A big consideration with baby and airplanes is pressure changes. As adults we are able to “pop” our ears by yawning or chewing gum. However, babies don’t have that much control (or understanding) over their bodies. The result can be your poor sweetie screaming in pain for a wwwhhhiillleeeee. Why does this happen? And how can you help?

Why?

OK, excuse me while I geek out for a minute. My undergrad degree is in both Speech-Language Pathology AND Audiology. So here is WHY your baby may be crying..

The “pressure” we feel when a plane takes off is caused by a few factors. As the pressure changes in the cabin, your Eustachian tube swells. This keeps the pressure in your middle ear from equalizing to the cabin pressure. As the pressure builds in your middle ear, so does the pain. The goal is is to get that Eustachian tube open as quickly as possible, to keep the pain and pressure in your baby’s ear to a minimum. Note: this change in pressure happens on both take-off AND landing .. so you have to be ready to help your little one on BOTH ends of the flight.

How Do I Help?

• One way we open the Eustachian tubes is by moving our jaw and palate. You and I can do this by chewing gum because it causes us to move our jaw and swallow. If we end up on a plane without gum, we can just continually swallow while opening and closing our mouth. For baby? Drinking! Breast or bottle feeding while take up requires them to be moving their jaw while sucking, and their palate by swallowing! So try to offer that baby a looooong sip while taking off and landing. For us this meant a cranky baby before take-off (he was hhhuuunngggrrryyy), but a happy baby during the flight! Don’t worry, the people next to you will forgive you for the screaming baby when it doesn’t last the whole flight *smile*
• If take-off happens and the poor baby is in pain, there is something you can do once in the air or after you are on the ground. Do this at your OWN RISK. There is a chance of burns – so you need to be careful and use common sense.
  • Get two Styrofoam coffee cups, one empty and one full of steaming HOT water. You’ll also need a few napkins.
  • Dip the napkins in the hot water and ring them out COMPLETELY. You do NOT want them to drip!
  • Stuff the napkins in the bottom of the empty Styrofoam cup.
  • Place your hand over the top of the cup to make sure the steam isn’t too hot for the baby’s skin. You just want it steamy and warmer than the outside air.
  • Place the cup to the baby’s ear and hold it there, allowing the steam to do it’s magic
  • The change in temperature can cause the ear drum to relax and help with the pressure in the Eustachian tubes.

Happy flight!

❤ Tara

P.S. We were told giving baby a lollipop like these can help as well – which makes since because they are using a sucking motion and the novelty could keep them munching!

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Flying With Baby: Baby Wearing
Flying With Baby: Car Seats and Strollers
Flying With Baby: Carry-On

Ahhh – carry-ons. This was hard for me before baby. But now I have to SHARE one of my carry-ons with Pipsqueak – i yi yi… And if what he needs isn’t in his carry-on we don’t have it. We don’t have it for upteen million hours in the air. Ok, more like a few hours. But without that ONE item, it can feel like a million! So, how was I going to pack all my things in one acceptably sized bag, and all of his things in an acceptable sized bag as well? AND haul it all!

My Things

I chose to bring along my rolling briefcase. This can hold all my tech, plus the few other little things I *need* – lotion, lip balm, a jacket. This was also good because it didn’t require me carrying it on my shoulders, which were already hauling a baby.

Baby’s Things

As much as I love the baby’s diaper bag (I stalked eBay to find it because it matches my stroller… and I *HATE* eBay!), it just isn’t big enough anymore. After doing some research I decided to go with a backpack diaper bag. It would give me plenty of room and be conducive to wearing the babe. I shopped around for a while and was REALLY depressed at what I found. Some were around $150 – I’ve never even owned a purse that cost that much! The other end of the spectrum felt soooo cheap. I was sure I would split a seam packing it with all his things. But when I really stopped and thought about it, what did I need

from a backpack specifically made to be a diaper bag? The big “featured” seemed to be an insulated pocked for bottles. Considering Squishy’s milk isn’t provided via bottle, I really didn’t need that feature. So I headed over to R.E.I. to find a backpack – I was sure to babywear so I could make sure it fit on with the carrier. Let me introduce the Flash 22 Pack…

• Super light but sturdy – all the weight can be in the contents!
• No dividers inside, making it quite roomy for baby things
• Two mesh pockets on the sides for things you need quick access to
• Zip pocket on the “hood” for things requiring safe keeping but easy access
• Loops down the front for hooking items to

So, how did I pack Pipsqueaks bag? I’m all about grouping items. So, everything goes into it’s own smaller bag/container. Some key contents inside..

