Tip #27: Keeping formula/milk cold on an airplane

We just returned from our first big journey with baby..so you'll be seeing a few traveling tips we have picked up along the way....

They say to keep a baby's ears from hurting during elevation changes on an airplane, have them suck something during takeoff and landing. We specifically bought a seat for him for the most dangerous parts of the flight, takeoff and landing, and the little dude will NOT due a pacifier. So on the way up I would give him a bottle of expressed breast milk and on the way down a bottle of water. However, we had two legs on the way back and four ascents/descents, so I had to keep the milk cold. This should work with either expressed milk or formula (although with formula, you just need to get water on the other side of security before boarding..but just in case you have something ready but don't need right away...).

1. Make sure to declare the liquids, have them in a separate bag and put them through x-ray on their own.
2. Ice is allowed by FAA regulations, however, some security agents didn't know this. So to be prepared to avoid the hassle if you have one of these agents, pack ice around your milk, but keep an extra ziplock so you can dump the ice and get more ice on the other side of security. In the end I kept the ice but got more at Starbucks anyway.
3. On the plane, those little bags for motion sickness are a great way to pack a bottle in some ice (the flight attendant told me this one).

Tip #16: Changing a diaper on an airplane

Changing a diaper in a small airplane bathroom can be quite difficult, but here are some tips to make it a bit easier:
- Strip your little one down to the diaper before heading to the bathroom
- Grab just the things you need (diaper, wipes, diaper cream).
- For older babies, you can change them standing up
- For non-standing babies, you can sit on the closed toilet and change them on your lap

Source: We're traveling for the first time soon and I found these tips here.

Tip #9: Sources of white noise for soothing a baby

If your baby can be soothed with white noise then you can soothe a fussy baby in the car by tuning your radio to an unused station. Experiment, apparently some babies prefer AM noise and some like FM noise.

Other ways to create white noise for home or for the car:

• Download recorded white noise tracks from ITunes
• Use the box from a sleep sheep, one mom I know removed the box from the stuffed animal so it would fit in a diaper bag.
  
• Make your own recordings of vacuums, dishwashers, showers, hair dryers, etc.
  

Source: Friends

Tip #2: Improve car safety

If you have an SUV or a car with an open cargo hold, install a safety net to keep projectiles (could be your dog or your groceries) from launching over the seat towards your child in the event of an accident.

Source: Instructor of a Mommy and Me class