Flying With Baby: Long Haul (Transatlantic) Flight With a 12-Month-Old
welcome
to the parenthood section of The Weithouse! My name is Taylor and I am lucky to be the mother of my first little girl.
We were blessed to be able to carry her pregnancy and give birth to her in Paris, France, and now we are raising her in the Netherlands.
As expats, we’ve needed to fly internationally with our baby girl at various stages of her first year, and in this post, I’m sharing our experience taking a transatlantic flight with a 12-month-old.
I hope this post helps you as your planning your transatlantic flight with your baby and gives you peace as your prepare for the journey.
Flying with a baby is never an easy feat, and if you are currently preparing to fly with your baby (at whatever age), just know that it is doable. Flying with a baby definitely requires much more work than flying before baby, but it’s nothing you, your partner nor your baby can’t handle.
Our Flying with a 12-month old experience
A few days before our baby’s first birthday, we took a transatlantic flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta and then a connecting flight from Atlanta to Mississippi. The transatlantic flight was 8 hours and the connecting flight was 1 hour.
Unfortunately, the day flight was challenging in terms of napping and our baby only slept for one of the eight hours. This meant my husband and I were on full baby duty for the remaining seven hours of the flight. It was indeed exhausting, but we did it!
Our baby was so exhausted by the connecting flight that she fell asleep during boarding and slept until we arrived at our final destination in Mississippi.
The transatlantic flight back from Atlanta to Amsterdam was definitely a bit easier as our baby had adjusted to the time zone and slept for roughly five hours of the eight hour flight. She was a bit fussier falling asleep going this direction, but did eventually pass out for a long segment of napping. We did not have any sleeping set up for her at this age, so she slept in either mine or my husband’s arms.
Flying with a 12-Month Old - Everything You Need to Know
Below is sort of a brain dump of anything and everything I could think of regarding flying with a 12-month old, from how to travel with formula to the best forms of entertainment.
It can feel overwhelming to prepare for in advance, but my reassurance to you is that flying with a 12-month old sort of “is what it is,” but you can make the best of the situation by having some of these resources ready for your travel dates.
You’ve got this, Momma (or Dada!).
FLYING WITH FORMULA
If your baby is formula fed and you are preparing to fly soon, you might be wondering what to do about all the formula you need to bring. Especially if you are flying to a different country and don’t want to switch to a new formula once in the arrival country.
Formula is not really travel friendly and comes in large containers that can be a bit cumbersome to travel with. The good news is that the airports and airlines are very accommodating when it comes to baby formula (and food - more in the baby food section below).
I never wanted to be in a situation where I was stranded in an airport without formula, so we always brough a lot of formula as a carry-on. There is not a limit or restriction on the baby formula you bring with you on the plane. I often had an entire tote-sized bag dedicated to baby food and/or formula for the flight (and in case of emergency).
You are not penalized for it in any way at the security or as you’re boarding your plane. I just always set the bag of formula in a separate bin during security. They often pulled the bag aside (because it had baby food in it as well), but there was no issue other than that.
If you are flying with formula, be sure to purchase water before boarding the plane, as most airlines no longer offer bottled water on board.
For easy distribution on the flights and at the airport, I purchase these formula storage containers and premeasured all of the formula for the span of the travel day. I would replenish the containers at the layover airport if needed.
FLYING WITH BABY FOOD
Similar to formula, you aren’t limited on the amount of baby food you bring on board the plane with you. I combined my baby food bag with the formula bag, and brought enough extra as food is the name of the game when flying with a 12-month old.
I packed both fruit pouches and heartier meal pouches (like the ones below) with the suction top so they were easier to feed baby on the plane. I also packed a ton of snacks, like these yogurt melts (they were a fan favorite), rice puffs and baby cookies.
For the flights, we packed a couple of Ella’s brand (available in Europe) suction pouches to ensure our baby got enough nutrients. They are also incredibly convenient for mess-free feeding on the plane.
FLYING WITH A CAR SEAT
f you’re flying with a baby, you might be considering bringing your car seat along for the journey. If you are planning on flying with your car seat, it can be a bit more logistically complicated and add to what you have to haul through the airport, but it is, at the end of the day, the safest place for the baby to be in a turbulent plane.
When taking our transatlantic flight with our 12-month old, we had an extra seat for our baby, so we opted to bring the car seat onboard. If you are planning to have a seat for the car seat, you need to ensure in advance that the car seat you are bringing is airline friendly. You can find the airline approved car seats on the airlines’ websites or on the product information page of the specific car seat you have.
We brought along the Maxi-Cosi Pebble 360 Pro2 car seat, which we had to get in addition to our other infant car seat which was not airline approved (Cybex Cloud T i-Size).
Once on the plane, you buckle in the car seat to the plane seat rear facing and that’s it.
If you do not have an extra seat for your car seat on the plane, the car seat can be gate checked. There is, of course, always a risk of an item getting damaged when checking it in any capacity, but if you do need to gate check the car seat, you can place it in a padded car seat bag like this one.
If you’re based in the United States, the UPPAbaby Mesa V2 is an FAA approved car seat perfect for bringing along for your air travels (without the base on the plane).
FLYING WITH A STROLLER
A stroller is a much easier item to travel with than the car seat, and it is pretty much an airport essential. We have the Cybex Melio Carbon stroller which can fit in the overhead bin of a larger plane that you’ll likely take for a long haul flight. The Stokke YOYO strollers are also airline friendly and overhead bin compatible.
