Baby Flight Strategies

It always makes me nervous to fly with children. I'm not a generally nervous/uptight person, so it's odd that I get so nervous about it. I worry that they'll be loud, disobedient and out-of-control - and it's difficult to discipline effectively on the airplane. I guess my nervousness stems from pride - I want my kids to be well-behaved, so I can appear to be a good mom. Sin is ugly, isn't it?

The way I deal with my nervousness is to make a game plan. So here are some of the things we did to help the baby (11months) on this weekend's flight:

• Board first on Southwest and pray for an empty seat (Children under 2 don't need to purchase a seat, but if the flight is full, they have to sit in your lap.)
• Let her stand up in your lap, and watch all the people enter the plane. (The lap trays are usually strong enough to support a baby's weight, so this works well for standing)
• Let the baby flirt with friendly passengers.
• Some friendly passengers might even want to hold/entertain your baby for a little while.
• Let her flip through the magazines - point to key words, let her help turn the pages, let her crinkle the pages, let her play with the little postcard inserts
• Let her explore the snack pack - touching, tasting, shaking, rattling, scooting...
• Ask the flight attendant about the best place to change a diaper - some planes have changing tables in the restrooms!
• Take a ziplock bag full of munchies, as well as food for any meals during the flight.
• Give the baby a pacifier and/or bottle during take-off and landing (this keeps their ears from hurting)
• Take a bag of small multi-purpose toys. I try to take toys that have at least 2 ways to entertain - shaking, stacking, making noise, turning over, hiding...
• Add 1-2 board books - read them, point to key pictures, play the drums on the cover, turn the pages...
• Remember your baby games - peek-a-boo, find mommy's nose, rhymes, songs...
• Encourage her to sleep. It might require extra snuggling, pacifying, singing...
• Laugh and make the best of it!