Traveling with a Breastfed Baby

The holidays are almost upon us! Many families will be driving or flying to visit family. However, it can be a little trickier to travel with a nursing baby. Here are a few tips to help make your trip more pleasant.

Tips for Driving with a Nursing Baby:

(1) Plan to include multiple stops to nurse your baby. Just knowing that you will need to stop a lot can help you psychologically. You can try to build the stops into your schedule. However, sometimes a baby wants to nurse more than usual or she might be fussy in the car, so you might need to just pull over on the side of the road to attend to her needs.

(2) You or your husband might need to sit in the back with the baby while the other parent drives if baby is fussy. 

(3) Bring some toys or play some music she likes to help her stay happy in the car.

(4) One idea you could try is to nurse your baby in her car seat when you are pulled over for one of your stops. That way once she nurses to sleep, you won’t need to transfer her to her car seat and potentially wake her up. 

(5) Sheila Kippley mentions in her book, Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing, that using a pacifier occasionally in the car should not interfere with practicing ecological breastfeeding. I know how stressful it can be to drive long distances with a fussy baby, so I wanted to mention this just in case your baby is still unhappy after nursing and getting her diaper changed and you still are not to your mother-in-law’s house yet.

Tips for Flying with a Nursing Baby:

(1) Try to nurse baby on take off and landing to help with the uncomfortable pressure on baby’s ears.

(2) If you are nervous about privacy for nursing while in the air, try to choose a window seat or a seat in the back and bring a sweater or nursing cover to help you stay covered. If you are traveling with your husband, he can sit in the middle seat and then you will have even more privacy for nursing. 

(3) Or alternately, if you think your baby will want to be walked around a lot, choose an aisle seat so you are able to get up often during the flight. Remember to bring your sling or baby carrier. Another advantage of sitting in an aisle seat is that the flight attendant and passengers walking by might help distract and entertain your baby.

(4) If you do not plan to use your sling on the plane, take baby out of it before boarding to make things easier. It can be very cramped in an airplane. (Tip from our last online meeting!)

(5) Put any toys, snacks, diapers, etc in a bag that can fit under your seat. That way it will be easier to get to anything you need during the flight. (Another great tip from our meeting!)

I hope you found some of these tips helpful! Enjoy your trip!

Written by Gina Peterson

What tips have helped you when traveling with a nursing baby? Please mention them in the comments! Thanks!