Originally Posted by turtim

Dear all,

I am a student and I am currently working on a school project about (mainly air) travelling with babies/ toddler. Wondering if any parents here are free to answer a few questions.


1. I understand that travelling with babies/ toddler especially by plane can be exhausting and will need a lot of dedication. What usually is the reason you decide to travel with babies and put up with all the extra trouble?
The wording of this question is somewhat offensive. Perhaps you should consider the connotations of "put up with all the extra trouble?" in the context of parenting a baby/toddler. You appear to suggest that babies/toddlers aren't worth the "trouble" they cause when traveling.

​​​​​​​My kid made his first international flight at 4 months, and before he was 3 had made about 9 trips by air, 3 of them international. Traveling with a baby/toddler requires careful planning, but really is not that difficult. We visited family, took a trip that had been several years in the planning, and went to an international festival that was a once in a lifetime experience. Adding air travel to the baseline work of parenting was about a 10% short term increase in the amount of work needed.

2. What do you feel about flights? Is that the most stressful part of your entire trip?

The actual flights were easy. The stressful part of the trip is TSA/airport security.

Sometimes stress is a choice. Worrying about if other passengers will be bothered by a baby on the plane - some speak of great stress about this, but I recognized that other people's reactions were out of my control and not something I should waste time worrying about. I did my best to anticipate and meet my kid's needs, and made a deliberate choice not to worry about what I could not control.

3. What methods have you tried to calm your child or to stop them from crying? (e.g. sleeping schedule, feeding milk, distraction .etc)

Generally feed immediately before the flight, and had toys for distraction. Only once had problems with my kid crying on a plane and that was because the FA deliberately woke him up when he was sound asleep.

4. I've seen these solutions such as sleeping pills or some parents handing out goody bag to passenger around them. What are your opinions on it? Would you consider them? If so, what do you think if the airlines do the goody bag instead?

Attempting to sedate a child for a flight is dangerous, illegal in many areas and absolutely sickening as a parenting strategy. As for goody bags, do drunks who bother everyone around them give them out? Or the jerk who spends ages on his cell phone? Or the people who watch the movies with volume on high and no headphones? The notion of goody bags for anyone who sits near a child on a plane is ridiculous. Why should passengers expect or be given a reward for tolerating a fellow human being? And why should goody bags only be mentioned in the context of children?

5. If there is this product that you can let a baby suck it and reduce the crying sound to nearby passenger, what are your opinions? Will you consider using it?

What type of product? A drug? A pacifier? A bottle of something?

I carried age appropriate snacks and toys for my kid, used his familiar car seat for all flights until age 5, fed him before flights and on his usual schedule on the plane and had one episode of crying on a plane in 3 years. No, I would not waste money on some product hyped to stop crying from bothering people.

Thanks a lot for reading my questions! I appreciated any reply!