Dreading flight with baby

[esgill]

Our baby is 9 weeks old and terribly fussy -- witching hour is awful and can last hours. Today she cried for half an hour in the john lewis feeding room,. We booked a 2-hour flight to see family at the end of the month, by which point she'll be 12 weeks old. Will it really be easier by then? Any tips for making it as stress-free as possible? I feel quite self-conscious when she cries and feel anxious thinking about annoying other passengers.

Take a soft sling. DH and I spent many hours between us jiggling cranky babies in plane galleys in the sling until they gave up and went to sleep. Also way easier in the airport.

Are you breastfeeding? If so, that's very helpful and helps depressurise their ears. Babies are actually easiest to travel with in the first three months or so. If not, a dummy may be helpful.

She will probably be crying a bit less by then; crying usually peaks about 6-8 weeks and then reduces.

PS. The other passengers will survive. Nobody else is nearly as stressed about it as you are.

If you can, feed them on take off and landing. It will help to settle them and the sucking should sort out their ear pressure.

It's a 2-hour flight, not long long haul overnight. I'm being totally honest here and you may not believe me, the noise of your baby crying is worse for you than anyone else (by design, thanks to nature). Furthermore, the looks you will be getting may appear judgemental to you, but many of them will actually be sympathetic and your reaction to them will be biased by your own stress. And, for any of them who are judgemental, fuck 'em. I know, you don't believe me, but it's true. After all, we were all babies once. Good luck x

Try not to worry, people don’t generally mind a small baby crying. It just makes them feel sorry for the baby and the parents. Rowdy older children are much more annoying!

@SylvieLaufeydottir @SiouxsieSiouxStiletto Yes I'm breastfeeding but on demand and except on cluster feeding days, our baby is very in control of when she eats – I can forsee her crying non-stop at the airport so I have to feed her, then she'll be full and reject more milk on the plane... Unfortunately, she rejects the dummy. Will it just be crying if she isn't feeding or sucking anything? Or could it harm her? We can try to get her to suck our finger otherwise...

We'll be taking a soft sling as it's one of the only places she sleeps (the tula explorer).

@DuploTrain @RunnyPaint I really hope this is true... I get so panicky when I hear her crying, it's like she's possessed. It seems to trigger something in me. So weird as 10 minutes before or after she can be smiling/looking like a little cherub.

There won't necessarily be crying on the plane. Landing is the time they're most likely to experience pain in the ears, but babies tend instinctively to suck as pain relief anyway, so that'll be a good time to offer a boob. A plane is also effectively loud white noise, which helped my babies to pass out quickly.

If you walk her around in the airport where you have more space and feed her just before the plane or when you get on, you have a good shot at her passing out for most of it.

I flew with my young baby for the first time this week and it was so much easier than I’d expected. The family security lane was really laid back and everyone was so helpful. Definitely use a carrier if you can, it made moving around the airport so much easier. My usually fussy baby ended up sleeping for the whole flight - the plane is basically a giant gently rocking white noise machine! She grizzled a little when we were getting off and all the passengers around me couldn’t have been nicer, all asking if I needed help with my bags, letting us off first etc. The worst that can happen is they cry. It’s what babies do. If other people have issue with that, it is their problem not yours.

Put noise cancelling headphones for take off and landing on the baby.
Bring baby’s favourite toy and a new toy they haven’t seen before.

DC2 was terribly fussy newborn, always crying, couldn’t be put down. It does indeed improve as you get towards 12 weeks. Took her on several long haul night flights at 13-15 weeks and she was pretty fine. Don’t stress.

Nobody minds that much about a crying baby on a short haul flight

Many people will wear headphones

Nobody is trying to get night's sleep

We were all babies once, don't sweat it

You are biologically programmed to be unable to bear your own baby crying. It’s not as bad for the rest of us. Planes are also LOUD so if she cries she will be competing with that.

It’s only a short flight, if I’m behind or in front of a crying baby I’d think a resigned Oh Fuck!, feel sympathy for the parents, and bung my EarPods in. I reserve my rage for people playing audio content without headphones.

It’s also highly likely that the noise and vibration will send her to sleep so don’t work yourself up too much in advance.

The witching hours were awful I feel you. They stop as quickly as they started im sure by 12 weeks she'll be fine. But yes milk on standby. There really isn't a lot you can do other than that at this age!

Bless you, her crying is cleverly designed to trigger you. Accept that, and take all the practical advice on here. It'll not be as bad as you expect.

My DD is now 14 but we flew long haul a few times when she was little, and it was never as bad we expected. Every type of staff (security, check in, aircrew, immigration) were all lovely to us because we had a baby 👶

I have to travel with mine quite often. It's so much easier for the first 6mo.

The plane noise and vibration is like a giant white noise machine and can send them off to sleep.

Just feed on take off and landing. Will she suck your finger?

For 2 hours it won’t be fun but you’ll survive.

I took my ds on a flight to Switzerland as a baby and he cried pretty much the whole way. It was pretty stressful but I only got sympathetic glances not filthy looks.

You can usually ask the airline to provide a cot to put her in. They will book you at front seats to then fasten the cot to the wall in front. I would use sling and light pushchair that you can take onboard like yoyo. With the constant white noise in the plane if she cries it won't be super disturbing to the whole plane. You can ask the crew to hold her if you need a loo. You can change her on the floor in front of your seat and walk with her around the plane. 2h is not too long even if the worst case scenario of her crying a lot happens. Breast/bottle feed her at take of and landing this helps with the ear pressure. Hopefully with the white noise she'll be sleeping lots!

I took all my babies transatlantic between 6 and 16 weeks. Flying with them was very easy and the flights were 7-9 hours.

Just plan on feeding if possible, even better if baby falls asleep in the sling before you board.