If you’re stroller is too big to bring on board, you can also gate check it. You can also place it in a car seat bag like the one mentioned above or simply gate check it without a bag.
at the airport with a 12-month old
At the airport with your 12-month old, before ever boarding the plane, you have a lot of opportunity to burn some of the toddler energy off. We tried to let our 12-month old stay out of the stroller in the airport as much as possible, using the stroller as a walker, pulling up on the seats at the gate, etc. This didn’t really seem to encourage her to nap for longer on the plane, but it helped free up our arms before they would be fully occupied in flight.
boarding the plane with a baby
It seems that every airline has a different policy when it comes to boarding the plane with a baby. Some airlines allow you to pre-board, while others make you board after First Class or Business Class. From our experience, I’ve learned that it is most helpful to check in with the gate agent (which you will be doing if you have to gate check your stroller or car seat) and they will let you know when you can board the plane.
Some people opt not to pre-board with a baby as that means they will be on the plane longer with the baby (who can get restless during the boarding and takeoff process), but I personally like pre-boarding with a baby especially if we have the stroller and the car seat and a bag of formula. When we pre-board with our baby, we can drop our gate checked items off without stress and get settled into our seats before others start boarding.
When boarding the plane, I put my 12-month old in our baby carrier. I normally put her in a few minutes before boarding begins that way my hands are free to also carry things on board. We have the Manduca XT which looks to be Europe specific, but any toddler baby carrier will do.
Similar to the Manduca XT, this BabyBjörn carrier would be a great airport option for traveling with a one-year-old. You can carry baby in-ward, out-ward and on your back! It also has lumbar support which is essential for a growing 12-month old.
Take-off and Landing with a 12-month old
As our daughter was still 11-months on the flight to the United States, we were still giving her formula, so we used formula during take-off and landing to help with the pressure. Giving her a bottle always worked for us during take-off and landing and we never had any issues with her crying. Just be sure to have bottled water on hand before you get on the plane, as they no longer give out bottled water on most planes.
Take-off can be one of the more challenging times when flying with a baby of any age, especially if your flight is delayed at all and you’ve been waiting to give the bottle until take off. Normally the baby starts feeling restless (even if she isn’t starving) because everyone around her is also feeling restless waiting for the plane to move. This is the moment of the flight where you do whatever it takes to calm the baby down and don’t pull a parenting move you’ve been wanting to put into practice!
If your 12-month old is already asleep during take-off or landing, I wouldn’t wake them in order for them to be sucking to prevent the air pressure pain at this age. We once tried to do that when our baby was around 9-months and we should have just let her sleep. If they wake up crying, then give the bottle.
A pacifier can also help during take off and landing if your little one is using one at this age. Or any sort of suction water bottle, snack pouch, etc.
Airplane Toys and Activities for 12-Month Old
Taking a transatlantic flight with a 12-month old isn’t the most exciting thing to look forward to, but regardless of the temperament of your baby, you pack some items to help make the hours pass on the plane.
During our 8-hour day flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta, our almost 12-month only slept for one hour total (despite keeping her up all morning before the flight), so we had to have all hands and activities on deck.
Movies / Screen Time
Our baby doesn’t get screentime at home, but we are willing to allow her to watch a movie on the plane . We attempted to put on a few different movies for her, but she wasn’t interested in the screen, so that was a no-go option for us.
Meal Time
One of the more challenging times when flying with a 12-month old is when they bring the meals, as there just isn’t a ton of space to avoid baby hands in the hot food! My husband and I took turns eating and offering whatever was baby-friendly to our 12-month old throughout the meal process.
Snacks
For the flight, I packed a variety of snacks to keep my 12-month old entertained. I put some snacks in these refillable baby wipe containers to make them fun to pull out of the bag and open and close. I also had some snacks in the formula storage containers mentioned above.
Toys / Books
There really isn’t that much space for toys or activities with a 12-month old on a plane. It’s likely that your 12-month old is at the point they don’t really want to sit still or be contained in a tight space for 8 hours. You also don’t really want to lug around a ton of toys and activities for your little one.
Below is what we brought for our 12-month old on the transatlantic flight and what we thought worked versus what didn’t really work as forms of entertainment.
This busy book - I liked this one because it had a single activity on every page. The plane was the first time we introduced the book and it did pass some time for our 12-month old, as it offered challenges for skills she was currently working on mastering.
Books: Our 12-month old loves (loved) reading, so I purchased a few new books (and brought some familiar ones for comfort) on the plane. The books were helpful, but of course they are short and don’t really pass that much time. She especially loved Big and Little: A Book of Animal Opposites.
Sticker books: I thought that peeling off the stickers would pass a good amount of time on the flight, however, my 12-month old wasn’t really interested in the sticker books and they didn’t do much on the plane.
A new toy: On the way back, we had this Moonkie Silicon Toy with us (that my daughter was gifted) and it did help distract her for a bit both on the plane and in the airport.
Other Activities
From our experience, there wasn’t ONE thing that really helped pass the time on the plane (other than a good sleep or screen time if your baby is interested in that), but some of the things that did help the most were the plane specific items.
Plane Items: Anything interesting that they can play with on the plane. Our one-year-old especially loved the paper cups that the drinks come in, the utensils and the amenity kit they give you (she especially like the little toothbrush).
Walking the plane: A classic baby-friendly plane activity, but getting up and walking around with the baby does seem to cure the fussiness when it hits. On the larger planes, it isn’t too complicated to get up and walk around, and you can usually sing or talk softly without disturbing anyone around you.
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