FLYING LONG-HAUL WITH YOUNG KIDS

A BLOGGER'S VIEW
Cathy Winston, award-winning-travel writer and owner of the blog, Mummy Travels, shares her top tips on flying with babies and children

I've lost count of the number of times I've flown – long-haul, short-haul, tiny prop planes, sea planes. But the only time I've ever really felt nervous are on flights with my daughter.

The very first flight we took together to Lanzarote, her aged three months, me with all kinds of cautionary tales running through my mind: she slept for 90% of it, lulled by the white noise.

Cloth books and hand puppets weighed almost nothing but kept her giggling. Water Magic Pads let her colour to her heart's content but I didn't have to worry about her decorating the plane (or herself) along the way.

What I wish I’d realised before I started was that it’s rarely as hard as you fear. Armed with her beloved rabbit and a pair of (apparently) angelic big blue eyes, and fellow passengers have always helped when I’ve had to juggle luggage or security queues, quite literally holding the baby when I struggled to collapse a pushchair to be X-rayed.

The more I travelled, the more ways I discovered to make life easier too: ordering baby food and spare wipes to pick up airside was one shortcut. Family security lanes might not be faster but were definitely less stressful, while hunting out the airport soft play hidden away in unsuspected corners meant she could burn off energy pre-flight.