On an Airplane with a 3- to 9-Month-Old

On an Airplane with a 3- to 9-Month-Old
	An article from iParenting Media
	By Alexandria Powell
Tere Estorino flew twice with her baby when he was between the ages of 3 and 9 months old. Thankfully, both flights went well. "I think it had a lot to do with both the times we flew and my nursing him during takeoff and landing," says the mom from Miami, Fla. You can reduce turbulence when traveling with a 3- to 9-month old – at least, on the baby front. Below are some tips and advice from seasoned parents and experts. Packing Up Travel always starts with packing your bags – and if you're bringing along an older baby, you'll be packing plenty. "At 9 months old, my son was already on solids, so I had some fruit and a couple of jars of food handy, in case he got hungry," Estorino says. "I also packed some books and about three of his favorite toys, as well as extra diapers, wipes, medicine, a thermometer and a change of clothes. I had all this in my carry-on, just in case! It's better to over pack than not." Here's a look at what your baby may need for the flight: Plenty of diapers. Baby wipes. A changing mat. Small fragranced bags for diaper disposal. Hand sanitizer. Disinfectant wipes for cleaning surfaces. A change of clothes for baby – and one for you as well. Thermometer. Infant ibuprofen and acetaminophen, and medicine droppers. Ear-numbing drops (available by prescription from your pediatrician). Whether the pain is from altitude pressure or an ear infection, a few drops will quickly soothe a painful ear, says Dr. James Sears, a pediatrician, co-author of The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two (Little, Brown and Co., 2003) and member of the Lansinoh Breastfeeding Advisory Board. Nasal saline spray, to keep your little one's nasal passages moist and comfortable. Pacifiers, if your baby likes them. Babies need to 'pop' their ears by swallowing during takeoff and landing. If your baby doesn't want to be fed, a pacifier can help. As many small, new toys as you can bring along, especially if your baby is at the older end of this age range. Food – Baby's food, that is. "Your baby can't eat the peanuts and pretzel nuggets offered in-flight, so be sure to bring a nice assortment of her favorite snacks and drinks," Dr. Sears says. While liquids are generally no longer allowed on board, passengers traveling with babies can bring formula, breast milk and electrolyte replacement drinks. Anything else you think your baby will need. Whatever you bring, expect delays and complications. Build extra time into your travel schedule to allow for them. Safe and Snug You may be concerned about the chances that you or your baby will catch a bug on the plane. However, according to Dr. Michael Zimring, director of the Center of Wilderness and Travel Medicine at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore and co-author of Healthy Travel: Don't Travel Without It! (Basic Health, 2005), the risk of catching something is small. Risk is related to the length of the flight, and to your proximity to any person with a contagious illness. To boost the odds that you and your baby will stay healthy while traveling, Dr. Zimring recommends taking these simple steps: Be as well rested as possible before flying. Make sure both you and your child stay well-hydrated. Airplane air has a humidity of only about 8 percent, which can quickly cause dehydration – and depressed immune systems. Practice good hygiene. Wash your hands frequently, and use hand sanitizer as needed. Finally, keep in mind that your 3- to 9-month-old probably spends most of her time putting her hands in her mouth – when she's not chewing on other surfaces! "When you get on the plane, wipe down all the surfaces around your baby with antibacterial wipes; the tray table, the hand rests – anything that might get chewed on," Dr. Sears says. There's another way you can keep your baby safer on the plane. When planning your trip, please consider bringing along your baby's child safety seat. While the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently allows children under age 2 to be held on an adult's lap, most experts – including the American Academy of Pediatrics – recommend parents book a separate seat for baby and bring their child seat. According to the FAA, child safety seats should be no wider than 16 inches across for best fit on an airplane. Make sure your child safety seat specifically states that it is "approved for flight," and consider checking with your individual airline for rules and regulations before traveling with babies, says Jeanna Rimmer, a representative of Britax, a market leader in quality child safety seats. As with travel in a car, your 3- to 9-month-old will need to be rear facing. "We recommend that children remain rear facing for at least one year and 20 pounds, regardless of vehicle or air travel," Rimmer says. When installing the seat, make sure to follow the guidelines for lap belt installation. Flying the Friendly Skies Flying with a baby is hard enough without having to deal with the grumbling a wailing baby triggers on a crowded flight. The good news is that there's a lot you can do to keep your baby calm, which helps to keep other passengers calm as well. In addition to the safety considerations, choosing to bring your baby's child safety seat along may add to her comfort. "My sister was a flight attendant and she said that the happiest babies were always the ones whose parents were willing to pay for an additional ticket and just strapped them into their own car seats," says Alexandra Lutz, a mom from Albuquerque, N.M., who flew from Seoul, South Korea, to Chicago – nonstop – when her son was 3 months old. If you have a choice, try to schedule flights at a time of day when your child is sleepy, says Libby Miner, a mother from Maine. She chose early evening and naptime flights for her son's first travel experience and says that it went well. "We bought him a seat so we could use his car seat, since he slept well in it," Miner says. "When it was time to sleep, he did so. Since he was still in the infant carrier, we were able to deplane, get our luggage, ride the hotel shuttle and got settled into our hotel without disturbing him. It was unbelievable that he slept through all that." If your baby doesn't sleep, be prepared by having lots of goodies in your carry-on bag, Estorino says. Whether your baby prefers toys, books or simply something to chew on, it's best to have enough on hand to last the length of your flight. Taking off and landing are typically rough times. Feeding (or using a pacifier) is a must, because babies need to swallow in order to depressurize, or "pop" their ears. "As far as nursing goes, it was two-fold," Estorino says. "I nursed during takeoff and landing to help my baby's ears pop, but also because I knew it would comfort him." Swallowing doesn't always help. Lutz reports that her baby found no comfort in nursing or a pacifier during these times, but it should still be attempted. This brings up another important point: Know that no matter how well prepared you are, all babies are going to cry occasionally, says Rimmer, who is also a mom of three who travels frequently. "As a parent, don't become overly stressed during flight." "Be realistic and flexible," Estorino says. "There's just so much you can ask of an infant. If you're calm and do your best to comfort them, it should all turn out well." Want To See More? On an Airplane with a Newborn: Air Travel with Babies up to 3 Months Old Parents' Essential Packing Guide: What to Pack When Traveling with Children Flying with Little Ones: 10 Tips to a Smoother Ride with Babies and Toddlers

