Breastfeeding and travelling to Australia with 18mth old

[Sunshinemum12]

Hi there,
I'm travelling to Australia from UK in April to introduce baby to family and looking for some advice if possible please. Baby is 18mths and still breastfeeding. I'm pretty exhausted with it (he's up 4 times a night every night without fail) and keen to stop but wondered if it would be worth it to keep feeding until April in case it helps with things on the flight? Anyone had this experience and did breastfeeding really help or would bottles suffice? Any advice/thoughts much appreciated. Thank you

On the face of it it would seem easier to BF but I am wondering how easy that might be if you are in an economy seat on a packed plane, especially if you haven’t got him his own seat. You are unlikely to be priority for a bassinet seat, they tend to be allocated to young babies, although of course you might get lucky. Obviously if you are in business it is totally different as you have space and privacy. It also means there is no option for anyone else to help you out, either on the flight or when you get to Aus. I don’t want to offend but can I also say that it would be very unusual where I live in Sydney to see a woman out and about breastfeeding a child that age (but I don’t live in the funkiest part of the city 😁). You might not give a rats arse and of course it is totally your choice but you could be left feeling uncomfortable. I used ready made formula and pre sterilised bottles feeding babies on planes which worked fine. Have a great trip whatever you decide.

Better to have four months of better sleep and get them sleeping through the night asap.
Bf on that flight and it didn't help much, baby hated it. Bottles would have been better, could have gone and stood away from him for 5 minutes while partner tried! Or a dummy. Or just toys and tv and distraction. V difficult to bf at that age in the seat as pp said

I didn’t find breastfeeding made any difference on the plane other than just save the faff of dealing with milk before sleep. When I flew with my older toddler, there was a lot of trying to get milk in her cup before bedtime and then trying to heat it up. But my younger one barely even fed on the flight when he was BF.

The flight is only one day, so I think you'd be crazy to continue doing something you don't want to for several months just for a possible benefit for one day in a few months time!

I would start the weaning process but not completely so you have the option on the plane, so much easier than making a bottle

Thank you all so much for your help and advice, I truly appreciate it. I've been in limbo for a few months already and just kept pushing through but the sleepless nights are catching up on me and he bites (!) so not enjoyable at all anymore🤣I think the time has come especially if not necessarily going to be that helpful for the flight. Will try and get hubby to put him to sleep tonight and see how we go! Thanks again xxx

You could try this very gentle night weaning method. Once you've got the night cracked we can help you with stopping the daytime feeds

@TinyMouseTheatre thank you so much for sharing this article, it is extremely helpful. He's mainly only feeding through the night now so hopefully if I can crack this we'll be all good! So far I only had to wake up once last night to feed him so things are looking promising! Thank you again, really appreciate you taking the time to help me out xx

No problem. I only hope that it works for you and you enjoy your trip. It sounds amazing