Baby Travel - Flying with a baby tips

[MUSIC PLAYING] You know what, we're so lucky that we get to travel with our kids. It's a lot of fun for me. And I feel like it's like together time. Yeah, I love to travel too. But I think when you start adding numbers of people, numbers of kids, the number of details and the problems grow exponentially. Well, that's true. I mean, you don't have to tell me. I got five kids. Well, you've traveled with my five kids. That's probably where you got that opinion. But anyway, that's why we're talking about travel today. And we're basically going to share some tips and tricks that we learned by doing it wrong. So we've invited Alejandra Rodriguez-Stuart, who is the co-host of "MommyCast Latina," to join us today. She's also the mother of an 11 month old beautiful baby, Isabella. Welcome to "MommyCast." Thank you. So travelling with an infant can be really difficult. And I think one of the most difficult things is the accoutrements. Every little thing that you have to take for that baby. Seems like the smaller the baby is, the bigger your bag is. Yes. Yes. It's so much that you need to carry. And it's very tiring. Now you've traveled with Isabella internationally. You went to Mexico? So I'm sure you had some connections. And like what is the thing-- like was there one thing that you did that was like the worst thing to do? Or one thing that you did that you would always do, the best thing ever? Well, something that I would say the worst thing to do is take all their toys and everything you have in the bag out at the very beginning, because then you don't have any else to show and they're just boring. I see those parents do that, and I'm like, amateur. You don't know what you're doing. Yeah. And then you-- Well, you don't want to take all of the toys, but you need to have a couple. And I think it's really important that you have multiple use toys. You know, for instance-- Multipurpose toys. I think this is just phenomenal. I know, we just found out about this. This-- here, Gretch. I think it's great because it's a toy, stuffed animal, it's a pillow. But also, if you-- It unzips right here. It unzips right here. And then you've got-- Full sized blanket. A full sized blanket. So it's really a multiple-- Yes. So things like that were great. I think also, one of the keys for traveling with babies and small children is to try and keep you hands free. So if you've got bag after bag and stroller and everything, that becomes really difficult. But if you can get yourself to be hands free, like for instance using a baby carrier like this where you actually strap this on you and you put the baby in. Is that one yours? Is that your-- That one's mine. Yes. And it's really helpful. This is one of the things that I used when we travelled outside the country. And it really helped. Wait, wait, how do you do it? These things, the crossing thing, goes in the back like that. And then you just put the baby here like-- looking at you or looking at the front, and then you just strap these things like right here. And it's very comfortable, actually. It works great for me. And there's a lot of things like that. Like we have a stroller that's called the Snap N Go. And I saw a lot of moms using it now. It costs a little bit more than an umbrella stroller. But the easiest thing is that you can just take the car seat and any car seat will just fit in that thing. Ooh. But see, here's the thing that I always ran into is that when you go through security, you have to take the baby out completely and send everything through. So one of the nice things, one of the benefits to doing a front carrier is that you can just walk through security with the baby. Actually, you have to put the-- You have to put the carrier in? Because I tried-- and you have to put the carrier. You have to take everything out. And sometimes they'll even inspect the baby. So you have to help them with the baby. And I think that's one of the most difficult things if you're traveling alone. Obviously, if you're traveling with a companion or your spouse or your friend or whatever. Or your five kids. [LAUGHTER] Yeah, well we'll talk about that at another time. But anyway, if you have somebody there to help you, that's great. Sometimes somebody standing in the line will take mercy on you and help you, which would be really nice, you know. OK, have you ever tried nursing on a plane? I did. That can be really embarrassing. I know. I mean, I had my husband next to me, so I felt comfortable. And you don't want to be in the middle of two people you don't know. I don't think I would do that. That'd be weird. Because the seats are just so close. But, I mean, of course I had my cover and everything that-- I wasn't like, woohoo. That's where having a window seat, if you're thinking about nursing, having a window seat would come in handy just because you don't want to get-- And I actually have read on the website a tip to take a couple of safety pins if you have like a little blanket. If you can just pin that blanket up, then you've got kind of your own little private space there, whatever. But one of the things is when you are traveling with infants or young children, having them