Author: Valentina Jovic

Travelling with a baby

By the age of 2, Elina had around 30 flights in her experience. That also means, that we, as parents, gathered some experience how it is to travel with a baby.
 

First, buying a ticket

When buying a ticket for an infant, you have 2 options. Infant that will sit on your lap (usually cheap, around 10% of adult airfare) or purchase a separated seat (between 75% to 100% adult airfare price). On long haul flights, most of the time infant can be placed in a bassinet on the wall but that depends of availability, FCFS system and weight/height of your child. We did all of the above at different age and this is our experience.

Lap infant

Infant on the lap, very easy while baby is small and not mobile. At this point, if you are doing long haul flight, your child meets bassinet requirements at almost all companies. That means that during entire flight beside take off, landing and taxi or severe turbulence your baby can be laying down in the bassinet. Short-haul flights, you don’t have an option of the bassinet, so you will hold your infant entire time, but it wasn’t difficult or problematic in our cases. Most of the time our daughter would fall asleep during the flight.

Separated seat

A more expensive option, but much easier once your kid is bigger and mobile. When Elina started walking she did not want to sit or stay in one place. It is always a struggle to keep her belt fasten and keep her in place. For short-haul flights we did manage somehow but for long-haul, we decided it was worth buying her a seat. First time when she did have her own seat, we didn’t think of any restraining device, and being under the age of 2 and quite slim, airplane provided seat belt didn’t do much to keep her in one place. Fortunately, it was red-eye flight so I was able to put her to sleep, but it also meant, no space for me to sit.  

For our next long haul flight, we took car seat on board (FAA approved; you must have this sticker on your car seat to be able to take it on board for your child and they will check it multiple times). This was a lifesaver. The car seat was easy to install, Elina was properly fastened during the entire flight, she had her seat and I had my own for me.

Baby equipment

From the very first moment of pregnancy, we knew that we will still travel as much as we can. So, during the equipment shopping for our unborn daughter, we kept in mind travel purposes.

  1. Stroller We wanted an all-terrain stroller that is part of the travel system (stroller, car seat and baby bassinet). Our choice was Britax Smile 2 (together with bassinet) and Britax Romer Baby-safe i-Size car seat (with baby-safe i-Size flex base). Although it provides everything we need and wanted with travel system it was too bulky and not-so-easy foldable for air travel. As soon as Elina turned 6 months, we purchased Maclaren Triumph stroller that we mainly use for air travel.
     

  1. Car seat While we were using Baby-safe i-Size car seat it was easy to travel with it and use when arrived at the destination, use it with car seat belt instead of Isofix. When she outgrew it and we switched to Britax Romer Dualfix i-Size it wasn’t possible to travel with it anymore we had to think of something else. We purchased Cosco Scenera Next car seat, lightweight and cheap travel car seat (also FAA approved) that we mainly use for our travels now. It provides rear and front-facing positions.
     

  1. Travel bed BabyBjorn travel crib Light, compact, easy to assemble, with good quality mattress (in comparison with other travel beds) and absolutely great choice.

  2. Baby carrier BabyBjorn Carrier One Another BabyBjorn item that we love. Front and back carrier with 3 different carrying positions that comes handy during travel (at the airport) and spending time outdoors.