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After a long lockdown we are planning a family trip at the end of August to Wisconsin to see family. Our son will be 2 and 1/2 so for the plane he has his own ticket and will have his own seat. The flight itself is only about 90 minutes. Anyone have advice about traveling with an infant? We are going to be renting a car, should we bring our car seat with us on the plane? Should we get one from Enterprise? Any tips on how to deal with the pressure change in the cockpit? Should I bring like 30 pairs of earplugs to give to people? Anything we can do to "prep" him for the journey?
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Mar 16, 2021 22:18
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| # ? May 3, 2024 06:28 |
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Bring a juice box or something with a straw to suck on to equalize pressure for the ears. I don't think normal drinking works, I think it needs to be something like a straw. Otherwise you know your kid best, but normally you don't need to be the weird couple apologizing for procreating, unless your kid is an absolute nightmare screamer. For the other question, it depends if the hassle of bringing a car seat outweighs the cost of renting it from the company.
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Mar 17, 2021 11:44
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We flew from the UK to Australia (via China), on to New Zealand, then back home when our son was that age. He had no trouble with pressure changes or anything like that, and was absolutely brilliant the whole near-as-dammit 24 hours each way. Basically, make sure he's got food that you know he'll eat and snacks, some (non-noisy) toys, and if he's anything like our son a tablet or phone pre-loaded with whatever his favourite shows are - with some headphones. You can rent child seats with the car; the advantage of that is that you don't have to lug your own around on the plane.
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May 31, 2021 15:58
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Bring more snacks than you think you'll need. You might not end up needing any, but it's nice to have them on hand just in case. Some sort of sippy cup, bottle, or juice box (as mentioned above) is a good idea for pressure equalization. Some sort of portable entertainment would also be good. I brought a travel Magnadoodle, Playdough, a small stuffed animal, and a little toy car. Nothing with lots of pieces, nothing that makes noise. Bonus points if you can bust out either a new toy or something they haven't seen/played with in a while; it'll have novelty value. I found flights with my daughter were actually pretty easy at that age. I flew to the UK with her (~8 hours) when she was 22 months old and we went to NZ about a year later (4-hour flight followed by a 14-hour flight). She mostly just slept, snacked, played with her toys, and watched the in-flight movies. It was all pretty chill. Hopefully you have a similar experience.  Good luck! ETA: Oh yeah, and I'll second the recommendation to just rent a car seat at the other end. Getting a rental is gonna be way easier than trying to bring one with you on the plane. And if you'd like something that you can use during the flight itself, you could always get one of these harnesses. Symbol fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Jul 7, 2021 |
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Jul 7, 2021 02:56
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It's the year 2022. If someone doesn't want to hear a baby screaming on a plane, they can get noise-canceling headphones. There's no reason to make awkward apologies to random people on the plane. Maybe the person directly next to your screaming child. But unless your kid is a screamer in general, it probably won't be as bad as you think. Ours didn't want to sit in her own seat and kept crawling into my lap but once we distracted her with some fun snacks she doesn't usually get she was happy as a clam. For a 2.5 year old, flying should be pretty exciting with a lot of people and objects she doesn't normally see. Car seats - I haven't figured this one out yet. With just one kid, bringing a car seat with you through the airport shouldn't be that difficult. It's safer for them on the plane in a car seat, and if they're higher up they'll have a better view out the window. But then you are lugging a car seat around the airport and minimizing baggage will make the airport and boarding process so much easier. You can get one from Enterprise but I've heard reviews all over the place about renting car seats - from filthy broken seats, to pristine seats that have never been used because it's rare for people to actually rent them. Enterprise/National are probably going to be better than most, but I think there's a little bit of a risk you wind up with something you're unhappy about. Also they're about $10/day or more.
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May 23, 2022 13:30
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We just flew to London/back with our 3 month old. It went pretty well, all things considered. With respect to the car seat, we brought our own that clips in to a stroller and gate checked them, and then used the car seat in taxis if needed. I was most worried about the pressure changes, but we just had him eating during the ascent/descent and had zero issues.
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May 24, 2022 15:56
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| # ? May 3, 2024 06:28 |
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I'm sorry that I never updated this thread, thanks to the people that bumped it to remind me to do it! We never ended up flying with lil guy, we could never get him to wear a mask (it's probably a sensory issue) so we just said gently caress it and drove. I have never seen a child more excited in my life. He loves cars so getting to look at cars all day was an absolute treat for him. We stopped pretty frequently to let him get out and run around for a bit. His favorite pit stop was at a rest stop that some trucks there that had giant windmill blades on them and he was wide eyed at how LONG those trucks were. He just said "Big big truck" over and over. We are actually getting ready to go to Colorado, this time with a fully potty trained 3 and 6 year old! Our plan is very much the same as it was last time, frequent stops for potty breaks and to let spooter run around and burn off some energy. I think he will once again be excited to see all the cars (even though cars are not really that much of his jam anymore). Should be interesting trip!
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May 25, 2022 15:51
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