Flying with an infant

[Bruce McFadden]

My daughter and son-in-law have asked me to fly them along with their
four week old son from KTCL to KGIF (about 450 miles) in about 2 weeks.
Daughter wants her aging grandmother to see the infant. Her
pediatrician feels the infant is too young to be around large crowds
like in at a large airport. It would be a 10 hour car trip and only
about 3 hours in my Cherokee six. The pediatrician is not too concerned
about a trip in a small plane, although he is not a pilot.

Has anyone had any experience traveling with a very young baby?


Bruce McFadden Birmingham, AL

PA32-260

[jsmith]

Keep climbs and descents shallow (125-250 fpm). Have Mom give the kid
something to suck on during climbs and descents.

Bruce McFadden wrote:
>
> My daughter and son-in-law have asked me to fly them along with their
> four week old son from KTCL to KGIF (about 450 miles) in about 2 weeks.
> Daughter wants her aging grandmother to see the infant. Her
> pediatrician feels the infant is too young to be around large crowds
> like in at a large airport. It would be a 10 hour car trip and only
> about 3 hours in my Cherokee six. The pediatrician is not too concerned
> about a trip in a small plane, although he is not a pilot.
>
> Has anyone had any experience traveling with a very young baby?
>
> Bruce McFadden Birmingham, AL
>
> PA32-260

[Andrew Gideon]

jsmith wrote:

> Keep climbs and descents shallow (125-250 fpm). Have Mom give the kid
> something to suck on during climbs and descents.

I built make-shift ear-protection from a wool hat following
a description I read in some articles. Frankly, though, I
don't know how much "protection" was afforded.

Does this kid have a "bouncy seat"? Ours did. The plane
acts just like this: seconds after engine start, ZZZZZzzzzzzz.

Alex is currently about 20 months old and still ZZzzzzzz.

http://www.gideon.org/andrew/PhotoAlbum/Flying/8/display.cgi/dscn3307.640x480.jpeg

- Andrew

[jsmith]

Andrew Gideon wrote:
> Alex is currently about 20 months old and still ZZzzzzzz.

My daughter is 11. She is usually out 15 minutes after takeoff.

[Cockpit Colin]

Mine both go to sleep too (usually).

Just make doubly sure they don't have any cold/sinus issues that would
prevent the ears equalising.

Also, if you're taking hot water in a flask (for heating bottles etc) be
VERY careful when opening at altitude.

CC

[Rick Durden]

Bruce,

Go to AVweb (www.avweb.com), click on "Columns" then click on the
index for the pilot's lounge series of columns. Scroll down to the
very first one for a long piece on flying with infants and kids.

Hope it helps.

All the best,
Rick

Bruce McFadden > wrote in message >...
> My daughter and son-in-law have asked me to fly them along with their
> four week old son from KTCL to KGIF (about 450 miles) in about 2 weeks.
> Daughter wants her aging grandmother to see the infant. Her
> pediatrician feels the infant is too young to be around large crowds
> like in at a large airport. It would be a 10 hour car trip and only
> about 3 hours in my Cherokee six. The pediatrician is not too concerned
> about a trip in a small plane, although he is not a pilot.
>
> Has anyone had any experience traveling with a very young baby?
>
>
> Bruce McFadden Birmingham, AL
>
> PA32-260

[Jonathan]

Ditto with my two boys. 9 & 13 now. They Sleep right through landing.

Great picture of Alex, Andrew!
-Jonathan

"jsmith" > wrote in message ...
>
>
> Andrew Gideon wrote:
> > Alex is currently about 20 months old and still ZZzzzzzz.
>
> My daughter is 11. She is usually out 15 minutes after takeoff.

[Snowbird]

Bruce McFadden > wrote in message >...
> My daughter and son-in-law have asked me to fly them along with their
> four week old son from KTCL to KGIF (about 450 miles) in about 2 weeks.
> Daughter wants her aging grandmother to see the infant. Her
> pediatrician feels the infant is too young to be around large crowds
> like in at a large airport. It would be a 10 hour car trip and only
> about 3 hours in my Cherokee six. The pediatrician is not too concerned
> about a trip in a small plane, although he is not a pilot.
>
> Has anyone had any experience traveling with a very young baby?

4 weeks is a little younger than our experience -- our daughter's
first plane flight was at 12 weeks. She's 4 now. But as far as I
know 4 weeks is no problem.

For hearing protection, get some muff-style hearing protectors
(Tasco Golden Eagle or Peltor II are two very high quality brands
which work). Wrap some foam around the top to fill in the extra
space and cover it with soft cloth, like the top of an old cotton
sock. Don't listen to anyone who suggests cotton. My husband is
an OSH professional and can tell you cotton is worth very little as
hearing protection. Ear plugs which insert into the ear are effective,
but can be painful if they aren't sized right and inserted to the
correct depth which of course, an infant can't help with.

Suggest to your daughter that she ask the ped. if the baby can be
given a decongestant if his nose seems at all stuffy. She should
let the baby nurse or give him a bottle during climb-out and esp.
during descent.

Flight plan for gentle, 200 fpm descents. If you put "infant on
board, request slow descent" in remarks and reiterate to ATC,
I've found them very cooperative. Normal climbs don't seem to
be a problem.

What else -- use the carseat in the plane. You might need some
foam "pool noodle" chunks to get it fitted right.

For in-flight diaper changes, I found a waterproof crib protector
cut in half to work well.

Everyone always told us that our kid would sleep on long plane
flights. I want a refund, doesn't happens here. Maybe you'll
have better luck.

Good luck and have fun,
Sydney

[Matthew P. Cummings]

On Sun, 04 Apr 2004 20:58:04 -0700, Snowbird wrote:

> Everyone always told us that our kid would sleep on long plane
> flights. I want a refund, doesn't happens here. Maybe you'll
> have better luck.

Our daughter Elizabeth went to sleep right after takeoff, would sleep
until I reduced power to land and then wake up. But, that was when she
was at 7 months of age. Now she rarely sleeps and is not easily amused at
15 months of age. The only time she's happy is when she's tearing up
paper and handing the little drawings to me, take that away and you can
hear her over the engine noise through the headsets, she's loud.

She hates anything on her head and is constantly removing her hearing
protection, be it her headset, a muff, or the ear plugs. We try to keep
it on, but she's stubborn and will not give up, so it's about 50 50 as to
how much she has them on. We've had a bit of luck with a thick hat that
covers her ears, but after a while that wears thin and off it comes. I
find keeping their headsets on to be the hardest part of flying with them,
it's a constant struggle with our daughter.

You can't leave her in the child seat because she hates being restrained,
you can't put her up front because she tries to fly the plane, and if you
unstrap her she's going places. They're fun to have around, but a second
person to attend to them is mandatory because there's no way I could fly
the plane and keep her under control easily. We go places with her and
her favorite pastime in the plane is kicking me in the head with her feet,
sometimes I can't wait until we don't need that child seat, she couldn't
hit my head if she sat lower.

All things considered, if you can stand them in a car on a trip, you can
deal with them in a plane. It's not any different, same problems and
solutions apply I find, except I'm not pulling over to change a diaper
when it occurs, kind of hard to do. But I will stop at the next airport
because who wants that smell...

I give her a sucker on takeoff to keep her ears open, and landing as well
if she's awake. She sleeps just like riding in a car, very little unless
it's time. Don't leave suckers on the glareshield, it's a bit messy when
it gets warm.