What do you need to air travel with a 4 month old?

DH and I are considering flying to Orlando to stay with family for a week when DD is 4 months old.

What equipment/ supplies do you need to fly with an infant? Any tips/advice/ suggestions before we decide?

Re: What do you need to air travel with a 4 month old?

I would ask this question on the parenting board

Re: What do you need to air travel with a 4 month old?

We traveled with Ryleigh when she was 3 months old. Here are some of the more useful things I can tell you:

-Having the Snugli made navigating the airport REALLY easy.
-Someone on the parenting board suggested packing the bag of milk/formula with a ziploc bag full of ice. We chucked the bag of ice at security, refilled the bags at one of the restaurants through security, and then asked for more ice toward the end of our flight to keep the milk cold (since you can't bring ice packs through security).
-Plastic bags for those stinky diapers that can, and probably will, happen on the plane!

Re: What do you need to air travel with a 4 month old?

If you BF a hooter hider so you can BF for take off and landing. It will help the baby not have the ear pain because of the suckiling. If you are not BFing then a bottle and or passifier.

When we flew with DS we tried to do it during his nap time. Also, make sure you have things to entertain the baby - i.e. mirror, rattle, colorful scarf.

Lastly, as soon as you are seated tell your fellow nearby passengers that you are sorry if your baby makes a lot of noise during the flight and that you will do your best to keep the baby calm and happy. I found that by doing that it really made the people arround us much happier because we acknowledged them and their needs. It really was great because the people near us then became friendly and made faces and "played" with DS. At the end of our first flight with him, the people behind us saw DS and said they didn't even know we had a child with us. Unfortunatley the same can't be said for our return trip b/c it was delayed and super packed. DS napped at the airport and figeted the entire flight back.

Re: What do you need to air travel with a 4 month old?

When booking the flight, try to book and aisle and widonw seat, leaving the middle seat empty. As long as the flight isn't packed, that seat will probably remain empty and you can either bring the carseat on the flight or at least have more wiggle room.
You can bring the stroller right up to the gate and check it in there.
The easiest way to travel with formula is to premeasure it into a couple of bottles and then buy water after you pass security.
Bring a couple of toys.
If possible, try to book flights during nap time so it's a little less stressful.

Re: What do you need to air travel with a 4 month old?

when we travelled i brought packets of formula to mix with water, we ended up bringing a mini dvd player on the plain ride were ds wached moose a moose, it kept him occupied for a while, otherwise he slept really well on the plane...

Re: What do you need to air travel with a 4 month old?

Thanks for the replies so far- we booked a flight JFK-Tampa for our Orlando trip in July

What big items will we need as this is what has DH freaking out-

Pack n play
Car seat/base for rental car?
Stroller (we have the Graco Snugride system)

Re: What do you need to air travel with a 4 month old?

If you are staying at a hotel they should have a crib and sheets if not, the PNP and a PNP sheet, the stroller, car seat and base, a baby carrier i.e. bijorn, bottles, nipples, spoons for baby food, insulated bottle carrier, diapers, wipes, sun hat, toys, books, a big blanket to put the baby down on.

Re: What do you need to air travel with a 4 month old?

Just one piece of advice. What ever toys you bring please make sure they don't make a lot of noise! Just returned home from 16 hour flights to Asia and on the first leg had to deal with a child with a rattle behind us. Listening to a rattle is not fun when you are trapped in a metal tube. I understand kids cry but certain things like loud toys can be avoided.