What’s the earliest you would fly with an infant?
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Anonymous
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…if the trip was voluntary (eg vacation), not necessary (eg funeral)?
Our pediatrician recommended avoiding plane travel for the first few months and some relatives are acting like that’s an outrageously long time. Curious what others think. |
Anonymous
| 6 months min. and not flying in winter. Rsv is no joke in infants. |
Anonymous
This 100%. Ignore selfish relatives. |
Anonymous
| I flew with mine at 7 weeks. This was pre-COVID. I would still do it. |
Anonymous
| 8 weeks |
Anonymous
| I attended my grandfather's funeral with my baby of 9 weeks. Easiest trip with a baby ever - he slept the whole time. |
Anonymous
What motives do Your relatives have? |
Anonymous
This. Unless you have a particularly colicky baby, newborns/young infants are a dream on flights. It is built-in white noise. They are not mobile. Difficulty of flying with kids is not linear. In my experience it is very very easy with a 0-4 month old, then harder but manageable with a 4-12 month old. 12 months - 18 months = pretty terrible, they want to wiggle and they're still fussy like an infant but they don't get it, and they still require you to do everything for them. Moderately difficult 18 months - 2.5 and then difficulty peaks at 2.5-3 when they are "threenagers" - everyone feels sorry for the mom with an infant, but everyone glares angrily at the mom with a screaming toddler because they think you can control it/it is your fault. 3+ is easy again because screen time, potty trained and less drama. |
Anonymous
| Not sooner than four months. Longer if that happens over the winter during rsv/flu season. |
Anonymous
| Ha. 2-1/2 weeks. Back home from an adoption. Now a healthy adult! |
Anonymous
We usually go visit for a week in the summer and they are surprised that we weren’t planning to do so because our baby will be under 3 months old. They visit us every few months and have already met the baby. |
Anonymous
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8 weeks
We started flying with our first when she was 9 weeks old, after first round of vaccines. Babies are so easy to travel with! This was pre-covid |
Anonymous
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For the baby, I’d want to be past the two month “even a slight fever means the ER” window.
But for ME - I’ve learned the hard way (two kids, third on the way) that I do not travel until post sleep training (which we do right at 4 months). Rocking a crying baby back to sleep at 3am without all my stuff, my routine, my rocking chair… no. Not at all fun. And I don’t want to deal with the logistics of travel at that stage. |
Anonymous
PP to add - and NOTHING is fun when you’ve been that sleep deprived for months. |
Anonymous
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Earliest with the baby would probably be 3-4 weeks, assuming baby is healthy at that point and sleeping/eating well.
But I might wait longer than that for myself. I got immense pressure to travel to visit family when I had my baby, and caved to it, and wound up feeling very resentful because I was honestly not up to it. At 4 weeks I was still bleeding, plus was super hormonal (would later be diagnosed with PPD). The very fact people were pressuring me to travel and not listening to me when I said I didn't want to was the biggest issue. I wanted to be at home, with the baby, resting and bonding. I only had so much time on maternity leave and it was MY time to spend with the baby and recuperate from what was a pretty difficult pregnancy and childbirth. And instead of respecting that, people were thinking only about their own desire to see the baby. So while I think it would be okay to fly with a baby earlier if they were healthy and you were up to it, I just want to give you permission right now to tell anyone who asks "No, we aren't traveling until [whatever feels right for YOU]." If they really want to see the baby, they can hop on a plane and get a hotel. |