Flying

Flying with children is a different experience than flying before you were parents. We haven’t encountered any issues when we’ve flown with our little one but it still causes me anxiety as I’m never sure how she will react on the day.

You’ll need to check with your airline what you can bring onboard. We’ve only travelled with easyJet and their family policy is really good. You can:

• Get priority boarding if you’re flying with a baby or child under 5.
• Take onboard a flying approved car seat, plus one peice of hand luggage per child you have booked a seat for.
• Check in two bulky items such as pushchair, travel cot or car seat for free.
• If your baby is under 2 and you haven’t booked them a seat then you can take a changing bag in addition to your normal hand luggage allowance.

The only issue we have encountered was when we didn’t pre-book our seats and they allocated our daughter a seat in a separate row to both me and my other half, so now we always pay the extra to pre-book. I was assured that on the day of the flight cabin crew would be able to seat one of us with our little one but didn’t want to leave it to chance or put another famly in the position of moving away from one of their children.

In flight entertainment

For our first flight I stocked up on snacks and toys but to be honest I’d probably gone a little overboard as we didn’t use hardly any of it. After that I took a lot less but obviously how much you take depends on the age of your child and how happy they are to sit still for a couple of hours. If you’re only taking a short-haul flight and your child is generally happy sitting still without constant entertainment then I’d limit it to a couple of new toys and a couple of snacks.

If it’s your first flight then there’s no harm is being over-stocked, you can always adjust this on subsequent flights

I try to buy a new colouring book/pens/stickers and dig out some of the play figurines my daughter already has and put them in a “special” box and keep them all hidden until we’ve taken off as the excitement of having new toys to open and play with (or old toys in a new box?!) keeps her occupied for the duration of the flight.

Food/snacks

If we’re taking an early flight then I usually order porridge from the onboard menu and tap water with ice as that passes the time.

I tend to try and have a couple of non-sugary snacks in my bag in case she gets hungry plus some raisins for her to eat after take off as I find the chewing helps to balance out the pressure in the ears.

Essential travel items

We try and travel fairly light but we always take a trunki case for our little one which we let her pack what she wants in, they’re actually quite handy for pulling her round the airport on if we’re in a rush. I also have the trunki boostapak – a rucksack which can be used as a booster seat. I always take this as it can be taken on board as a car/booster seat and it holds a fair amount of luggage. Then when we get to the other end and get our transfer it can be used as a booster seat with seatbelt guides to make sure our little one is belted in safely.