Travelling short-haul with a baby during a pandemic

This is the definitive guide to travelling short-haul with a baby during a pandemic.

I know travelling during a pandemic is still very much up for debate but we weighed up the pros and cons and decided to take the risk. Who knows how long we’re going to have to live this way and seeing the world is something so important to us and something we’d like Isaac to appreciate from a young age.

This guide is just for short-haul. We travelled to San Francisco recently, so I’ve created a separate post for long-haul travel here.

To help you know whether this advice is right for you – Isaac was 10 months old when we made the short 2.5 hour trip to Spain.

The airport

Gone are the days of arriving an hour before take off with just hand luggage. I wish I appreciated those days more.

I personally don’t think arriving two hours before your flight with a baby and luggage is enough during covid times. The queues are bigger and everything takes a bit longer. Try to factor in a nappy change and any necessary food/milk requirements at the airport.

NB: You can take water and milk through security as long as you can show them your baby. Just bear in mind that you do have to wait at security for them to confirm you’re with your baby, which takes extra time.

Realistically, I’d say it’d be helpful to give yourself an extra half an hour to calmly do these things. Otherwise, you’ll end up changing him on your lap after the pilot announced a 90 minute delay. Yup, that happened.

It all worked out fine, of course, but when we go to San Francisco we will give ourselves too much time at the airport, just to avoid walking to the gate with the sinking feeling that you’ll see them man-handling your luggage off the plane.

Factor in delays

This is quite a negative mindset, but with a baby it’s important to err on the side of caution. It’s worth having a contingency plan in the back of your mind for what would happen if you were delayed.

Going to Malaga, our flight was delayed on the ground for 90 minutes and it pushed our timings out. I was planning to feed Isaac milk as the plane was taking off, but he was so hungry because of the delay that I dipped into our emergency food stash.

He enjoyed a nice yoghurt to keep him ticking over until we took off. I also factored in enough milk to account for an all-day delay, important if your baby is under-one and not being breastfed anymore. If your baby is 6-9 months and needs more pureed foods, I’d also make sure you have enough of those. After 10 months, you can always make do with what’s available and mash it up, but I did bring more than enough Ella’s Kitchen meals for the flight and beyond, just to be safe.

READ MORE: HOW IT FEELS TO BECOME A MUM

Don’t just consider the flight

Yes, you might be very much prepared for the flight with toys, food and whatnot, but don’t forget the hours before and afterwards. If your baby is due a feed, where are you going to do it?

Isaac is (luckily) super chilled. It’s hard for me to say that without you thinking I’m being smug, but I’m saying it for the purpose of this section. He will eat and sleep anywhere. The boy fell asleep while we were running through security and stayed asleep while we were landing in Stansted. He will eat a whole meal anywhere. Ok, I am being smug now.

NB: I’m not naive enough to think this chilled phase will last, I didn’t get more than two hours of sleep a night for the first eight months. I’ve earned that smugness.

If your baby likes to eat and sleep in specific places or is teething/feeling a bit under the weather, it’s worth thinking about where you can do these things to keep them feeling content.

Let’s talk toys

There’s only so many toys you can fit in your hand luggage, so I think it’s a good idea to mix it up with a selection of new toys and favourites. I picked the smaller ones (for obvious reasons) and ones I knew he’d fiddle with for a long time. Think: push poppers, telephones with lots of buttons on, a little fake remote, puppets and cars. Aka, nothing that can roll all the way to the back of the plane via the floor.

Even though we brought all the toys, the things Isaac enjoyed the most were: water bottles, the safety cards, the seats, the window, the frame of the window, playing with our phones and pressing buttons on our iPads.

You’ve just got to let them do what they need to do.

The definitive hand luggage list (for 10 month olds)

• Milk (we used a mixture of instant and powder)
• More than enough meals
• Little snacks (think yoghurts and melty puffs)
• Toys (a mixture of favourite and new)
• Water
• Cutlery (more than you think you’d need)
• Dummy, if your baby uses one (more than you think you’d need). Tip: we kept ours in a sandwich bag for easy access and to split up the ones that had been launched on the floor.
• Passports
• Covid information (you have to fill out the locator form for babies, too)
• Spare clothes
• Nappies
• Portable changing mat
• Wipes
• Dettol wipes to wipe down the area around you & the changing table in the toilet
• Sudocrem
• Talcum powder
• AirPods (I actually got an hour to listen to my audiobook when he was asleep on me, don’t neglect yourself!)
• Their favourite blanket and cuddly toy

READ MORE: MY TOP 5 TIPS FOR PREGNANT WOMEN

What to dress them in

Dressing for a plane journey is always a bit of a nightmare, whether you’re a baby or not. I always go for layers and that’s what I decided to do for Isaac, too.

On the journey to the airport it was 4am, so he wore a pair of legging trousers, socks, a short-sleeved vest and a jumper with a thin coat over the top. He kept all of that on (minus the coat) on the plane, but when he slept I covered him with his blanket, too, because planes can be really chilly.

By the time we arrived in Spain and got in the car, he was only wearing his vest and we’d shedded all his other layers. On the way home, we did the same but in reverse.

Packing the big stuff

I was so happy that we decided to pack Isaac’s proper buggy. He slept in it every night while we went out for dinner and I just don’t think he would’ve done the same if he was in something less comfortable. We’ve got a Bugaboo Fox 2 Pushchair but the Bugaboo travel carrier is actually quite large, so we bought the Stokke Pram Pack instead. It’s worth looking on eBay and Facebook Marketplace for this because we managed to get it for almost half price & it’s as good as new.

We also packed his carseat. Luckily we had a travel cot there, because we were loaded up the capacity.

When we fly long-haul we’re considering buying the Stokke BedBox too, so that might be worth a look if you’re considering your options.