Here are my favorite tips for air travel with a baby. These are all things that we have done to make the plane ride a little easier but you’ll still get dirty looks from people for bringing a baby on the plane. It’s inevitable. Just kill them with kindness because you’ll never have to see them again and if your baby cries during the flight try to remain calm. It is not the end of the world and remember that your baby’s cries sound so much worse to you than to other people because you are programmed to respond to their cries and meet their needs.  

Packing for baby: 

• Make sure to bring extra outfits. Baby clothes are tiny and don’t take up that much room. When we went to the beach for a week, I took 10 outfits for my daughter. She is a super messy eater and I just knew I would need them if I hadn’t packed them. Even though it seems like a lot of stuff, it didn’t take up much room. I can usually fit all her clothes, even her PJs, in a medium size packing cube.  

• Bring enough diapers/formula/wipes to get to where you’re going and then buy some at your destination. This is so much easier than bringing a ton of stuff through security.  

• Pack a few small toys or activities like window clings or stickers depending on the age of your little one. Isla’s first flight took place when she was 7 months old and we took a few teether toys and that was it. She was plenty entertained looking at everything on the plane and she ending up sleeping most of the way. 

Stroller/ car seat 

• We always gate check our baby items so that there are fewer opportunities for the expensive car seat or stroller to be handled roughly by airport personnel. We have the GB Pockit stroller and I can’t recommend it enough. I know it’s pretty pricey but I actually use it more often than I do my giant jogger stroller. The GB pocket is amazing because it can fit under the seat on the plane. We ordered a bigger canopy on amazon for when we took our daughter to the beach. We choose to check our car seat and use a car seat bag like this one here.  

Baby carrier 

• Wearing your baby through the airport is great because it frees up your hands and makes the trek through the security line a breeze. I was able to wear Isla through security both times and they swab your hands but that’s about it. So much easier than having her in the stroller and then having to take her out of the stroller so it can go through the x-ray machine. We always have the Ergo original baby carrier with us but when she was a newborn, we used the Solly baby wrap.  

Before your board 

• When you get to the gate, you’ll want to pull out the muslin blanket you brought (these don’t take up much room and can serve a ton of purposes like changing pad or towel for messes, even a nursing cover. Let your baby roll around and get their wiggles out while waiting to board. We always bring a few toys with us and just let her visit with people. Let your baby babble to people and smile and wave and play peekaboo. It will make people like your baby and that is a good thing for when the flight doesn’t go as planned and your baby gets upset.  

• Send your husband or whoever you’re traveling with ahead of you to board and set everything up (wipe down the trays and windows with a wet one, put the bags in the overhead compartment, put toys where you can reach them in the seat pouch and get a bottle ready for takeoff). You stay behind and change the baby right before you board the plane. This is very important. We failed to do this and as soon as we boarded, my daughter had a smelly situation that needed to be handled and airplane bathrooms are ridiculously tiny and not ideal for baby changing. The less time your baby is on the plane, the better. They get bored easily and that is when the irritability will set in.  

Take off / Landing 

• Feed/nurse your baby on takeoff and landing. Unless they are asleep, then just let them sleep. It will not hurt them. If your child refuses to eat it’s not a big deal. Isla didn’t want her bottle on the way home from the beach and was more content with playing with the buttons on my shirt. 

During the flight 

• Offer 1 toy or activity at a time and have snacks ready to go. My baby gets bored with toys but she would do just about anything for some snacks. She is a super loud eater but it’s actually pretty funny and the plane noise drowned out her “mmmmmmm” sounds.  

General tips 

• Gas medicine, infant Tylenol, teething medicine. Bring them. Because if you forget, that’s when you’ll need them.  

• The plane noise serves as a great built in sound machine so if you can fly during baby’s nap time then they might sleep the whole time. This was the case for us anyway.  

• When you are waiting at the gate take your adorable baby with you to the counter and ask if they have any available empty seats and they might move you and then you will have an extra seat to stretch out.  

• I prefer to sit in the window seat so I can control the shade. We let Isla look out the window when she got bored and put it down when she was asleep. The window seat also provides a little privacy for nursing too.  

I really hope these tips help you when you’re planning to fly with your baby. I read a ton of posts like this when I was planning our first trip and I’m so glad we chose to fly because it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it might be.  The 2-hour flight definitely beat a 15-hour car ride!! Read my post about our road trip with our baby here. 

What tips do you have for flying with your little one? Let me know what has worked for you.