Advice needed for flying for with 9-month old baby

[karaj]

I am getting really nervous about flying with DS (eight months now - will be 9 months when we fly).

He is usually a jolly chappie, but can get very fractious when tired or bored. I am worried he will be both when we fly for the first time at the end of March. We have to go because he has never met DH's parents. The flight is only 5.5 hours direct. We take off at 4:00 pm and will land at 1:00 am local time. DS usually sleeps at 7:00 pm (on land !) and I am worried that he won't settle to sleep in our arms on the plane. Usually he gets really hyper when held to go to sleep. He likes to be left alone in his cot to sleep.

Any advice on how to get him to sleep, not get bored, etc, without the use of drugs would be appreciated Also he is breastfed and I have been told that I should breastfeed him as we take off and land to avoid his ears getting blocked ?

Hi Karaj, I'd be interested to know how you got on with you flight! I'm flying in July when my dd will be 9mths, our flight is 71/2 hr, NZ - Perth, Australia. How did your DS get on with his ears, and did you feed him on take off and landing. I hope to get a bassinett set apparently it's first in first served, so if they don't have one spare my DD won't sleep in my arms

I traveled with DS to Mexico more or less at that age. And got a lot of good advice from other mumsnetters, I have just posted the links in this other thread (have tried to copy-paste them here but it didn't work)