Travelling with an Infant..

My almost six-month old is a seasoned traveller; he’s been on more flights so far than many adults across the world. And well, it hasn’t been as bad as I expected it to be, Alhamdulillah. Here was my experience travelling with an infant.

Our first trip was when he was just barely 2months old, off to my home – the beautiful Kingdom of Bahrain – where I was born, and grew up in, and where my parents still live – via British Airways, and I was travelling alone –without the husband.

There was a massive confusion at the airport, and we had to wait for ages to get it sorted, and we just barely made it through immigration. I was on the verge of just booking a ticket on one of the other airlines just to get through.

But the extensive wait meant that my bubba was exhausted and hungry and cranky by the time we finished checking in. And was already crying while in the immigration queue, and thanks to a nice security officer who saw my plight, we were put on the fast track lane. From there, it almost was like I ran for my life to get to the terminal on time. And there is no way I would have been able to do that if I had any hand baggage apart from the diaper bag.

While in the flight, take off was alright because he was awake, and I was able to feed him. We had a bassinet seat, but there was no time to set it up because it is such a short – barely 40minute journey.

On the landing though, my little man decided he wanted to sleep, and I just could not get him onto the breast; I wasn’t sure if it will affect his ears, so I …errr….even tried licking his face to wake him up (thank God no one saw it – lest they think I am total loco), but he was content being asleep.

The trip back to Doha was fairly okay, because I had my parents with me. The immigration queue at the Doha airport was massive, but we got fast tracked because my bubba was getting agitated and I asked for help.

Ayan’s next flight was Doha to London via Abu Dhabi, and back, via Etihad. This trip, for my sister’s graduation, was much more recent, just before he turned five months.

travelThe one mistake we did was to book a night flight which was not direct, that too on one of the busiest days – the night before Eid holidays commence. Doha airport was absolutely packed, but fairly well-organized. Abu Dhabi Airport was a right mess, and we, just like the hundreds of passengers who were trying to get through the only three security check points open, were frustrated and exhausted by the time we got on the flight to London.

The problem with a broken night flight is that by the time baby is dozing off, he is woken up again to move to the next one – either get off, or get on, thus not allowing him to get rested, and in turn getting overtired and incredibly cranky.

Even once on the flight, it was a bit difficult to calm him, it took about 20minutes, and I was convinced we were the most hated passengers on the flight, but once he was calm, he slept off, and the rest of the journey was uneventful.

Our journey back was a day flight, and it was alright. No issues, no crankiness, no crying. In fact, even we were pretty relaxed and were even able to watch movies inflight.

TIPS FOR TRAVELLING WITH AN INFANT:

I am off for our next trip in September, and just praying it goes well!

13 comments

  1. Thanks Dilraz. All the information was very helpful. I’m in my 8th month with our first baby. However I couldn’t understand the relation between air pressure while taxing and feeding. Could you tell me more.

    1. Hi Nitti 🙂

      Thank you for the comments.
      As you might know, during take-off and landing, you ear gets a funny feeling because of the air pressure.
      Sucking/swallowing motion helps with it.
      As such, it is best to feed baby on take off and landing to avoid this feeling in their ears.
      Hope this helps 🙂

  2. Thank you Dilraz this is really helpful for a first time traveling mom like me. I have still two queries.
    1. are we allowed to take our own stroller till the plane check-in gate or else we have to put it in our baggage? In the later case, what’s the option other than a baby carrier?

    2. My baby is formula fed and I need warm water to make his feed bottle although I will carry a flask with warm water but if in case it will finish what should I do?

    Looking forward to your response and Thanking in advance 🙂

    1. Hi Fareeha. Thank you for your comment!
      1. You can take it to the gate, and then they will check it in. But you will only receive it at the baggage claim on the other side. I personally don’t do this because i don’t want to take a chance with my stroller, I dont know what condition I will get it back in. And it just is much much easier to use a carrier!
      2. Ideally buy a few bottles of water once you cross the security and you can ask the cabin crew to heat it for you.
      All the best! 🙂

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