Flying tomorrow - any tips?

[Philippat]

Off to San Francisco tomorrow with 9 month dd - anyone got any last minute tips for coping with the journey, or anything I musn't forget to pack?

Sounds obvious I know but definitely pack spare vests, babygrows etc (I totally forgot this with dire consequences!!)

Bring Calpol, you can't always get medicines as easily abroad. Also someone told me nappy sacks don't exist in America!

My tip is to breastfeed or bottlefeed or give a dummy during takeoff and landing as the sucking prevents ear pain. I find baby biscuits invaluable for giving ds (10mo) something to occupy him during a long journey. Of course, plenty of nappies/wipes/nappysacks in hand luggage.

Philippat - nothing to do with babies, but I never go outside the UK/Ireland without a supply of teabags. Very English, but I can't go more than a few hours without a proper cup of tea. And I don't like American coffee much, it's not like Italian or Belgian where it's a decent substitute for tea. It's always on my list after passports! Otherwise you get given a cup of hot water with a Liptons bag beside it, which is horrible. And you might want a travel kettle and UK/US adaptor to make it, as Americans will put the teabag and water in the microwave - yeuchh! You might not be as obsessed as me though...!

A couple of smaller water bottles would be easier to manipulate in your luggage etc. The cabin crew should fill them for you without much fuss (certainly less bother for them than your repeated requests for small glasess). If they seem human, you could ask them to leave a large bottle with you. Ice cubes and slices of lemon work well as distractions and didn't make sick, unlike biscuits.

Go with the flow, you know your 9 month old is at a curious stage so go with it. Don't apologise, don't explain (travel in a year's time will be more wriggly and demanding. Honest!)

Make sure that you prepared for an unexpected 6 hour delay with food for yourself as well as your child. If you haven't a decent blood sugar level, you can't deal with everyone/thing else.

Wear something which can be easily rinsed out and will dry quickly if necessary, and put a spare t-shirt for yourself into your handluggage. In the event of any little accidents it's an awfully long way to San Francisco otherwise!

Just got back from Florida 10/07 we took our 2 1/2 year old. We also took her when she was 11 months and found it alot easier on the flight when she was younger. Have you got a sky cot booked? Def take a spare t shirt for yourself as Phoebe wasted a load of drink down me. Def take a bottle of water with you aswell. Have a lovely time.

Thanks so much guys for all your great advice!

We had a fantastic holiday, dd managed amazingly well on all the flights (no vomit I'm pleased to say but I packed a complete change of clothes for all of us and scented cleaning wipes just in case!!) and even coped with the jet lag there.

We had great fun staying with friends and dd made enormous progress suddenly managing to crawl, pull herself up and say hello.

For anyone reading this in the future, my top tips were sachets of formula milk and bottles of evian, little bits of ribbon attached to toys then tied to an extra luggage strap so you're not constantly losing them under the seat, breaking the journey at New York and flying from our local airport rather than tackling the 4 hour drive to Heathrow.

However, bad news is jet lag on the way back seems to be a killer - dd didn't want to sleep until 3am last night and I had to be up to work today...

And it's true, no nappy sacks in the US!