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If travelling with kids, especially
flying, then:
1. Books
Carry reading books (new ones preferably), colouring books and crayons,
and if you can afford a portable DVD player...its fantastic!
2. Bathroom
Make your kids use the toilets before boarding the aircraft as they are
spacious and much cleaner compared to the aircraft ones! Carry baby wipes
as you will need them a lot in-flight for a quick wipe up. Be
sure to put them in a place easily accessible to you throughout the
flight.
3. Seat choice
Only choose bulkhead seats if your baby needs a baby bassinet. If not get
any other seats in preference. My reason for this is that at the bulkhead
seats the armrest cannot be moved, while in normal seats the armrests can
go up. This is far better if your baby wants to lie down on the seat with
her head on your lap.
4. Food
Carry biscuits, water, juice & snacks for your kids. Also carry milk
packets (the UHT small packets) yourself. Airline snacks run out in flight
and milk is a shortage very often. The cabin crew should not be blamed if
this happens - it's not up to them to bring milk. They have to see to over
400 passengers too!
5. Ear pressure
If your baby is on a bottle or breastfeeding, give them the bottle or
the breast for take-off & landing. It's the best things for their ears
and they will also be relaxed.
If your child is big, then carry cotton or ask for earplugs as soon as you
board the aircraft. Make use of them for take-off then save them for
landing as the crew may not have any fresh ones left by then. This helps
the kids tremendously if they don't know how to pop their ears.
6. Health
If your child has a cold please ensure you have seen a doctor before
the flight to check if the child is fit to fly. Even if the doctor says
it's OK, please use your judgment. I see kids flying a cold and they
really are in a bad state for take-off & landing. It is
extremely painful for them if they are all congested & blocked up and
they cannot pop their ears. It is very dangerous to their eardrums too!
7. Bottle heating
If you ask the crew to heat up the baby bottle, please check the
temperature of the liquid yourself periodically and don't depend on the
crew. They are extremely busy and no-one is free even for 5 minutes to
stand by the bottle. Crew can unfortunately forget about your bottle for a
long time and most crew in Ecomony Class are not mothers themselves (as
they are very young) so they do not necessarily know the right temperature
for a child's feed.
Crew are most willing to help you but please remember, they are extremely
busy.
8. Rubbish
Get a carrier / plastic bag from the crew, to put your garbage in and keep
your area clean. Carry fragranced bags to dispose of daipers and put them
in the toilet bins.
9. Clothes
Carry a change of clothes for your child ALWAYS and it is advisable to
carry a change of top / t-shirt for yourself too. You NEVER know when you
will need it...
I hope this has been informative to you. Parents with
babies can be very tiring for crew, but all you need to do to help us is
relax and be well prepared. If you do that, the rest is easy &
straightforward.
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