Equipment

Seat pocket essentials

When I take my seat on the plane I find it useful to pull out the things that I am most likely to need during the flight and place them in the pocket of the seat in front of you (located on the bulkhead wall for bulkhead seats). I call these the seat pocket essentials. Remember that once they turn on the “fasten seat belts” sign it could be 30 minutes to an hour before you can get up and retrieve anything from the overhead locker - so keep the urgent things handy!Here’s a list of my seat pocket essentials:

* plastic shopping bag for rubbish - you would be surprised by the amount of rubbish you can accumulate in such a short amount of time (think, plastic bag for headphones, empty cups etc)
* at least one baby toy to distract baby when s/he is fed up with sitting restrained on your lap during takeoff
* dummy/ pacifier
* cloth nappy/diaper for spills and spew
* bottle or cup of water for baby
* bottle of water for breastfeeding mothers (if you are allowed to take one on board!

* cotton or muslin wrap - for calming baby to sleep, or for breastfeeding or for playing hide and seek - there’s a multitude of uses for it!
* pen - for filling in forms
* ziplocked bag with a snack in it, in case baby is hungry

* lip balm (maybe it’s just me, but my lips get awfully dry in the air-conditioning)

If you are feeling optimistic that your baby will sleep for most of the flight then also include a book or magazine - but if you are like us you will be hard pressed being able to read the entertainment program in the inflight magazine!

© 2008 Flying with Baby.