Flying with a 4 month old

If you type ‘Flying with a 4-month old’ into Google, you will get dozens of articles and blogs telling you what to pack and how to travel with an infant. When I started planning for my India trip, I did just that. I scoured the internet for every resource possible, read all the blogs, watched the videos enduring numerous youtube ads and judiciously made notes. Most of these resources were about off the shelf lists catering to all and no occasions. Of course these resources helped me create a list of items to pack. But I was missing contextual real experiences from parents traveling with their new borns. For example, I saw videos by professional travelers traveling with a baby. But what I did not find were experiences of anxious first time parents who haven’t been on a plane for 2 years, traveling with a 4 month old.

And hence I wanted to put my experience of flying with our 4 month old, with ample context for anyone who is looking for this perspective. In this blog, I do not prescribe what needs to be packed or done when flying with a 4 month old, I simply share what I did given my situation and how it went. It may or maynot work for your case but you will atleast have known how it went for me and my 4 month old.

First some context

So let me start with some context into our situation. I am an avid traveler but I am also an anxious traveler. I over-pack. And I am a fearful flyer which means my anxiety doubles when I am flying. And the 2 years of COVID only added to this anxiety. I am not good with babies and I have no qualms in accepting that most times, I feel my husband does a better job handling our baby than I. So all put together saying that I was a bundle of nerves following up to trip day would be an understatement. We were traveling with our little girl (lets call her LG) who just turned 4 months at the time of travel.

Now for the itinerary. We were traveling from Luxembourg to Kolkata with 3 flight changes (LUX-FRA-DEL-CCU) and a 6+ hrs layover in New Delhi. The total journey time was 18+ hrs. The first flight was at 11am CET (Central European Time) reaching our final destination (Kolkata) at 8am IST (Indian Standard Time) or 4.30am CET the following morning. Our layover in New Delhi was between 1am IST and 6am IST (9.30pm CET to 2.30am CET). So effectively we would be in our layover during the CET night which is when LG sleeps. For additional context, LG usually sleeps through the night, from 8pm to 7am. We also had traveled very little with LG before this trip. Definitely no overnight trips and no airplanes either. So this was a first on multiple accounts flying with our 4 month old.

The interesting part in this journey was that we traveled in three different sizes of aircraft. This way I experienced flying with our 4 month old baby in a 90 seater Bombardier CRJ900, a 400 seater Boeing 747-8 and a 170 seater A320.

Now that you have context on our situation, let me start with what I packed. This list is in no way an exhaustive list but it did work for my situation and thankfully I didn’t have to use everything that I packed (yes it is a strange way of measuring success!!).

What I packed in our carry on when flying with our 4 month old

As I mentioned earlier, I usually pack more than I need and in this case I had no reason to be any different. I packed almost all the baby clothes in the carry on. I had read somewhere that it is advisable to pack one diaper per hour of travel so I packed twice the amount. We had in total 4 carry ons and one Diaper bag. LG’s things were all in one of those carry ons and the Diaper bag. I used packing cubes wherever possible for better accessibility.

Below is a category wise list of what I had in LG’s carry on.

Hygiene essentials	Medical essentials	Feeding essentials	Mobility	Entertainment
1. Most of her clothes 2. Diapers 3. Changing mat + Wet wipes 4. Waste bin liners 5. Sanitizing wipes 6. Burp clothes 7. Swaddle cloth / light cloth to cover the baby 8. Change of clothes for us	1. Thermometer 2. Diaper rash cream 3. Teething gel 4. Gas drops 5. Paracetamol 6. Saline drops + Syringe 7. Nail scissors 8. Diarrhoea medication	1. Feeding bottles 2. Additional teats 3. Formula box 4. Bottle cleaning liquid and brush 5. Paper towels 6. Pumped breast milk 7. Pre-quantified formula for 3 feeds 8. Boiled water for 6 feeds 9. Breast pump and related items	1. Car seat 2. Stroller with cover	1. Dummies with clip ons 2. Favourite toy and other toys 3. Teething toys

What I think I did right

Flying Business: The principal thing that I did right, was fly business class. I know I might sound outright snobbish but having that extra space to ourselves made all the difference on an 8 hour flight. Our mental justification for this splurge was that we were traveling long haul after 3 years. And between buying an extra economy or premium economy seat v/s flying business it made sense for the latter. If I were not flying business, I would definitely have paid for an extra seat because for long haul flights (8+ hrs in my case) it is almost impossible for me to hold LG in the lap. LG is also not a lap napper as she has always preferred her bed since day one. My one piece of advice for first time flyers with an infant, if you can, book business. It truly is a game changer.

Booking a bassinet. This is the second most useful thing I did. Most long haul flights have bassinets for infants upto 2 yrs of age, weighing upto 10-12 kgs and with a length of upto ~70 cms. I booked the bassinet a couple of weeks before the flight date. Bassinets are usually limited in number I am told, so may be best to be booked in advance. I had the bassinet only on the long haul leg as the other two were domestic flights with no provision of bassinets. My husband held LG for the most part.

Checking in Stroller only at gate. I did not checkin our stroller and car seat at the counter. Instead we used it during our transits and LG caught whatever nap she could, in it. We gave the stroller at the point of boarding the aircraft (with the cover on) and then again collected it upon landing right after leaving the aircraft.

