In a separate post I wrote about how can a parent (mostly mom as younger babies are more attached to moms) enjoy the flights with a younger baby. Now I want to write about how babies feel about flying. What I mostly heard when we booked our first family trip with our then 4 months old baby was: »Why would you fly with a young baby, they don’t like flying and usually they just cry and scream all the time.«

Why would we fly with a young baby?

Before having my first baby me and his dad travelled almost all the time. We worked as tour guides in different countries and in the free time we enjoyed discovering other new countries. From the moment we found out we were expecting we knew this baby will travel a lot. Because we love to travel. I must say I feel the best when I travel (although I do like home these days too, much more). For us it was so natural to just go. We knew our baby would be ok with anything, even flights. Also flying gets you further much faster than road transport. And in the plane, you can hold your baby which you can’t do in the car (so important for long distances).

Me wearing Tristan while exploring streets of Faro (South Portugal), 2014.

It’s not just us, anyone can fly easily with a young baby.

Because young babies want to be close to their parents anyway all the time. You hold them during the whole flight and they love that. They also enjoy watching faces and there are many new faces on the plane. They usually get some attention from the staff and other passengers which they also usually like. So most young babies are ok during flights. It helps if the parents are ok with the situation and feel relaxed. Babies might cry during flights, but that’s so normal and mostly it’s easy to calm them (by feeding or nursing them). In my opinion going anywhere by plane is easier than going on a long car ride with a young baby.

Yes, babies enjoy flying.

As much as anything else where their parents are close by. They don’t care how uncomfortable their parents are with that small space on planes and if the plane is completely full. Babies are actually amused by that small toilet cabin on planes where you can change them as it’s different. They are naturally curious and love to see new things. Also, usually we cuddle them more during flights than in our everyday life at home. What surprised me was that our baby was actually so excited when we went travelling that even after a long day of travel he still didn’t fall asleep as quickly as we thought he would.

Yes, I encourage all families with young babies to go travel if they have a chance and if they wish to. If travelling makes you happy, go for it. Your baby will be fine and you’ll have more energy to handle everyday life at home upon return. Happy parents, happy baby. This phrase, heard and told so many times, but so true.

Until next time,

Ajda