Travel Tips for Flying with a Newborn - Threat Level Orange

August 10, 2006 4:44 AM

I'm flying tonight from Boston to Pittsburgh with a one month old baby. I know not to bring any liquids in my carry-on luggage with me, per the news today. Will they let me bring the car seat on with me, or will I have to check it? What else should I expect, in terms of flying with a newborn?

Bonus: I'm terrified of flying, and have only flown once in the past four years. Today's news is not helping my state of mind. Tips for coping with this today?

Oh, and we're flying on Jetblue, if that matters.

posted by anastasiav to Travel & Transportation (25 answers total)

You can bring baby formula or expressed milk, but they will have to taste it (!).
posted by methylsalicylate at 4:52 AM on August 10, 2006

Don't people always check car seats?

Also, the flight attendants will teach you the proper way to hold the baby during take off and landing.
posted by k8t at 4:55 AM on August 10, 2006

"You can bring baby formula or expressed milk, but they will have to taste it (!)."

Actually I read that they will make you taste it, while they watch.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:56 AM on August 10, 2006

Response by poster: Don't people always check car seats?

I'm only traveling with a small bag of baby stuff and the car seat. I was hoping to not have to check anything.
posted by anastasiav at 4:57 AM on August 10, 2006

Your life will be much easier if you are breastfeeding and providing fresh. Be sure that you have a blanket to cover yourself and keep hydrated with liquids prior to boarding and in-flight. The baby should either have a pacifier or your breast in its mouth to take care of the air pressure issue during landing and take-off.

If you are not breastfeeding but on bottle the only thing I can think to do is bring a small amount of dry formula in a clear container and mix on the plane with water provided by the airline. I am hoping that your infant is not picky about temp.

I understand that a newborn's feeding schedule is pretty ruthless but your flight is domestic and not too bad a distance.

Infants are WAY MORE EASY than toddlers. Your diaper bag will be checked over very closely. TSA has never impressed me so be preprared to be hassled over your diaper cream.

If you are insanely nervous about your baby on a plane call your pediatric nurse about whether you can use things like infants' benadryl which can either make a child sleep or hyper depending on their body chem or similasan for ear aches.

Really, infant travel is not bad as longs as you are not freaking out; hold the baby and have a secure oral comfort for the child to occupy it.

Good luck.
posted by jadepearl at 5:05 AM on August 10, 2006

I'm only traveling with a small bag of baby stuff and the car seat. I was hoping to not have to check anything.

Umm, I think a car seat far exceeds the "maximum carryon size".
posted by antifuse at 5:07 AM on August 10, 2006

Oops, forgot about baby seat. You can check that in at either the counter or when you do check in at the gate. Things being weird with luggage and all that you might want to do it in general check in with luggage.

the general rules of coping at crappy airports apply: come early; bring treats for yourself such as books and food while you are waiting and definitely take the airline up on early pre-boarding.

Also, strip your diaper bag of any liquids and gels such as hand sanitizer, meds or moisturizers. You can get those at destination. Diapers, wipes, extra change of clothes for baby and extra shirt for you in case you have an accident.
posted by jadepearl at 5:11 AM on August 10, 2006

It will help your baby's ears if s/he has something to suck on. That will also make everyone on the plane happier.

As for your own fear, Jetblue is a nice airline - you should be in good hands. And if there's any turbulence, don't worry - it's not dangerous. If you're worried about terrorism, try to console yourself that the Boston-Pittsburgh route is highly unlikely to be a target. And the code color thing is bogus - don't worry about it - it's not a good enough indicator of safety or risk. If you are drinking again, a glass of wine should calm your nerves a little bit. I'm afraid of flying too, although a lot of flying in recent years has calmed me down somewhat. I'm superstitious, so I have a good luck charm I bring with me on flights. I don't really think it helps, but it calms me to remember I have it.

Good luck! You'll both get through this just fine. It's a very short flight!
posted by Amizu at 5:13 AM on August 10, 2006

Rent a car and drive. Seriously, given the the airport security delays, and the possibility of in flight delay, it is very likely you can drive Boston to Pittsburgh in not much more time than the flying will end up taking.
posted by COD at 5:13 AM on August 10, 2006

Does the child have her/his own ticket? If so, most infant carseats strap into an airline seat easily. They will run the whole thing through the x-ray machine while you hold your baby.
posted by plinth at 5:17 AM on August 10, 2006

Response by poster: it is very likely you can drive Boston to Pittsburgh in not much more time than the flying will end up taking.

Heh. Boston to Pittsburg is a 12 hour drive, without a newborn in the car. With a newborn, we calculate it out at something like 18 (stopping every two hours to eat and stretch for an hour) which would mean an overnight stay somewhere around Scranton. (We've driven it dozens of times in the past).

