|
|
|
Child Air Travel TipsRonald Porep, Republished from SafetyIssues Issue 16 |
Volume 4 Issue 42May 2005 |
|
Air travel is not only terrorizing to adults
these days. For your child, traveling on an airliner can be one of the
scariest experiences of his life. So scary for one toddler that the British Airway jet he and his grandparents were on had to return to the terminal because the child hid under his seat and would not come out for anyone. When an aircraft crew tried to make two-year-old Marcello Ferrand wear a seatbelt he panicked and sat under the seat - the kind of scene any parent will recognize. Unfortunately, the airliner crew did not handle the problem well. They called the police and had the child and his grandparents hauled off the plane that was to travel from Heathrow to Milan. |
 |
|
To make matters even worse, the
airline's ground staff refused to let the elderly couple and Marcello
travel on a later flight – forcing the grandparents to pay for tickets
with Alitalia to get home. "The police came aboard, checked our passports and then took us to a waiting car. I have flown all over the world and never had an experience like this. I felt like a Third World citizen,” describes Marcello's grandmother Mariella DeNatale, 70, who adds that the plane crew scared the child in the first place. A trip both the airline crew and the family will remember for years to come. |
|
|
A disaster you and your child can avoid
by following a few tips. Board with your child before other passengers if the airline will let you. Many airlines will call forward people who need help boarding - include yourself in that. It wins you a couple of minutes extra to get you, baby and/or child plus luggage onto the aircraft. That means that you can get to your seat, deposit the child and work out which bags need to go in the overhead locker or by your feet, all without a grumpy businessman pressing his briefcase into your back as he tries to force his way past. |
 |
| This will keep both you and your child calmer. If you can't board first, then board with the stragglers to avoid people pushing past you while you get you and your family organized. However, this might mean less overhead locker room for you and less time to settle your child so early boarding is still the best strategy. | |
|
Do not sit in the window seat. Let your
child have it instead. A child who can look out the window and see
houses, cars and lights will be occupied for a micro-second longer than
one who just gets to stare at the seatback. Dress your child as cute as you can as cute kids get better treatment. A pretty dress and cardigan for a little girl, a t-shirt with a cute saying on for a little boy, that's guaranteed to melt their hearts and win you a games pack, child's lunch or just a promise to watch your child while you use the bathroom. That bathroom break can buy you and your child a long moment of calm. |
|
|
Pack toys for your child. Once
your child turns two, they will have their own baggage allowance, so that
gives you freedom to pack a bag for them that consists mainly of toys. But
even when your child is under two and has no baggage allowance, airlines
will let you take a essentials bag on - so it's up to you just how full
you pack that bag. Choose the toys you take with carefully. Two definite bad choices are Playdoh as it gets everywhere but where you want it to and electronic games as your child will not understand why he can not play the game while the plane is taking off or landing. Good choices include sticker books (three or four of them for a transatlantic flight!), chunky crayons that are hard to lose and pre-printed pictures to color and a scribble pad with the pencil or pen attached so you do not lose it. Another good choice is extra food. You will get a child's meal, particularly if you took the time to prebook one. But what if the meal is two hours away and your child is hungry now, or if the child's meals run out and your tot is faced with a goat's cheese and spinach tart? You need to pack in as many small snacks as you can: crisps, packs of three biscuits, breadsticks, crackers, grapes, carrot sticks, ham sandwiches...anything you can whip out and ram into your child's mouth. That is for an older child. If your baby is breastfed, then there's nothing to worry about, dinner is on tap when needed. But if your baby takes a bottle you need to warm it up. Asking a flight attendant could result in a 30 minute wait or the return of a scalding hot bottle. Better to prepare your child beforehand, by serving room-temperature milk for a few days before to get them used to it. That way you can tip a carton of pre-mixed milk into a pre-sterilized bottle and feed straight away on the plane. The same applies to baby food jars, rather than risk a delay or scalding hot food, choose jars that don't need to be warmed up and you'll find it quicker to feed. And, for longer flights, choose the plane you and your child board carefully. For example, check out whether there are seatback screens in the chair. Your two-year-old will barely be able to see a large screen showing a film of little interest to them, but if they can get cartoons on the back of the seat - you're onto a winner. Airline websites will be able to fill you in on their facilities. Remember, the better behaved your child is on the plane, the calmer and safer his and your flight will be. |
|
Email this article to a friendEmail a friend a link to our web site |
Back to Safety Issues... |
|
|
|
|
|
