Flying long haul with 9 month old - doable?

[DerbyshireGirly]

Evening all, hope you're enjoying the lovely bank holiday weekend so far!

I'm currently pregnant with my first, no experience whatsoever with babies, wanting to book a holiday for next year.

Is it asking for trouble flying long haul with a nine month old baby? Have my eye on Barbados but if a nine hour flight with a baby is going to be beyond grim, will stick with Europe for a few years.

Would be good to hear from anybody who's done similar and lived to tell the tale?

We took our 8 month old to Australia. Tbh he wasn’t easy as he’s just started crawling so refused to sit on my lap and just wanted to crawl around and pull himself to stand on everything. We lived to tell the tale and the trip was great but if I had my time again I would go when he was slightly younger (5 Or 6 months perhaps) I think at that age he would of been much easier.

We flew long haul with DD at that age and found it ok, as she wasn't yet walking! We booked the front seats so you have the bassinet/child seat thing and then they're not on your lap the whole time. She enjoyed waving down the plane at people, eating a lot and slept a fair bit. Was less stressful than we feared!

I’d go before that if you can - 6mo is ideal.
9mo do not usually like to sit still for long.

I flew 10 hours when my dd was 5 months. The outbound trip wasn't too bad, she mainly nursed and napped.
Inbound flight was perfect because it was night time, so she slept the whole!

Try to get nighttime flights so it coincides with bedtime :)

I took dd on a 4 hour flight at 7 months. Slightly harder as it was daytime and until she napped she wanted to stand up and wave and be entertained! Flight back was perfect because night time = bed time especially after being pushed around airports etc!

Now dd is 16 months and will be doing a 4 hour flight next month so let's see!

Try get night time flights and honestly you will be okay! Your baby won't be the only baby in the flight, remember this . Enjoy your life you will survive x x x

It’s survivable but quite honestly it’s hard work! I took my eldest DD to Trinidad along with my (now long ex) SIL & her slightly older baby. We did get bassinets & were well prepared & perhaps it seemed worse as they cried in tandem but I did feel very frazzled the other end! On top of that, keeping my DD cool and out of the Caribbean sun wasn’t relaxing, her sleep patterns were messed up and I felt hot and cross quite a bit of the time despite ex DP’s family being kind and generous!

With my younger DD we didn’t attempt a flight till she was 2 (Bologna & she screamed the plane down on descent). We had done Eurostar to France and Belgium with her though prior to this which was fine.

Sorry if this is off putting and quite honestly it’s only my experience! Plenty of people do it and if you go ahead remember that if your baby cries on a plane, people are a lot more understanding than you think!

Sorry, should have said eldest DD was 6 months when we did the Trinidad trip and I’d agree a better age than 9 months as they’ll stay in place

20 years ago we took DD, then aged 11 months to California. Nightmare flight ... she slept for two hours in total. Can still feel the horror all these years later! She was crawling at the time and just wanted to explore the plane (she's also turned out to be pretty active generally!). We've travelled with DC many times since but for long haul always flew overnight.

Also the time difference will cause all sorts of issues for you. I'd stick with bucket and spade European holidays for at least a couple of years (speaking from bitter experience!!!)

Thanks for the replies everyone. Jet lag/time difference was another consideration and it sounds like some of you struggled with that. Greece it is then :)

We flew 11 hours long haul with a 10 month old. It was hard, she wasn't quite crawling. Take lots of snacks and things to keep them entertained. And changes of clothes - air cabin pressure creates explosive poonamis!

Unless you are dark skinned I think the risk of sunburn for a baby in Caribbean sun would be quite high

Agree with others that jet lag bigger issue than flights

It really depends on your baby and they change all the time so it's hard to judge! Plus, you could have the most chilled out baby ever, but s/he could be teething the precise day you're due to travel ...

Having said that, I was living in the US for the first two years of DS1's life, so we went back and forth quite regularly and the only nightmare trips I had were due to weather, not him, and usually I was on my own. I'd wait until your baby is born though and see what you get. Some babies are very calm, others less so.

Just for reference, the earliest that most babies crawl is around 6 months and for walking it's around 10 months. Once they're on the move though, they can be trouble!

I wouldn’t choose long haul at 9 months!

We went to Spain in July with DS who was 5 months and the flight was great. Just about 3 hours and he napped or fed.

9 month olds will be much more of a handful. I’d probably want to do a 4/5 hour flight max with them.

I’ve done it as we live abroad and we all survived but in all honesty, I found it the hardest age to fly with. A 9 months old is alert, semi-mobile, they don’t usually fit in the bassinet but they also have the attention span of a gnat. Jet lag however, I’ve never found a problem but that probably depends on your baby. As you have the choice I would plan to go when they’re under 6 months or wait until they’re nearing 2- tiny babies are fine, then it gets tough but it becomes so much easier again once they can watch cartoons and be bribed with snacks!

Of course it's possible, though all babies are different.

I took a 4 month old to the Caribbean, and a 9 month old to Australia. No real issues either way, and we alternated the early mornings from jetlag though at that age we found they didn't last very long.

Oh and if you do decide to go for it, I’d budget for booking them a seat unless perhaps if you’re planning on going business or first class. In my experience they’re too big to be comfortable on your lap for that long.