Planning and taking a long-haul flight with your baby can feel overwhelming, especially when you are trying to determine what all to bring. This guide covers a few travel essentials I prioritized for our 12-hour international flights that we have taken including food, essentials, sleep, and entertainment.
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What you want on the plane
A car-seat – The seat you need is really going to depend on the size of your little one as well as where you are going. The one thing I can say, is if you have a small child, for our family it was worth buying them seats to have their own space. Because they were secured in their car seat, they were used to traveling this way, safe and slept for 6 to 7 hours in it as well. I recommend checking out this site for more car seat resources.
Hands-on activities are perfect for a flight. Activity Books and this Sticker Stamper were favorites.
Headphones – We purchased these noise cancelling headphones a year prior. They last a long time, and work great without a cord for travel.
Tablet – We don’t use tablets at home, but all rules are out the window when you are on a long flight. We try to wait until at least halfway through the flight before relying on them, so it’s a mid-flight surprise.
Snacks to Consider
You can bring reasonable amounts of water for babies and applesauce pouches as long as you let them know when traveling through the airport.
I pack snacks for takeoff and landing, including milk, apple sauce pouches, and for my 5-year-old, lollipops. Something to be mindful of, is when the plane starts pulling back, don’t give them a snack right away. It’s good to be ready, but don’t give them the snack until you are actually taking off. Otherwise, you will be sitting there, with a finished snack and takeoff still pending.
Another thing to be mindful of, if it’s a treat they really enjoy, have them in separate zipper pouches of your overall bag, so they don’t find them mid-flight before landing.
Snack Tray – I found this worked best with dry snacks such as goldfish or crackers. It also gives them independence to get their own snacks.
Baby Travel Essentials
Bring your diaper bag filled with pajamas, a few essentials such as diapers, wipes, Boogie saline spray and antibacterial wipes. I typically bring their medicine with me too, in case they end up with anything once we arrive at our destination.
These bamboo, Little Sleepies pajamas, are my favorite for travel. They are adorable to start, but also seem to do well whether it is hot or cold.
Safe travels!
