the back of the plane is near the galley, it's easier to get up and walk around if a fussy baby needs settling.
Have your child chew sugar-free gum or suck on hard candy when taking off and landing. It helps with ear pressure. Most children can learn to do this at about age 3. Bottles (for infants), breastfeeding, or sucking on pacifiers can also help prevent ear pain.
Air travel increases a newborn's risk of catching an infectious disease. Babies born prematurely, with chronic heart or lung problems, or with upper or lower respiratory symptoms may also have problems with the change in oxygen level within the air cabin.
Traveling with an infant on a plane gives you the option for them to fly as a lap baby, or if you purchase a seat, to fly in their car seat. If you are traveling with a 2 month old as a lap baby, typically they either fly for free, or at a reduced fare of approximately 10% of the adult fare plus any applicable taxes.
Most international flights allow children under 2 to fly as lap children, but with one big difference — it's usually not 100% free. Typically, if you're flying on a revenue ticket, you must pay the taxes and fees for your lap infant plus, in some cases, 10% of the fare.
For kids (especially babies and young children), it can feel especially odd and even be scary at first. But it's a common, normal part of flying. This sometimes uncomfortable sensation is related to pressure changes in the air space behind the eardrum (the middle ear).
Changes in pressure during flights can cause your baby's ear some discomfort or pain. For adults, this pressure can make it feel like our ears are plugged and can even muffle sounds. This effect is much greater for babies as they have less developed eustachian tubes, making that pressure feel even greater.
The loud noise on an airplane can be too much for an infant's sensitive ears since their hearing is still developing. Using baby headphones when flying with your little one is highly recommended.
When booking a long-haul flight, call the airlines and request a bassinet. The bassinet will give your baby ample space to lay down completely for an uninterrupted sleep during the flight. If bassinets are not available, invest in an inflatable foot pillow or footrest. Just inflate it once the seatbelt sign goes off.
Young babies have not developed the ability to regularize their ear pressure by yawning or swallowing, so they don't know how to relieve the abrupt changes in pressure when the plane is taking off or landing. To prevent ear pain and discomfort, babies should wear ear protection whenever they're travelling on a plane.
Airplane ear usually isn't serious and responds to self-care. Long-term complications can rarely occur when the condition is serious or prolonged or if there's damage to middle or inner ear structures. Rare complications may include: Permanent hearing loss.
For frequent fliers, surgically placed tube in the eardrums is generally helpful to aid fluid drainage in the middle air, particularly for those who are prone to severe airplane ear. This tube helps in ventilating air to the middle ear, and equalize the pressure between the outer and middle ear.
If you're traveling with a child of any age, you can bring the following on your flight for free in addition to your carry-on and personal items: Diaper bag. Breast pump, milk or formula. FAA-approved car seat.
The Mayo Clinic believes that airplane cabin noise levels are very loud for children and infants, especially during takeoff. They recommend parents "limit your baby's exposure to this noise." Parents can eliminate their exposure to the noise entirely by choosing not to fly with their babies on board.
According to The Health Journal, the most common reason for their discomfort on flights is because cabin pressure presses down on their sensitive ears. Babies' ears are more sensitive than adults' ears, and they cannot equalise the air pressure in their ears as well as adults can.
Because flying takes babies out of their typical environment (and often throws them off schedule), some amount of crying may be unavoidable. Still, there are things you can do to make your baby as happy and comfortable as possible and, hopefully, quell their crying.