Getting ready to fly with a baby is totally overwhelming, the first time! In addition to packing and having the diaper bag 100% ready with extras of everything (“What if __?”), there’s the constant worry of “How will my baby do on the flight?”

Chance are, you will be pleasantly surprised (most of the time). For all other concerns, check out this idea list of wha tto do before, during and after flying with a baby!

Before the flight

Before the flight, you’ll arrive at the airport. Make a “game plan” with the other adult with whom you’re traveling, in addition to the baby, if you’re flying with another parent or family member. A game plan involves deciding who will handle the baby during the next 30 minutes of baggage check, lines, waiting and security, while the other person handles most of the luggage and bags.

Here’s a play by play of what typically happens.

Check bags

Make sure everything you’re ready to say goodbye to is in your checked bag, and then bring it to bag drop! Say farewell to that suitcase (and maybe your car seat, too, if you are going the lap infant route) until you land.

Proceed through security

If you have your baby in a travel stroller, you likely will have to do some juggling during security. Make sure one parent has an eye on all the luggage going through the security machine, and one parent walks through the metal detector with the baby.

Staff will also ask to wheel your stroller through a metal detector separately, OR, fold it up as small as it goes in its folded state, and put it through the security machine (if it fits).

Find your gate, and then:

Look for your gate, just as you would when you fly without a baby. This is the time to:

  • Do a diaper change in a restroom
  • Get yourself a coffee
  • Ask Starbucks for a cup of whole milk for your toddler (one of my favorite airport hacks), and then fill your toddler’s bottle with it
  • Fill up water bottles that have been emptied before the security checkpoint
  • Look at the planes on the runway with your baby and point to them
  • Go to the restroom (parents) and/or purchase any snacks for the flight
  • Talk to the staff at the desk at your gate about getting a tag to gate-check your travel stroller!

Board the flight

Because you have a child under 2, you get priority boarding! Get the family’s passports and your baby’s passport ready to show, along with boarding passes in paper version or in an airline app on your phone, to boarding staff.

  • Put your baby in a carrier! It’s the best way to get the baby onto a flight. We do it every time.
  • Find your seats.
  • Stow the diaper bag right in front of you and take out any essentials you’ll want during take-off, like bottles for feeding, a nursing cover for breastfeeding, a juice box or a rattle or toy.
  • Do one more diaper change if you can.
  • See if there are any empty rows and ask if your family can move to one after the plane has reached a safe flying altitude.

During the flight

The list below is just some quick tips! For a full grand list of tips from us and other parents we know, head to our tip guide called How to Fly on a Plane with Your Baby for the First Time!

  • Bring out new toys
  • Look out the window
  • Enjoy plenty of snacks
  • Keep a spare outfit handy for diaper blow-outs, spit-up messes, milk spills or snack messes
  • Get your baby to nap in their assigned seat and car seat, or in a baby carrier in your lap
  • Do neat activities like “draw with water” or color with a small number of crayons.
  • Partake in screen time if your preference permits.
  • Do a diaper change after reviewing how to change a diaper on a plane
  • Repeat after me: the flight will be over eventually! (and other mantras for traveling with a baby)

After the flight

If you’re reading this after the flight, it means you made it! You flew with your baby and you made it to your vacation destination. Wow!

The plane will land (you’ll be holding your baby in the position that the flight attendant suggested) and you can get your baby back in the baby carrier for deplaning. Coordinate with your travel partner or the other adult who will take what, as you leave the plane. Check your seat for anything you may have dropped, like pacifiers.

As you walk off the plane, hang around the tiny vestibule area to see if your stroller has come off from gate check. In several instances, our travel stroller has NOT made it off the plane, and got lost or transferred. In those cases, we’ve had to speak immediately to airline staff, in order to lcoate it, because we were on a quick layover.

If you have a layover, review “What to do before a flight,” and make adjustments if you have to collect bags, go through security again or re-check any luggage. If you’ve reached your final destination, then congrats: it’s vacation time with your baby!

Our note: For traveling internationally, and if you have a car seat, practice installing the car seat with only the seat belt or however you’d expect to use it getting from the airport to your accommodation.