Tips for flying with a baby

For most people crying baby is a nightmare on plane. We're not sure which is more stressful: being the passenger who first realizes he will be seated near to someone else's crying baby, or being that baby's parent. I didn't notice until one passenger during boarding walked pass our seats ( we seated early on priority boarding ) and gave an annoyed look.

I flew with Turkish Airline on our family trip to Netherlands and London. As the Turkish national carrier we were on 2 hour layover of 2 take off and 2 landings with a baby. I made a reservation to have baby bassinet weeks before departure. It would have been tiring if we had to take turn holding our baby for 10 hour flight and another 4 hours. So bassinet is a must if you need to travel with a baby, I don't know any other flight that offers this facility but Turkish airline had this facility on the long haul journey only.

During our first leg of 10 hour flight ,the flight attendant affixed the bassinet to the wall panel in-front of the seat on the middle section where the plane toilet is. There was another parent with a baby next to our   2 - 4 - 2 seating arrangement - we were at the 4, maybe this is normal practice in grouping baby together so that babies will join forces in crying ?. The 2 baby bassinets were fixed to socket on the wall panel on cruise.

Baby Bassinet on Turkish Airline. Infant facility for wide body and long haul journey

Many of us have felt that weird ear-popping sensation when we fly. For babies it can seem especially odd and even scary at first. But it's a common, normal part of flying.Whether you're flying, scuba diving, climbing a mountain, or even riding in an elevator, air pressure decreases as you go higher and increases as you go lower. If the pressure isn't equalized, the higher air pressure pushes on one side of the eardrum and causes pain.

That explains why so many babies cry during those last few minutes of the flight, when the air pressure in the cabin increases as the plane prepares to land. Ours wasn't exception. The pressure different wasn't that noticeable during take off, our baby didn't cry. However on the last half hour during landing, it hit him the hardest he cried, scream kicked his legs, he didn't know how to deal with ! Poor baby. We knew from our reading, baby need to suck / breastfeeding during those air pressure different ( just like us yawning and chewing gum to get ear 'pop' ) but it didn't work. Makes situation worse, the landing was prolonged, the plane had to circling the air until the runway is ready to land.

The pain he had during first leg wasn't over, we had to fly the next leg of 4 hour journey. He cried during take off and landing. This was our first experience and know how to overcome this on our return flights. Before take off we fed him and we made sure he sleep during takeoff, and he did. The pressure difference was un-noticed. When the plane started descending the same time he started breastfeeding and went to sleep. Half and hour into landing he was already sleeping.

He didn't cry.The world was happier place again !

Turkish airline gave our baby food in a form of whipped banana/ tropical fruits in small jar.