Traveling with Babies. When is a good time?
Health
A common question amongst pregnant women is when is a good time to travel with your baby. Our first recommendation would be to always check with your doctor and obtain his/her approval after your little bundle of joy has arrived. You and your Babies health is the most important and the doctors approval will be entirely dependent on your situation. Therefore before traveling with Babies please double check with your GP/doctor.
Dependent on your situation, also make sure to obtain & bring any prescriptions your doctor might give you or your baby.
Passport & Registration of Birth
While we want to encourage families to travel with their babies, before getting too excited and booking your flight 1 month after the due date we recommend looking into the process of getting your Babies Passport . Different rules apply dependent on where you live and what nationality the parents have.
In addition I recommend calling the local council to enquire about where you will have to register the Babies birth and whether you will obtain the birth certificate on the date of the registration appointment or if it will be sent to you. Based on this information you can plan and book your passport application appointment.
Insurance & Emergency Medial assistance
Our recommendation would also be to look into obtaining travel insurance whether with an insurance company or your bank. On this same note please research and obtain a contact number for a doctor in the location your are going to in case of emergencies. In London the medial emergency number is 111. You can call this at any time day or night for advice with your baby. We used this once before our daughter turned 3 months and after that. You tell them your situation and they either give you advice to follow at home, they call to check up and/or recommend you to go to the nearest hospital.
I did not mean to scare new Moms with all this information, but it is just useful information to know and important details to have sorted before getting too excited for a trip 🙂
Immunisations
As we are not medical practitioners we cannot confirm the global processes for immunisations and when they are given to babies across the Globe. So best check this with your doctor as well and when you could travel. We can only speak for our experience here in London, UK and here they get their immunisations at 8 weeks, 12 weeks and then at 1 year. You can find more useful information about the immunisation schedule in the UK here on the NCT website.
When I spoke to our family doctor about travelling with Havana they advised that it would be possible to travel after her 8 week immunisations. They said that antibodies from the Mom are passed on to the baby through the placenta and if I breastfeed as well it would cover them until the 8 weeks. However, our doctor recommended to wait until after her 8 week shots and also because I had a C-section and needed to fully recover.
All checks done? Travel approved…
Now finally to the fun part. So I am sure you know that you do not have to pay for a flight for an infant up until 2 years old so thats a major bonus and reason why we are trying to get as many trips as we can afford in before then. Well, its not entirely free, but pay a small tax which is around 100$, but its not bad.
In my opinion flying when babies are young is the easiest. Now that our daughter Havana is 1 year and 3 months she is just running around & chatting to everyone making noises and singing haha. Reminds me of the days when she only a few months old just chilling/cuddling on the plane smiling at everyone not making a peep.
Our big travels in 2017 were at the following ages:
- 2 1/2 months flight from London to Toronto, Canada
- 3 months flight from Toronto to Vancouver, Canada
- 3 months flight from Vancouver to London, UK
- 4 months train to Paris, France
- 5 months flight London- Vancouver
- 5 1/2 months flight from Vancouver to Sao Paulo w/ a stop in Atlanta
- 6 months flight Sao Paulo, Brazil to London.
- 6 months flight Italy to London
- 8 months flight London- Barcelona, Spain
- 9 months flight London, UK – Vancouver
- 10 months flight Vancouver to London, UK
- 13 months flight London, UK to Jamaica
- and a few small trips in between and after that
The younger the easier
Looking at the above trips I would have to say that the flights we took from 2 1/2 months until 8 months were the easiest, because she was not standing or walking yet. At that age they are basically just sitting and taking everything in and sleeping more. At 9 months Havana started pulling herself up on her own and cruising so that flight to Vancouver was the longest flight ever. They did not have a night flight and she wanted to stand the entire time and touch the TV screen and grab people´s hair in the seat in front of us hahah.
Come to think of it trips we took when we was 2 1/2 and 4 months were amazing, because she was sleeping so much. In addition, because they only starting understanding the night and day concept and start sleeping longer at night in between 3-4 months they are not really affected by jet lag. Of course, that only applies if you are traveling to a different time zone.
Anyhow I could go into more detail about what she was doing at what age, but I just wanted to give people a brief overview on my thoughts of when its the easiest time to travel with Babies. Of course us parents love our babies so much, we have patience and are tolerable towards the things they may do. In addition, everyone has a different reason for why they are traveling somewhere and when, but I thought I would write this blog to inform those who are adventurous and want to plan a vacation and are flexible in regards to timing.
I also think maybe families want to travel right after having a baby as the mothers or fathers will be on maternity leave, but then they do not because they are afraid. So this blog is also to help encourage those parents who are curious and let them know that it actually is not as difficult as you might think before becoming parents. Also very important speak to your friends, family or doctors about it to feel more confident in case you have the first time mommy worry syndrome 🙂
If anyone has any other questions about my personal experiences or those of Tolu or Angela please feel free to email us on hello@jetlifebaby.com or DM us on Instagram @jetlifebaby
Happy Baby, Happy Travels,
Marisa
xo
