Flying with a 3 month old

[rmciottijr]

Does anyone have any advice about flying with an infant in my Cessna 172? She will be 3 months old in December.

Thanks!

Bob

www.ciottifamily.com

 

[poadeleted20]

First and foremost, plan to put the infant in the back seat along with someone who is capable of seeing to the infant's needs during the flight, and all the equipment neede to meet those needs (changing stuff, food, drink, toys, whatever). We proved 25 years ago that you cannot work over the seatback from the front, and bringing the infant into the front to attend to needs really doesn't work.

Assuming you're a threesome, and since you're in a 172, plan your loading carefully to avoid running out of aft cg. This may mean strapping a bag into the empty front seat rather than putting it in the baggage area.

Don't bother trying to protect a 3-month-old's ears -- the kid will pull off any headset and pull out any earplugs, and be thoroughly unhappy (and with infants, when they're unhappy, everyone's unhappy) until it's gone. Soon enough, the kid will want his/her own headset (just like Mommy's/Daddy's), but in the meantime, it's like teaching a pig to sing (all it does is annoy the pig and frustrate you).

 

[TMetzinger]

One caveat to Ron's comments. Our daughter had a kitty cat hat with ear flaps that tied under her chin. We were able to cut down the foam ear plugs lengthwise so they fit in her ears, and put the hat on over and secure the ear flaps, and she was fine.

Once in her car seat with a blanket over her, she was asleep from shortly after takeoff to just before touchdown.

We may have been lucky, but it's worth trying everything ONCE with an infant, because they're all different. Just don't waste your time thinking "but this SHOULD work" and keep trying, however. If your child doesn't like them, cut your losses and move on. By the time my daughter was 1, she wore regular hearing protectors, and by the time she was two she wore a full size headset and watched DVDs from a portable player.

Try to keep your rates of descent low, the more gradual, the better, since kids have no way to clear their ears.

 

[AdamZ]

Two things to add.

1) Since you have your own plane take Madison's car seat to the plane a few days before the flight and experiment with strapping it in to find the best method. it never worked like a car for me and sometimes it took some head scratching to figure things out. You may need an extra locking buckle or two to reduce the legnth of the lap belt porton. some of those car and or booster seats are really loose in the belt on a plane you definitly don't want that.

2) I forgot what number two was while writing number one Oh well

 

[HPNFlyGirl]

Who's Madison? I thought her name was Mackenzie.

 

[TMetzinger]

Adam reminded me - definitely work with the car seat before hand... on our new 172s, it's possible to get the seat strapped in and not have any hand room left to unbuckle it. Don't panic, a screwdriver or dowel or something else will do the job if you can't reach your hand in to operate the buckle.

You want the seat snug, but it's highly unlikely that you'll get it as tight as you can in our car, unless it's an older airplane with only lap belts.

 

[gismo]

Adam reminded me - definitely work with the car seat before hand... on our new 172s, it's possible to get the seat strapped in and not have any hand room left to unbuckle it. Don't panic, a screwdriver or dowel or something else will do the job if you can't reach your hand in to operate the buckle.

You want the seat snug, but it's highly unlikely that you'll get it as tight as you can in our car, unless it's an older airplane with only lap belts.

A trick I've used more than once is to use the seat back recliner to tighten and loosen the seat. To install, tilt the seat back as far as it will go and hook up the belt through the kid seat and make the belt barely snug. Then raise the back and it will tighten right up. Reverse the process to remove the carseat. Of course this only works if your seat backs recline fairly far.

 

[AuntPeggy]

Does anyone have any advice about flying with an infant in my Cessna 172? She will be 3 months old in December.

Protect the baby's ear from air pressure differences by making sure you have a bottle with water or juice to suck (or a pacifier if your baby prefers). Encourage her to suck as you climb and descend. Being a little thirsty helps. Baby's ear passages are very small and even slight, unnoticeable congestion can lead to discomfort.

Do not fly if the child has a cold. Think of the distraction factor of an infant screaming in pain while making your plans. This advice is for commercial flights, too.

At that age, I assume you have a rear-facing carseat, so someone must sit in back with her.

- Aunt Peggy

 

[rmciottijr]

Thanks every for all the input and tricks. I am also going to ask the doctor if 3 months is to early.

Bob

 

[tparsons]

Spread a bath-sized towel between the kid seat and the aircraft seat. Otherwise you risk marks on the aircraft seat. It took me until the second flight to figure this one out.

 

[Steve]

Both my girls flew (outside the womb) at ages under 2 weeks. They're 20 and 16 now with no measureable ill effects from the experience, as they can hear a quarter drop. The two issues of concern, imho, is noise exposure (sound pressure levels for a given duration) and air pressure differentials.

The first can be accommodated by ear protection. It doesn't have to be perfect isolation, just dB reduction. There is data on exposure limits for various dB levels and those found in small planes are beyond the usual flight duration for an x-c. Use of ear protection only increases the acceptable duration. The stories you hear about old pilots losing their hearing is primarily from either military pilots who were required to sit for hours between piston driven propellers, or commercial pilots who were paid by the hour to stay in the air.

The second can be minimized by gentle descents. Unless you're flying an excessively thrust enabled aircraft climbs are a none issue. I tried to maintain 250fpm or less when the girls were small. When they were old enough to verbalize their condition I could increase the descent rates with their feedback.

 

[rmciottijr]

Update, I think she is ready what do you think. she also can adjust the mic.

Bob

 

[GMascelli]

lol..cute shot Bob!

I was thinking she got a "go around" command from ATC and gave the typical reaction...........rassssssssssberries

 

[bbchien]

Thanks every for all the input and tricks. I am also going to ask the doctor if 3 months is to early.

Bob

Bob, mine flew at 2 weeks, and at 18 months respectively. One is a ballerina at Barnard College in NYC. The other is doing nicely in 11th grade, and is a musician.

No, it's not too early.