Tips for ultra long haul travel with baby - general advice and formula

[trrk]

We are preparing to take a long haul trip trip to New Zealand (for a family visit) with our baby who will be 7 months old by then. Slightly terrified by this prospect so would appreciate any tips on how to survive the trip, especially the travel there and back (once there we are mostly staying with family). The door to door travel time will be around 40 hrs (getting to Heathrow, check-in, two long haul flights, one or two domestic flights, transits between flights etc) so won't be able to just time flights with sleep time as it's almost 2 days of travel. How do we keep DD entertained when awake? I'm hoping she will still fit in the airline bassinet so we can have a break from holding her.

I'm also particularly nervous about how to deal with bottle feeding for so long with no opportunity to sterilise bottles along the way. If we take enough bottles and pre-made formula for the trip plus a bit extra that's going to take up a lot of handluggage space. Guess there is no other otpion. I assume pre-made formula is easier while travelling but we may have to deal with milk powder on the way back as pre-made formula is not used in New Zealand unless we bring enough for the way back as well.
Any tips on how to deal with formula feeding on long trips would be much appreciated!

How was your flight? I am doing a Similar journey in 3 weeks. Any tips you may have from your recent experience will be super helpful.

Yes it would be great to hear from @trrk since it was such a long trip! Any hints would really help others 😊

@Bbymum : hi! Did you also do your own trip and any tips to share too? Thanks very much!

Sorry for not getting back to the thread - I was away when the other replies came though. We survived the trip although it was pretty exhausting - 46 hr door to door after delays so we were knackered by the time we got there. We did end up taking enough bottles and pre-made formula for the trip but it did take up a lot of space so would maybe try to do something differently if we did it again. Sone friends of ours sterilised on the go but the idea of washing bottles in the plane toilet just gives me the ick factor and we were too knackered during the layovers to muck about sterilising bottles and the main stopover airport didn’t have a baby room where we could have washed them (some airports do). Brought plenty of spare clothes too and went through 3 sets before we even left Heathrow due to sone unexpected travel sickness. It was definitely useful to have the bassinet seats even if baby only slept in it for short bursts as I found myself falling asleep with her on my lap on the flight we didn’t have the bassinet. A travel stroller that fits in the overhead compartment is also super useful for layovers - no risk of it being checked through.

Happy to answer any specific questions!

Hi,

I’ve been looking at different travel strollers trying to find one that folds down to be classed as hand luggage. They always seems to have one measurement over the size limit, a different one on each one. 🤦🏻‍♀️ can anyone recommend one?

@ChangeHtotheP with folded dimensions of 48x32x20cm the Cybex Libelle would even go as hand luggage on Ryanair (Max 55x40x20cm). I think they're the stingiest of most airlines regarding size, so should be fine for all other flights. On you to double check the specifics of your airline of course.

Thank you @Regenbogen22 !!! I hadn’t seen that one before, which is silly of me as we have a cybex car seat. We’re flying BA so that will definitely fit. Looks a bit flimsy but sure it won’t be in real life.

We took the BabyZen Yoyo and have managed to take it as hand luggage on every flight we've been on so far. Although it's not the only one that fits the dimensions it does seem to be very well known by airline staff and they've never tried to make us fit it in the hand luggage box. It's expensive but we plan to sell ours on once no longer required.

Thanks @trrk. I really don’t know how I missed so many, I guess I went down the wrong rabbit hole on google!

We have a short haul flight coming up when she’s 7 months and then a long haul flight when she’s 1. Fingers crossed she likes flying as I want to take her to see the world. 😄

I took my then 4 month old to Australia and found a sling more useful than a buggy (I didn’t travel with one and borrowed on arrival). Combination feeding.
I pre ordered formula from Boots and picked it up after security. I microwave sterilised bottles in the amazing family room at Doha but coming back was forced to rinse the bottle with drinking water in the loo as delays lost me the stop off and pre mixed formula not a thing. Planes do not have microwaves so no possibility of doing it in flight.
I’m very pleased to have taken a baby rather than a toddler….

I took my 4 month old to China & then Australia at 14months.

for sterilising take some milton tablets & large ziplock bags & you can pop the bottle in a bag of water with a tablet.

sling & yoyo worked really well for us. The canopy on the yoyo is a bit small so we bought a larger one from ebay (for when we were away not for travel)

entertainment, lots of toys, fidget toys worked best & books, teething rings. We also had a tiny etcher sketcher & water pens (but that was the Oz trip)

we had some bandana style headphones so she could watch tv but she wasnt that interested.

we found the bassinet quite small, as we were in the bulk head I took a small blanket to put on the floor so she could play with her toys, but not on the grubby plane floor.

food, pouches work well. I had a yum box & filled it with different snack which in itself kept her entertained. Plus extra snacks

I was really nervous about disturbing other passengers but everyone was really lovely.

not feeling quite so confident travelling to Oz later this year with a 6 4 & 2 year old 🙄