Flying with a newborn

[Cocobear]

Fellow expats, does anyone know if there's any decent guidance on how soon it's okay to fly longish-haul (7 hours) with a newborn? I'll be going back to the UK to give birth, but don't want to stay longer than absolutely necessary! Your collective wisdom would be much appreciated.

loads of htreads on this and also there a whole seciton on the " mumsnet how tos"

www.mumsnet.com/bigissues/travel.html

British Airways
HTH
Try to get a bassinet when you fly, will give you someplace cosy to put baby when he/she is asleep, might also allow you 5 mins to eat
Good luck

I think babies need to be two weeks old to fly, but I wouldn't swear to it. I have flown with mine at 6 weeks - very easy as they are very portable and we're used to each other at that stage

def get a bassinet or a skycot if you can.
even if they won't sleep / hate being in it it's a handy place to store the nappy bag

Easiest time to fly IMO-rather travel with a newborn than a 2yr old any day

Coco, I was in Africa and flew back to the UK for the birth of both my two, we flew them straight back from the UK to Tanzania and Cameroon, dd at 11 days old, ds at 14 days old, no problems with either and I had a c-section with both. The most difficult bit was getting each of their passports processed in time but dh managed it.

Personally I was very happy to be home as quickly as possible and, as you probably have, to have a lot of support, cleaning cooking etc

The airline staff on both occasions (BA and Air France) were fabulous, the babies simply slept, pooped and fed!

Thanks for the links and advice everyone. I do vaguely worry about germs and recycled air, but we already live in sub-saharan Africa so there's no saying it's a healthier atmosphere off the plane than on. Was more concerned about links to cot death (reported a couple years back??) or effects on little ears.

Yes, cameroonmama, I do want to get back to the housekeeper/nanny! Also it's home now for DS, who hates staying in the UK too long and can be quite vocal on the issue for such a little person.

agree that passports are the most difficult aspect of this particular conundrum.

dh had to register the birth straightaway, prompting me for a name for ds within seconds of him being taken out and me in a lovely drug fuelled haze, hence he is called Barnaby which never once featured on our list of baby names, he then took 1 day old babbas, out of the hospital, to the photographers to get snapshots, and the following day went in person to the passport office having already made an appointment in advance...phew! Also we couldn't book the return infant ticket back until the infant had a name! Apparently this was the most tedious part, thank goodness I was blissfully unaware but I was very happy to get back asap to the heat and endless supply of cakes!

oops meant to add that as for problems with ears, if you feed on take-off and landing they don't seem to suffer.

Hadn't even thought about the passport photos, but will take forms with me. I remember the US embassy in London insisting that I fill in DS's height and hair colour on the passport form. For a bald 3-month-old, this seemed kinda silly. They even handed me a tape measure to check his 'height'!