So, flying with infant twins. Yikes!
Actually, I learned a few things from the recent flight from Delhi to Goa and then back again on SpiceJet (which, incidentally, names their planes after herbs and spices hence the title of this post). Here are the highlights:
1. If you have twins, each parent should have a diaper bag. We made the big mistake when we flew to the US of only taking one well-stocked diaper bag for the two babies. Even though all of our seats were supposed to be together, we learned that due to limited numbers of oxygen masks, airlines may have to move parents of multiples to different rows. Believe me, it was a royal pain to have a baby and no access to supplies when that happened. So, this time we learned that we needed to each have all of the changing supplies, bottle making accoutrements and extra clothes.
2. People have no sympathy for men flying with babies. I think that if you're a woman holding a crying baby, it's assumed that you know what you're doing and you're doing the best you can. If you're a man flying in India with a cranky infant, you will inevitably be placed next to a cranky passenger who wants to know where the child's mother is so that he can be properly soothed. I don't think my reaction was very nice when Ez started to cry and the man next to me asked for me to pass the child off to his mom. Chad had Cedric, and when Cedric started to cry, one of the Spicejet flight attendants told Chad to let him chew on a packet of sugar. Hmm.
3. Have bottles made and ready. Cedric is a comfort eater and any time he started to fuss, Chad popped a bottle in his mouth. This may not be the best parenting technique in general, but given the circumstance, I think it's probably better than drugging your child with baby tylenol. If you don't have a bottle made, the three minutes it takes to dump the powder in, shake it and heat the bottle seems more like three hours.
4. Fly when your child is happiest. Our morning flight went splendidly well. Our kids are so happy in the morning. Our evening flight, which happened at the time of day when the kids get a little fussy anyway, was not as smooth. Schedule your flights in the morning if your kids are morning lovers. It will make your day so much easier.
5. Leave extra time. But not too much extra time.
6. Take your infant carrier. We have used the Baby Bjorn as well as the Moby carriers. The Bjorn is less comfortable, but easier to put on and was our carrier of choice for the 2-hour flight. The moby was a life saver for the international Delhi-Newark flight.
What are your travel tips for planes? Leave them in the comments.
Happy Travels,
Douglas
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| Traveling buddies, Douglas and Ezra |
1. If you have twins, each parent should have a diaper bag. We made the big mistake when we flew to the US of only taking one well-stocked diaper bag for the two babies. Even though all of our seats were supposed to be together, we learned that due to limited numbers of oxygen masks, airlines may have to move parents of multiples to different rows. Believe me, it was a royal pain to have a baby and no access to supplies when that happened. So, this time we learned that we needed to each have all of the changing supplies, bottle making accoutrements and extra clothes.
2. People have no sympathy for men flying with babies. I think that if you're a woman holding a crying baby, it's assumed that you know what you're doing and you're doing the best you can. If you're a man flying in India with a cranky infant, you will inevitably be placed next to a cranky passenger who wants to know where the child's mother is so that he can be properly soothed. I don't think my reaction was very nice when Ez started to cry and the man next to me asked for me to pass the child off to his mom. Chad had Cedric, and when Cedric started to cry, one of the Spicejet flight attendants told Chad to let him chew on a packet of sugar. Hmm.
3. Have bottles made and ready. Cedric is a comfort eater and any time he started to fuss, Chad popped a bottle in his mouth. This may not be the best parenting technique in general, but given the circumstance, I think it's probably better than drugging your child with baby tylenol. If you don't have a bottle made, the three minutes it takes to dump the powder in, shake it and heat the bottle seems more like three hours.
4. Fly when your child is happiest. Our morning flight went splendidly well. Our kids are so happy in the morning. Our evening flight, which happened at the time of day when the kids get a little fussy anyway, was not as smooth. Schedule your flights in the morning if your kids are morning lovers. It will make your day so much easier.
5. Leave extra time. But not too much extra time.
6. Take your infant carrier. We have used the Baby Bjorn as well as the Moby carriers. The Bjorn is less comfortable, but easier to put on and was our carrier of choice for the 2-hour flight. The moby was a life saver for the international Delhi-Newark flight.
What are your travel tips for planes? Leave them in the comments.
Happy Travels,
Douglas
From what I understand, drinking from a bottle helps babies' ears pressurize properly. As adults we can manually do this by holding our nose and "making our ears pop", but babies don't have this option. The swallowing from drinking helps assist with this.
ReplyDeleteI guess this isn't really an "additional" tip, but expands on your #3. :-)
I'll have to remember to ask my mom all the tips and what-nots (and refer back to here!) if we are fortunate enough to succeed in our adventure.
Good to know...THANK YOU for posting this. We flew Spice Jet to Delhi when we were in Mumbai and I just had to snap a photo of the plane..CLASSIC!
ReplyDeletevery good advice. Other than the flight home from India, we hope to avoid it as long as possible.
ReplyDeleteWe're hoping to head to Spain with our twins around Christmas... I'm reading with rapt attention.
ReplyDelete