It's widely believed/reported that the rule was changed when a specific CEO spawned...

I think a fee would be reasonable solution. Some percentage of full F are at the time of upgrade is a good idea. Some children even under two do get upgraded under their own credentials. Should such children be charged a fee?

My younger son, now 13 was gold by the time he hit two.
Now that both my children no longer qualify as babies or even small children, I don't see any basis for banning children from First Class.

Yes, feeding would help. Breastfeeding would work even better. Different muscles are involved in the two types of feeding. neither of my children made howling noises, even though they cried at times, nursing always made them stop. On one trip, ( my wife travelling with my two sons) my seven year old son was in tears due to pain during landing. He was found to have an ear infection. He cried, no one but my wife and my other son knew he was crying.

The overhead PSU's (passenger service units) are easily reconfigured by maintenance when the seating is changed. It is not a big deal to do, but involved a significant amount of paperwork, as anything related to configuration control is on aircraft.

I don't believe that now I have young children I should have to choose or accept lower standards in my preferred mode of travel, class of air travel etc. I do think of course that it is absolutely my job, for the whole flight, to ensure that my children do not cause a disturbance for other passengers. And I really do feel for the juice-soaked OP, especially when, at least in theory, in business or first it should actually be a bit easier to ensure one's children are not a nuisance simply because they are not crammed in so close to other passengers! Hooray for iPads and AVOD is all I can say!

If you really hate the presence of a child when you are flying, you could try to choose business class cabins with a herringbone configuration or first class cabins where the seats are not next to each other. Apart from the fact that these layouts give you more privacy anyway, they are also IMO much more unsuitable for flying with young children (other than infants) because of the increased difficulty of supervision etc and personally I avoid them where I can for that reason (so at least you won't run into my family there!). I have no idea if it's a coincidence or not, but I assume that's why in my experience you tend to see fewer young families in those cabins.

Closed, pending Moderator discussion.