Any tips or words of wisdom... travelling with my 7 month old in 3 weeks..

[Sellena]

Hello!!

As the subject line says ^

7 hour flight, London-Abu Dhabi

She doesn't use a dummy...

Hotel has already been accomodating with bottle sterilising, high chair in the suite etc

Ready made cartons or powder milk? I use the 1 litre bottles at home and powder for early morning feed and to mix up food. Food wise I know what I am doing...

Any tips or things not to forget?!!

Look forward to your wise words!

Sellena

[SarahJaneS]

Spare t shirt for you and any other travelling adults. - I jest not, one father I know had to do a whole transatlantic flight covered in baby vom.

[Pickle]

I'd take a mixture of powdered and ready made milk. A few small toys for the plane and a sippy cup for water to keep her entertained. A spare top is a good idea, I always take a change of clothes for me when I travel to NZ, and they were useful on our way home in August when my baby had a reaction to something she ate!

I'll swap your 7 hour flight with 1 baby for my 26 hours of travel with 3 children under 6 in just over two weeks time. Deal?

[shaunag]

Bring a sling as hand luggage- if you don't need it when collapsing the pushchair at the gate you may need it for pacing up and down on the plane and/or walking to the carousel to get your buggy (have found it a bit hit and miss re whether buggy waiting at plane at other end or on carousel and remember a very long walk carrying a lot of hand luggage and baby in my own. As its a long flight would bring a change of clothes for you (and a couple if tops and bra just in case-baby puked down my top on a flight-had a spare top but no bra-nice!) also, few changes of clothes for baby! Ask when checking in if there is any possibility of a row with just u and baby so can get up and down easily if the flight is not too full. Any ear pain most likely on take off or landing so try to have lo sucking on something for those bits of the flight. Still bf'ing so no expert on type of formula, but bring plenty extra in case of delays.also, usual calpol, teething gel, yellow metanium and anything else u might normally pop out for that wont be available in airport or on plane.some form of entertainment for baby prob good-wouldn't bother with a book/magazine as have never get to read anything and they are heavy-audiobook (hands free option) perhaps? Finally, try not to fret if other people give u any grief for any crying-we were all babies once! Have a great trip!

[Strawbs]

I went to Australia on my own when my baby was 7 months and it was totally fine. I just wanted to let you know it may not be a horror story. Take bottles, ready made cartons, a few toys on a lanyard so they don't end on the floor but you can put it round your neck and baby can play with them. If no dummy then bottle for take off and landing. MOre nappies and babygrows for baby than you think and snacks..

Best thing you can do is keep calm as baby will pick up on your vibe..

Good luck!

X

[Fuschia]

Took our twins to Egypt at 7m

It's a good age to travel

Have fun!

[Sellena]

Thank you all so much for your wise words, will def take a spare top!! never thought of that really!

[Sellena]

Pickle, I will tick to my 7 hours thankk you!! Good luck !

[KatsuQueen]

Hi, be prepared to open your milk cartons at Heathrow to taste them. Security made us open half of all our carry-on food and milk and taste them, it was a nightmare. Especially the milk cartons because then we had to try and pour them into our sterilised bottles. Ended up wasting quite a lot of milk, so take more than you think you will need.

Also agree with poster who suggested a sling. We took our buggy up to the airline door, but only got it back on the luggage carousel. So it would have been very difficult without the sling, carrying all our other bits and pieces as well. On our way home from a long haul flight our airline "lost" our buggy (it was offloaded in Dubai when we were in transit) but luckily we had a sling during the long traipse up and down Heathrow making reports etc.

Sorry if I am making it sound awful, it wasn't and 7 months is a nice age to fly. They are not too mobile so don;t want to climb out of the skycot, crawl along the floor and so on. (PS have you booked a skycot? Otherwise you will be carrying her for 7 hours.)

[Sellena]

In that case milk cartons are not going on with us!! Worse case scenario there might be some on sale on the other side of security. I brought a sling as soon as I booked the flight, it is just one flight so I am hoping all goes well.

Skycot booked and confirmed!

Thank you so much!

[shaunag]

Hi. Just remembered they make you taste a certain percentage of any baby liquid food you bring. I helpfully can't remember the percentage, but think it was at least 50% (they choose which ones). We had some Ella's and they didn't make us open any of them, but went for home made option instead (we ha a lot of food for 10month old heavily restricted diet). But, my sister was made to open her Ella's pouches in a flight so would check in if you are bringing any. Have done quite a bit of flying and it's generally been fine so don't worry about it too much (and nearly all the airline staff have been really helpful, just a rate few duds). Have a great trip!

[Pickle]

Yes, it seems to be pot luck whether you have to open food/milk. In August when we last travelled to NZ I took lots of food pouches and didn't have to open any of them. Similarly in the past I've had the small cartons of formula and not had to open them.

If you use a specific type of formula, ring the Boots store in the terminal and check that they stock it.

[DaveR]

This may be pretty obvious, but try and get on the right side of the cabin crew early on - I'm sure you would be anyway, but extra polite and grateful always helps. The chances are that at some stage you are going to be asking them to do stuff for you outside of the normal bring the tray/clear the tray, and a few extra smiles and thankyous may make the difference between them making an extra effort to help you, or making themselves scarce.

[Convex]

We've had a few long haul flights recently and it really is manageable. I'd say 1 or 2 favourite toys/books is enough from my experience. Fdefinitely try to get a cot. And definitely a sling, we needed it to get him off to sleep a couple of times when the flight times didn't work out.

We took ready made milk and went prepared to pour it into bottles although we didn't need to, I did have to taste the Ella's pouches though, sadly not the flavours I would have wanted to!

Only other advice is that it can be both very cold and very hot on a plane so simple layers work best, we had him in pjs mostly with a jumper and a blanket as extras.

If your baby is the one that cries, try not to worry. You need to focus on the baby and either people understand or they don't, and I don't think you can do anything to change that!

[Carbonara]

Check on the airport website if there is a Boots airside and if the sell cartons of milk. You can take cartons unopened if you buy them once you have been through security.

Have a small bottle to give on take off and landing, the swallowing helps their ears pop. The babies all start crying as soon as the descent begins :(

[Cessj]

We've been travelling with our little one since he was a few months old, and never encountered any problems that couldn't be easily solved.

A few people have mentioned the problems of having to wait for buggy to be unloaded etc. However, we always used a Quinny Zapp which folds up very small in its own carry bag which has a shoulder strap, and you can store it in the overhead locker, hence no hanging around waiting for it to appear on baggage rev claim carousel. Its also very light, and as a 3 wheeler, can cope with most terrain....

Good luck and enjoy your holiday...