How do I travel with a baby?

Travelling with a baby is less about the baby and more about logistics: what the carrier permits, what you can carry through security, and what happens if the journey doubles in length. Babies themselves usually travel better than people fear. What goes wrong is running out of something, or discovering a rule at the gate.

Safety

What you'll need

• Changing kit in a bag you can reach one-handed
• More feeds and nappies than the journey requires
• Pushchair suitable for gate-checking (optional)
• A car seat that the airline or hire company will accept (optional)

Step by step

1. Ring the airline before you book.Minimum age to fly, whether the baby travels on a lap or needs their own seat and from what age, bassinet availability and how to request one, pushchair and car seat allowance, and the extra baggage allowance for an infant. All of this is carrier-specific and none of it is reliably on the website.
2. Check the security rules for feeds and equipment.Baby milk, expressed milk, sterilised water and baby food are generally treated differently from other liquids at UK airports, but you may be asked to taste or open items and the quantities allowed vary. Check your departure airport, and check the return airport separately.
3. Take substantially more than the journey needs.Nappies, wipes, feeds, dummies and a change of clothes for the baby and for you. Assume the journey could take twice as long, because delays do not care about a nappy supply.
4. Pack the changing kit so it works one-handed.A small pouch with a couple of nappies, wipes, a mat and a bag, that you can take into a cubicle without unpacking the whole day bag. Keep the main supply elsewhere and top the pouch up.
5. Plan feeding for take-off and landing.Sucking helps equalise ear pressure, so a feed or a dummy during the climb and especially the descent prevents most of the distress people associate with flying with babies.
6. Gate-check the pushchair.Most airlines let you take it to the aircraft door and collect it there or at baggage reclaim — ask which, because it matters at a connection. Take a bag or cover for it, because pushchairs come back dirty and sometimes damaged.
7. Sort the car seat before you land.Hire company seats are often poor and sometimes not the right size. Taking your own is usually free with an infant on most airlines and is generally the better answer. Confirm the rules for the destination country too.
8. Check what the accommodation genuinely provides.A cot, a high chair, a bath, somewhere to sterilise, a fridge, a kettle, a washing machine. Ask specifically, because 'family friendly' means whatever the listing wants it to mean. A confirmed cot saves an enormous amount of luggage.
9. Recreate the sleep setup rather than reinventing it.The same sleeping bag, the same comforter, a familiar sheet, and the room as dark and cool as you can make it. Babies cope with a new room far better when the immediate sleep environment is the one they know.
10. Keep medication and health documents in the cabin bag.Any medicine, thermometer, rehydration sachets, and a note of the baby's weight, which is what doses are calculated from. Add the baby to the travel insurance and declare anything relevant.
11. Build the day around feeds and naps, not the other way round.One outing in a day, timed around a nap, is a good day. Two is a difficult one. This applies as much at the destination as on the journey.

Tips

• Board late rather than early if you can. Time on the aircraft is the hardest part, and pre-boarding adds half an hour of it.
• Take a lightweight sling as well as a pushchair. Airports, cobbled streets and stairs are far easier with hands free.
• Book somewhere with a washing machine for anything longer than a few days. It removes a whole bag of clothing.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the airline's infant rules from another airline's — Age limits, lap versus seat, bassinet availability and equipment allowances differ substantially. Ring them before booking, not after.
• Packing the changing kit in the hold or the boot — It is needed during the journey, repeatedly, often at short notice. It goes in a bag you can reach with one hand.
• Planning the destination days as though the baby were not there — One thing a day, planned around naps and feeds, is what makes the holiday enjoyable. Two turns it into an endurance test for everybody.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask