Travel with 12 weeks old? Advise on Jet lag, car seat, buggy and feeding

[minniethemouse]

I am travelling with my 12 weeks old DS to HK. I have load of concerns in my head - how could my ds deal with the jet lag? Should i bring the car seat with me? The buggy is a must, will the airline allow me to take to the plane (not checking in with my luggages.

My most concern is feeding, I am breast feeding but top up with bottle. The airport is now allowed one bag per person policy. I am worried i can only pack one bag (it will be a very big bag then) for myself and my ds. Does the airport has any special policy for those passengers travel with baby ie. milk, water, medicine and so on?
Is anyone can advice me? Thanks

Who are you flying with? The airline website should give all the info on how many bags you can take
Usually you can take an extra bag of hand luggage for the baby

Will you need a car seat in HK?

Airlines usually let you take a buggy to the gate where you then fold it and they stick it in the hold

I will be flying alone with Virgin, thanks for the tips I will check the airline website for information.

I travelled to New Zealand alone with my daughter when she was the same age. Firstly make sure you have requested a baby cot and double check when checking in. They were strict with tthe bottles and formula and even made me drink some of my own breast milk I had expressed so I would buy from boots when you get through the other side. The hostesses are normally very good when you are travelling alone and they have nappies and food if you run out (I flew Singapore airlines). I found as long as I brestfed her (practically the whole way) she was fine. Remember on take off and landing to make sure they drink as it helps with the air pressure in the ears. The airline will let you take your buggy to the gate, I took a sling which worked perfect for us. Don't be too stressed they can sense this, you will be fine and wonder why you worried so much.
Happy travelling
Sarah & Ruby

You will probably find that your baby will want to breastfeed a lot during the flight. By just doing that you will find that your supply wil get a major boost and you won't need to top-up with a bottle. I ended up with loads of milk breastfeeding an 8 month old on a flight to Florida! There isn't much else for you to do

It is a good idea to take twice as many nappies as you usually need in case you hit any delays

Make sure you have a change of clothes with you in your hand luggage too

Thanks everyone...it is such a relief to have such fab ideas from all of you. Looking forward to this stress-free trip.

mears... finger crossed for my breast milk boost after the trip.

I took ds on a15 hour flight at 5 weeks. He bf non-stop and was fine. I found having a sling really useful for the constant feeding.

Jet lag wasn't an issue at all.

Sorry, 7 weeks, not 5.

We took our DD at 12weeks to Cape Town with Virgin. Despite having requested sky cot and confirmed it - it was decined at check in despite us being 4 hrs early and DD being the youngest on board. I caused a bit of a scene and they did give us 2 extra seats. Ground staff said the problem is speaking to India when requesting these things ie communication in the UK with Virgin is not very good. In Cape Town things were different and I phoned them every other day especially as I flew back to UK on my own with DD - got the sky cot and the Virgin ones are great as you don't have to remove the baby during turbulence. The flight was fully booked though and had a muslim bloke sitting next to me who was very tolerant but he seemed a bit uncomfortable with breast feeding. Virgin are great with babies and will heat up bottles and do all the necessary.

We then flew to HK when DD was 4 months old. She coped far better with jet lag than I did - absolutely no problems. We took our buggy with car seat, ie travel system and also a sling which we used most of the time. You can take buggy up to boarding - in HK the buggies were at the plane on arrival - fab, in the UK they wnet to the carousel - pain - as it is a very long walk with a young baby and hand luggage.

thanks for the tips..

KT12 - I have requested the skycot but will definitely double check at the check in desk... thanks for sharing your experience.

Minnie - checking at the desk might be too late in the day and age of on-line check-in. We are flying to Cape Town with BA soon and they have already allocated the bulkhead seats to us so that we can check-in on-line.

Virgin from the UK side have a first come first serve policy when it comes to skycots - unless you can get them to allocate the bulkhead seats prior to check-in. You can't choose bulkhead seats on-line, you have to ring client service and ask them to do it for you and then check in on-line. Good luck