• All the diapers went into a diaper pouch – mine was a gift from Lou Bugs Boutique
• Wipes in the Skip Hop case. I love that the diaper pouch an wipes containers both have loops – I loop them together since I never need one without the other!
• A diaper changing pad (you never know what germs are on surfaces! Ewwww!)
• A wet bag – able to hold soaked items in a pinch, but holds all his teething toys in the meantime!

While some key contents for the outside …

• I put my wallet in the top zipper pocket..
• My nursing cover, a blanket and burp rags in the mesh pouches
• My luggage tag and bag dispenser (for soiled clothes and stinky diapers) on the front loops!

It worked AWESOME! So much so, that I haven’t gone back to his diaper bag! I *love* this thing!

❤ Tara

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Flying With Baby: Baby Wearing
Flying With Baby: Car Seats and Strollers
Flying With Baby: Ears

I know quite a few supermoms who have flown without their strollers. That is NOT ME. For one thing, I love my stroller. Like, seriously. BOB is my boyfriend and my husband totally accepts this fact *wink*. And for another, there are just some moment when wearing Liam isn’t an option (he’s not in the mood, he fell asleep in his car seat, etc.). But almost no one can get away with flying without a car seat. So below are my tips for flying with these two LARGE objects …

Protect them at ALL COSTS

Car seats aren’t cheap, and many strollers cost a pretty penny themselves. If you’ve ever seen what an airline can do to a piece of checked luggage, do NOT doubt the havoc they can wreak on your beloved car seat and stroller. Our answer to this, was to “bag ’em”.

Car Seat:

• We currently have a Chicco Keyfit car seat. We had to fly with both the car seat AND the base. So I did some shopping around and found the Brica

  

  bag. We went with this bag for a few reasons…

  • Thick material for protecting the car seat from scrapes and drags
  • Wheels for pulling it behind us through the airport
  • Straps for carrying it in hand or as a backpack
  • LARGE pocket on the front

Ok, how I packed it is very important – so you don’t stand around looking like an idiot as I did. This bag is made for convertibles, but it can work for your infant cart seat too! So…

• First place your car seat in the bottom of the bag, handle back
• Set the base inside the car seat. If you have an adapter for your stroller, toss that inside now as well!
• Zip it up! I tossed all my stroller accessories (bag hook, parent console, etc) in the front pocket.

Stroller:

Ahhh, back to my beloved stroller. As much as I would have loved to have the BOB Black Travel Bag, I waited too long to purchase my bags AND am way too much of a cheapskate. Even when it comes to my “boyfriend”. Though I may get it now – you’ll see why later. So, instead we purchased a large Gate Check bag from TRU. It was cheap and had some great features:

• Straps on the side to carry it once bagged
• Folds up into a tiny pouch
• Cheap enough that we wouldn’t mind replacing it
• Roomy, even though our stroller didn’t fit

Yep, you read that right. The wheelbase on the BOB was too wide for the bag. But that is one of the things we love about the BOB. Another thing we love? Quick release wheels! How I packed it …

• Fold up and lock down the stroller
• Pop off the two back wheels
• Slide the stroller into the bag, then set the wheel on top
• Pull the drawstring and you’re ready to go!

Gate Checking

This is when you check items that you need in the airport up until the moment you board the plane. These items are left right outside of the plane door when taking off, and you’ll find them waiting for you there when you get off at your next destination. This also means these items will not be thrown into the pile of luggage ferried out to the plane before take-off and it will be available for you during layovers (unlike the rest of your luggage!). We gate -checked our BOB Stroller and car seat …

Bag’Em *THEN* Tag’em:

• When you arrive at your gate, you have to go up to the counter to get a tag for gate checking your items. Do NOT let them put those tags on your items until you have bagged them! You want them to put the tags on the bag, not the item. It may get lost or over looked if they can’t see the tag when you leave it on the jetway. 

Early Arrival = Early Deposit!

• Sometimes, if you get to your gate with plenty of time before the flight, they will take your items down the jetway ahead of time. This is HUGE. I plopped Liam back into the baby carrier and loaded up the goods. The gate attendant then walked it down to the plane door. Trust me – this is a GODSEND! Try hauling it down yourself, with everyone else walking down the jetway, and your baby, and your carry-ons. Trust me, it ain’t a pretty picture! 

Similar Posts:

Flying With Baby: Baby Wearing
Flying With Baby: Carry-On
Flying With Baby: Ears