Flying with Baby » Entertaining the kids

Things to do with an airline air sick bag

Flying with Baby — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:31:03 +0000

Sometimes it’s hard to keep the kids entertained on a flight, particularly if there is no inflight entertainment. That’s where the ubiquitous airline sick bag comes in handy. You can turn it into a puppet or, as I did on a recent flight cross-country, into a hat for a three year old!

(the look of disapproval is for disrupting his game!)

Airline safety card

Flying with Baby — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:49:57 +0000

I went through a stage of being a really nervous flyer. Nervous to the extent of almost throwing up before boarding a plane and sitting in my seat praying that the plane wouldn’t crash. Unfortunately this phase coincided with the round-the-world trip that my husband and I took in 1998. In a one month period we took 13 flights from Australia to Europe to Nth America and home again. Our first flight was on a Thai Airways jumbo and as we took off the plane rattled windly and there was a huge thumping noise - the passengers were all silent except for a bunch of school boys sitting behind me who started laughing nervously. The guy seated next to me leaned to me and said “don’t worry, it did that flying out of Auckland too”. But it did make me worried and from then on I became more and more nervous before each flight.

In an attempt to calm my nerves I developed some little routines that I would *have* to do before we took off. I would watch the safety demonstration intently (even though I practically knew if off by heart), religiously count the number of rows to the nearest exit and an alternate exit and I would read the airline safety card.

Since that time I have become less nervous about flying but I still follow that little routine on the plane. It has even rubbed off on my kids. Loll will get out the card and read it too - he is particularly intrigued with the pictureof a ditched aircraft floating in the water with people getting into liferafts.

Once when we were flying to Perth when he was four, he got out the card and read it for ages. Then he turned to me and said in a serious tone, “mummy, when is the plane going to crash so we can wear the lifejackets?”. The old lady on the other side of him said “dear, I don’t think your mummy wants the plane to crash!”. It was a cute but funny moment.

By the way - not only does the airline safety card provide useful information in the event of a crash but it also provides a good distraction to a restless baby!

PS - has anyone else ever noticed that most cards tell you that you can’t bring one of those annoying Furbies on board? I wonder if there ever was a “Furby incident” (headline - Furby causes plane to crash) or the cabin crews just got sick of them?!

Seat pocket essentials

Flying with Baby — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:31:37 +0000

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!