My Best Tips for Flying with a Baby

This travel post is a long time coming! Before having a baby, my husband and I agreed that we didn’t want to do a complete 180 in our lives (with respect to travel) once our family grew. We love to travel, and we wanted to bring our future kids with us. We have stuck to that, though as new parents we aren’t traveling exactly like we used to. Today I’m sharing some tips today on flying with a baby in the hopes that it will help you feel a little more at ease about your travels! It can be nerve wracking to take that first flight as a new parent, but the best part is realizing you can do it!

First, let’s talk about maybe the most important thing: when is the best time to travel with a baby. For us, 4-6 months was really the sweet spot (so far, anyway!). Our daughter was still napping a lot during the day, she could fall asleep anywhere, and she didn’t mind being in the car seat for a drive. AND it was after she had most of her vaccines, so we felt better about bringing her across the country on long haul flights. We didn’t have plans to take her on any international flights, so my tips here are based on domestic flights only.

From our San Francisco family trip: A PCH road trip

When to fly with lap children

I’ve never loved early flights, but now they are our flights of choice. Even though it requires a few alarms and getting up when it’s still dark out, it just makes the day’s schedule easier. If you’re traveling with a 6 month old, the early part of your schedule might go something like this:

• 5am get baby out of her crib at the last possible second when you leave the house for the airport, and hopefully baby will snooze in the car
• 6am you’re through airport security with your baby (more on that below!), grabbing a coffee
• 7am board your flight, feed baby during takeoff because the cabin pressure can bother their ears (I keep her baby food in a plastic bag that’s easily accessible in my carry on)

Regardless of when you go, give yourself extra time to get through security. Since young children are unpredictable, the best way to make sure you have a smooth trip is to get there early on the day of travel. It could be a long way from security to your gate, the security line could be crazy, or you could run into other issues (I mean, it’s air travel).

Our travel gear for traveling with a baby

• Checked bags: T’s suitcase (the smaller 21″ version) and my suitcase (the 25″ version, shared with Baby’s things) – sold in a 2 piece set on Amazon 
• In our checked bags: Packing cubes, separated by color to make things easier
• Carry-on baggage: Monogrammed duffle with an insulated container for breast milk, snacks, and baby food pouches
• T’s carry on bag: Swissgear backpack with our laptops
• My personal item: Large tote with my tote/purse inside. This included my breast pump just in case I needed it, as well as a couple of pouches (since we’ve started solid foods).
• Baby’s personal item: Eddie Bauer diaper backpack available at Amazon and Target. (It’s a good idea to double check with your airline, but when we flew, we were able to bring her own personal item alongside the rest of our baggage allowance.) I attached her baby carrier to this, which I used for part of the flight. (For international flights you may have to show proof of age, so bring a copy of a birth certificate with you.)
• Gate check: Chicco infant car seat, stroller (aka caddy) that you can pop the car seat into (but does not function as a stroller on its own), car seat bag. The gate agents will take your car seat without a bag, but it can get dirty. We use the stroller caddy as our travel stroller because it’s lightweight and not expensive, and it makes for a great travel system.
• In our carry ons: A multi-use cover (great for a nursing cover, car seat cover, extra blanket…) and make sure you bring at least one toy that your baby has never seen. This is probably true for small children, too! The fact that it’s brand new will definitely entertain, even if it’s just for a little while. I had two “last resort” toys in our diaper bag, including this cell phone. Make sure you also have a pacifier clip and sanitizing wipes to wipe down the seats on the plane, as well as a portable changing station.
• Book an aisle seat so you can get up if you need to. On the longest domestic flight we took, I had to spend about 15 minutes walking up and down the aisle for entertainment. We don’t book an extra seat for our kids until they’re around 2, so until then we bring them as a lap infant. It’s personal preference if you want to bring a car seat for them to sit in, then you’ll need their own seat (and will have to pay the full fare for them to travel). If you’re bringing a car seat, book a window seat to make things easy for getting in and out. Then pray that the middle seat is an empty seat, if it’s not taken by a family member!
• Note that you might not be able to have a seat in any emergency exit rows if you have an infant fare with you, for safety reasons.

Make sure everything you think you’ll need (baby items, favorite toys, food) is in an easy-to-reach spot. You’ll want easy access to the most important things in your travel bag! This includes anything you might need for a diaper change. The changing tables in the bathrooms are pretty easy to use, but I like to bring my own changing pad cover.

Another note: We don’t travel with a travel crib because we usually just get a crib or Pack n Play wherever we’re staying. For older kids, you might want to invest in small travel cots to bring with you.

Important things to note about flying with car seats:

• The airline we flew considers a carseat and stroller to be “assistive devices” so those flew for free. You’ll want to gate check your car seat and stroller so you can use them all the way to the plane.
• Definitely get a car seat bag so the seat doesn’t get gross! Gate checking is awesome because you give it to them at the last second before getting on the plane, and it’s right there waiting when you get off.

Travel must-haves

From the same trip: Carmel & Monterey Travel Diary

Other tips for flying with an infant: Getting through security

• Get TSA Pre-Check so you don’t have to take off your shoes going through the metal detectors and security! It sounds silly but it does save you from doing one more thing.
• We loved using this baby carrier for travel because it’s so light and packable.
• Once you reach security, they’ll have you push your stroller through for a check (it won’t go through the x-ray machine). Just know it can take extra time to get through security with the extra gear, so leave yourself plenty of time.
• Once you get to the gate, your airline will most likely call for any young families or anyone traveling with young children before general boarding. It’s a good opportunity to get onto the plane and get settled before it gets packed!

Other tips for flying with a baby: On the flight

• Pack your diaper bag so that it’s easy to get to everything you may need without having to do a lot of reshuffling. We made the mistake on our first flight to pack our diaper bag so full that we couldn’t get to anything, and that was a huge pain! Don’t forget that there really isn’t much space on planes. Bring only what you absolutely need for the flight, but don’t forget important extra items like a change of clothes for baby (and you – at least a shirt in case you get spit up on!). We experienced our first (and only) blow out on our first flight, of course, so it was perfect that we had packed a spare change of clothes in the diaper bag.
• If there’s something you use at home constantly, bring it with you! For us this included our portable sound machine (which came in really handy one night when our hotel room neighbor’s dog was barking in their room for hours on end). I also can use my cell phone as a portable white noise machine because I downloaded the “Baby Shusher” app. Not necessarily a must have for the plane ride but I’m sure it would be useful with some fellow passengers sometimes 😉
• Bring a shirt or change of clothes for yourself in your carry on, just in case.
• Make sure you pack plastic bags in your carry on, just in case you need somewhere to put dirty clothes.

If you need more help related to travel with kids, I have a post about flying with a toddler.