Using baggage assistance at airport. Now this one can be very specific to New Delhi airport and to our case. We were flying with a lot of luggage (10 suitcases of carry on and check in). And we had to collect our luggage at the New Delhi airport and then pass through customs and check in domestic for our last leg of the journey onto Kolkata. There were uniformed people available at the airport who helped us carry our luggage till the domestic check in for a small fee. I don’t know if this is an official service, but whatever it was, those 2 men were god sent to us.

Discussing the trip with my baby. Yes you are reading it right. I did discuss the impending journey with LG before we made the trip. I have a strong belief that babies are much more intelligent and sentient that they are given credit for. So the week following upto our travel, I used to tell her about our journey – the fact that we will be in a plane, for a very long time and that I needed all her support to make the trip a success. Did it work? Well, read on to find it out yourself. I think more than LG, it was I that needed this reassurance and this conversation helped me have faith that the trip will not be a disaster. This may sound quite philosophical, but when the odds are stacked against you, every bit helps, doesn’t it?

What could have been done better

Minimize middle of the night layover. We had a 6+ hours layover in New Delhi airport. By the time we had re-checked in and cleared security/passport control, we had ~5 hours left. LG was wide awake. We decided against getting a transit hotel as it was too little time for that and instead got into a lounge. The one lounge that we found was full to the brim. We managed to get a quiet corner with a tiny seat to lay LG. It was hot and there were a lot of overhead lights making it not at all conducive to infant sleep. So for the next 5 hours we were fanning LG and playing with her. LG did not seem very bothered, but we were tired as hell. Next time, I will definitely have an overnight stay instead of long layovers especially in the middle of the night.

Pack enough bottles for each feed. In my experience, no matter what class you fly (unless you have a private jet in which case you are most probably not reading this blog), airplane bathrooms are after all airplane bathrooms. Which means that they are tiny and quite restrictive of movement. So washing bottles without splashing the bathroom wet and avoiding its germ spattered surfaces was a feat in itself and I found it quite cumbersome. As I had 3 feeding bottles I had to wash them between feeds. If I had redone this experience, I would simply carry 7-8 bottles with me, one for each feed.

To pump or not. Not everyone will have this issue, but if you are going to pump on the go, it is better to buy one of those pumps that can be concealed within the clothes. I carried my Medela Swing Maxi and ended up pumping only 2x in the 18 hours because it was so uncomfortable to do it in public.

My overall experience flying with our 4 month old

So how did it all go? Before I summarize that, there are a few more general observations of flying with our 4 month old.

Dummy or not. It is well advised that one should give a baby either a dummy or feed her during landing and take-off. We gave her a dummy at take off and landing for most of the flights but missed it for the bigger 747 aircraft (as she was in no mood for a dummy or a feed). But she didn’t seem bothered without it.

Everyone loves a baby. Given this was our first time traveling with a baby, I was pleasantly surprised at how much of a leeway everyone gives you. Of course you are one of the first ones to board (although since we were flying business it did not make that much of a difference). We were also brought to the front of a very long queue during passport control (which I am assuming was because of LG). Only when I traveled with a baby did I realize that officers at airport security can also smile and be friendly.

Babies are curious beings. LG is a moderately good sleeper at home giving anywhere between 15-17hrs of sleep with a solid 10-11 hrs overnight sleep. But while on the journey, she pretty much only slept 3-4 hours in the airplane bassinet. Apart from that she was awake the entire trip aside from a few catnaps (no longer than 20 mins) while on the car set in a stroller. I was shocked at how such a tiny human survived on such little sleep and had wide open eyes soaking in everything.

Nervous as I was, I was pleasantly surprised at how relatively uneventful our journey was. LG was quiet most of the journey. There was only a couple of instances where she was crying one of which was during take-off of our last flight. She was already very exhausted by then. The time that she was in the car seat stroller, she was either catnapping or looking around. On the first shorter flight (~30 mins) she seemed very excited and kept looking out of the window. For the next 8 hour flight, she slept for 4 hours and the remaining, she played with us on our bed. Just before landing she got another 30 mins in the bassinet. A special callout to Lufthansa for their super comfortable bassinet. LG slept for 4 long hours giving us enough time to enjoy our 3 course meal and also some shut eye.

The one thing that we found uncomfortable within the airplane were the infant seat belts. LG was always more comfortable against our shoulder instead of lying/sitting on our laps. So take off and landings were a bit uncomfortable trying to keep LG in one position with the seat belt on.

During the last flight, she wasn’t in her best spirits and after a crying bout which lasted about 10 mins or so, she slept on my husband’s lap for the remaining 2 hours. For most part of the transit she seemed happy and content and also smiled at pretty much anyone she met. We kept feeding her as per routine to ensure that she was never hungry. We did not force her to nap /bedtime. But before we left home, we ensured that she had enough sleep by not compromising on any of her naps.

In summary, my flight experience was much better than I had expected. There was minimal crying and no major disasters. Ofcourse there were things that could have been done better. But overall after this flight I am a more confident parent traveling with our LG. I can only hope that we have more such happy journeys for the rest of our lives.

Leaving you with some selfie memories from our flights. Hope you enjoyed the blog and found it useful.

Did you recently fly with a 4 month old? Do drop in your comments as I would love to know about your experiences, suggestions and also criticisms.