drinking something as you take off, you land. Yes, their ears. Helps them with equalizing their ears. Or a pacifier too. If you cannot give them something to drink, a pacifier will help too. Because the sucking will just pop their ears as they go down. Because it's so sad. I had one child, he was too young to understand what was happening. And I forgot to tell him. But he was old enough to communicate. And he, as we're landing, he was like, my ears are really hurting. Aw. I'm sorry. Here's some gum. Help him out. So, yeah. But noticed-- well, my thing was always my husband and I, when we travel with the kids, we always have what we call a feed bag. Because they don't give you that much to eat or drink on the plane. Especially now. Especially now, right. So you can buy-- like it used to be we could bring our juice box through security. They don't let us do the juice box thing through security anymore. So we just buy like a couple bottles of water and stuff once we get through. But we have snacks and stuff, especially because when we fly to see my family, it's Hawaii. It's a long trip. And so we always have our feed bag, which is also where we'll put like a DVD player or something like that if we might need it. And I think if you can actually try to consolidate some things-- and this is where it gets really hard-- you have to really estimate how many diapers you're going to need. Well, I think it's really important when you start consolidating stuff to have kind of like a clear plastic bag with the diaper changing set. They need to be clear plastic bags, because when you go through security, they're going to want to see. Speaking as a person who's travelled with children who have vomited so severely on the airplane that he was having to go naked to the baggage claim, I would, even if I didn't have kids, I would carry wipes just to wipe down where you're going to sit. Because you just don't know what might have happened on the flight right before you got on. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I think baby wipes are one of the things that can be most helpful when you're traveling, because like what Paige said, you can clean-- Cleans the stains on your clothes. And sanitize. But then there's a whole bunch of other things that you could use, like that. There was a guy who spilled soup on his suit and I gave a baby wipe. And he was like, oh, this is a miracle. I think when you are a young couple, it's expected that you will travel to wherever the family is. But I think at some point, when you have a young family and it becomes really difficult to travel, especially when you've got one child, maybe two kids, three kids, five kids, then it becomes almost impossible-- and almost cost prohibitive really-- for you to travel to them. So then at that point, I think you need to say, OK Mom and Dad, it's time for you to travel to us. And I know especially a young family may not always have the room for guests, especially guests that are staying several days. But I mean, I think there are things that you can do there to find an inexpensive hotel nearby or invest in some of the blow up mattresses, which I think the kids can give up their rooms for Grandma and Grandpa if they get to have a little mini camp out in the living room. You can even pitch a tent in your living room and they think it's a lot of fun. Put the blow up mattresses down or whatever. That's true. I'm glad you touched on that point that just make it fun for the kids. Because a lot of times it's just, OK, you're going to give up your room that's it. But if you bring something fun to them that, OK, you can camp out and do this or that. They're going to be more happy to give up the room. So Aly, thank you so much for coming and spending the time with us today. Thank you Gretchen. Thank you Paige. And Isabella is so cute. And I just-- as she grows, I think that's one thing that we didn't talk about really is as they become toddlers and how active they are, that can become even more difficult. Infants are really kind of easy to travel with. They don't do a lot of stuff. I know, oh my god. I'm preparing her. I'm preparing her. But as they become mobile-- and there's that period between the ages of one and a half to five, where you can't really reason with-- Or you cannot travel. Shut it down. Everybody has to come to me. Exactly. If you have any travel tips you'd like to share with us-- Please share. Or horror stories. Yeah, because we like to commiserate. Right. You can find us at MommyCast.com or on Facebook. [MUSIC PLAYING] And here's the kumbaya thing. It's like it's nice every once in a while to turn all the electronics off and enjoy the trip. No, Amish girl. I'm kidding. No, it's true, it's true. They do get tired of it. Enjoy the trip a little bit. I'm not singing any songs. Hi, my name is [? Abbie ?]. I'm a proud mom of three little ones, and I work at Pampers. On behalf of our team, I want to say thank you to [? Aaron, ?] [? Lauren, ?] [? Logan, ?] and [? Addison ?] for sharing their story. At Pampers, we believe every baby is a miracle that deserves to be celebrated, supported, and protected. That's why we're proud Pampers diapers are the number one choice of hospitals.