So if you're saying that there will be so many delays that I won't get to Pittsburgh until Sunday, then I really hope you're wrong...
posted by anastasiav at 5:36 AM on August 10, 2006

If you are forced to part with your diaper cream or hand sanitizer there is a drug store in the Pittsburgh airport where you can immediately purchase those items upon landing.
posted by Alison at 5:38 AM on August 10, 2006

I just heard on NPR that baby formula may be carried on flights as long as it is screened.
posted by Heatwole at 6:01 AM on August 10, 2006

Best answer: Will they let me bring the car seat on with me, or will I have to check it?

If you actually purchased a ticket for the baby with the idea of attaching the car seat to the airplane seat, they will probably still allow that.

More likely, if you were planning on holding the baby, just bring the car seat with you to the gate. When you go to board they will tag it and you'll leave it at the end of the boarding tube and they'll put it directly into the belly of the plane. When you de-plane, they'll have it right at the exit for you to grab as you get off the plane.

This is standard procedure for things like baby strollers, etc. If you'd like to set your mind most at ease, of course, give jetBlue a call.
posted by mikepop at 6:07 AM on August 10, 2006

Response by poster: If you'd like to set your mind most at ease, of course, give jetBlue a call.

They were .. not helpful. Basically said "it depends on the plane and the airport".
posted by anastasiav at 6:17 AM on August 10, 2006

If you'd like to set your mind most at ease, of course, give jetBlue a call.

They were .. not helpful. Basically said "it depends on the plane and the airport".

If you have a questions specific to your flight you can usually call the airline's counter at the airport you're flying from. You can look in your local phonebook for the airport's number and get connected from there, or check to see if the airline itself lists a local number in the phonebook.
posted by chickletworks at 6:32 AM on August 10, 2006

I have recently been re-reminded of the possibility of awesomeness of gate crew in many airports. Get there early and ask them what the options for handling the car seat are. As long as you're, um, not insane, they'll likely take good care of you.
posted by desuetude at 6:51 AM on August 10, 2006

EndsOfInvention writes "Actually I read that they will make you taste it, while they watch."

Which is just crazy because stuff like Nitroglycerine won't kill you in small quanities.
posted by Mitheral at 7:26 AM on August 10, 2006

Here's what the TSA has to say about formula and breast milk.
posted by brina at 7:41 AM on August 10, 2006

I've never traveled on JetBlue, but I've logged about 20 flights or more this year and well over 60k miles and on almost every flight and almost every airline I've seen exactly what mikepop describes.
posted by FlamingBore at 8:11 AM on August 10, 2006

at least on southwest, a booster seat is not allowed in the passenger cabin. it has to be a real baby seat. so you should be fine with the 1mo old baby, as long as you have a ticket for him/her.
posted by joeblough at 8:46 AM on August 10, 2006

Even prior to today's hullabaloo I have had stewardesses tell us that children are not allowed to sit in car sits on the plane. Most times it was never an issue.
posted by caddis at 8:54 AM on August 10, 2006

No liquids or gels? I think this is misdirection so that the real countermeasures aren't noticed and circumvented. Sure wish there was a better way.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 10:07 AM on August 10, 2006

Booster seats, i.e., non-5pt-harness seats are, AMAZINGLY ENOUGH, not allowed by the FAA.

This is because booster seats are designed to work with the shoulder strap.

This seems insane to me, however, since they will clearly work much better than, say, no booster at all.

So they are banned. It's crazy.
posted by gregvr at 11:20 AM on August 10, 2006

If you paid for a seat for child, the airline will (based on my dozen experiences) let you bring your infant car seat on board so you can secure it to the seat.

But if you didn't pay for a seat, either 1. check the car seat at the counter as baggage or 2. leave the car seat at home altogether. I know you don't want to deal with check in at the baggage counter, but unless you have guaranteed yourself a seat for your baby by buying a ticket for him/her, the last thing you need is to be lugging a 15-pound, irregularly shaped infant car seat through security and down an airport concourse, just so someone can stick it in the cargo hold until you land, at which point you have to lug the thing back out of the airport. Better just check the car seat.

I think that what many of the posters have in mind when discussing "gate-checking" car seats is really the "gate-checking" of strollers. I have found it very beneficial to take my stroller through security so I can stroll my kids around the secure areas of the airport and up to the gate. Then, the gate agents stow the stroller in the cargo hold during the flight. Just after the plane has landed, but before passengers are allowed off the plane, the crew retrieves the stroller and sets it in the tunnel between the gate and the plane, so it's literally right outside the door of the plane when you get off.

As for tips for coping with your fear of flying, I've never been afraid of flying, but maybe it'll help to remind yourself that flying is much, much safer than driving. You're doing yourself and your little one (congrats!) a favor by taking to the sky rather than putting him inside a deathtrap on the freeway. See Roger Cobb and David Primo's book The Plane Truth, which states that three times more people die every year in car crashes than have died in commercial plane crashes. (the link is to a PBS Nova website, though, about plane crashes, so you might not want to click on it).
posted by hhc5 at 11:42 AM on August 10, 2006