Air Travel With Children

Highlights:

• Make your child and ID safety card.
• If your child can follow along, show them the safety card information beforehand.
• Don’t let small children go to the bathroom alone in case of turbulence.
• Flight attendant Sara Keagle walks through 9 other tips for air travel with children.

Traveling with children by air is an adventure and challenge. Here are a few tips from Sara (Pinto) Keagle, flight attendant and busy mom. She has been flying for a major U.S. airline for over 20 years and offers advice on her blog, The Flying Pinto (theflyingpinto.com).

Sara is part of the The InFlight Team that serves as travel experts for media outlets such as ABC News, NBC News, NPR, Canadian Television, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.

12 Tips For Keeping Your Little Ones Safe During Air Travel

1. Your child will be out of his or her element; let your child know what to expect and how important it will be to stay close. These are the same rules as at an amusement park or the mall.
2. Order or make a child ID safety card. Although you’re not required to have ID for anyone under 18 years of age for domestic travel, I would recommend having your child’s information on their person in case you’re accidentally separated.
3. Explain ahead of time that they will be required to wear their seat belts on the airplane just as they do in the car. I highly recommend the CARES harness (kidsflysafe.com) for children between 22 and 44 pounds.
4. Consider buying a seat for your child under 2 and use a rear facing car seat until they reach 22 pounds and can use CARES.
5. Depending on their age, show them the safety information card once on the plane. If they’re too young to understand the pictures, point out the exits closest to you and teach them to follow along with the safety demonstration.
6. If the oxygen masks do deploy, put yours on first! Remember your “time of useful consciousness” can be seconds. If you don’t put yours on first, you’ll both lose consciousness.
7. Remember to always have any medications your children may need in your carry on baggage and an index card stating any medical issues they might have.
8. Does your child have food allergies? Don’t count on the airline or the airport to have what you need. Be sure to pack plenty of snacks, adding extra for unforeseen delays.
9. Don’t let small children go to the airplane lavatories unsupervised. You never know when unexpected turbulence will hit.
10. Always wear shoes while walking around the airplane. Remember, the liquid on the bathroom floor probably isn’t water! Also, sometimes glassware breaks in the galleys.
11. Don’t seat your child in the aisle seat, if you can help it; their body parts tend to hang over the side when they fall asleep and they run the risk of being hit by a cart.
12. Travel with some band-aids and antibacterial ointment for minor cuts, but remember flight attendants are trained for medical emergencies and have equipment on board the airplane. And major airports have medics available on site.