Sunday

e1.Sometimes you many think your baby is waking up when shes actually going throught a phase of very light slumber.
e2.She could be squirming, startling, fussing, or even crying-and still be alseep
e3. Or she may be awake but on the verge of drifting off again if left alone
e4. Don't make the mistake of trying to comfort her during thesee moment; you ill only awaken her futher and delay her going abke to sleepl Instead if you let her fuss and even cry for a few minutes, she will learn to get herself to sleep without relying on you
e5. Some babies actually need to let off energy by crying in order to settle into into or rouse themselves out of it.
e6. sAs much as fifteen to twenty minutes of fussing wont; do you child any harm
e7. But what if she's still crying lustily at the end of five minutes?

Sunday

e1. mucous membranes are dry
e2. ruination has decreased, urine
e3. fontanel is sunken
e4. has passed more than eight diarrheal stools in 8 hours
e5. has a dry mouth and cries without tears
e6. inconsolable
e7. seems unusually drowsy or sleepy
e8. situation is severe
e9. intravenous (IV) fluid
e10. a hiccup is a contraction of baby's diaphragm
e11. electrolyte to fall
e12. diarrhea: more than five loose, liquid or watery bowel movements in one day, and he is otherwise healthy, he has diarrhea. Loose stools maybe accompanied by irritation or diaper rash around the anus. He may also be fussy or have cramplike pains in his lower abdomen.
your doctor may be advised to give him a electrolyte solutions to replace those he has lost. In some cases, you will be advised on how often to feed baby and the amount to give him.
e13. If your baby is breatfed, his stools should soon resemble light mustard with seedlike particle. until he start to eat solid foods, the constistency of stools should be soft, even slightly runny.
e12. The telltale signs are a sudden increase in frequency ( to more than one bowel movement per feedubg), and unusually high liquid content in the stool. Diarrhea may be a sign of interstinal infection, or it may be caused by a change in the baby's diet. If the baby is breatfeeding, he can even develp idarrhea because of a change in the mother's diet.
e13. A baby has diarrhea if she produces loose, very watery stools more than six to eight time a day. Thjis is susally caused by a viral infection. The first signs of dehydration are a dry mouth and significant decrease in the number of wet diapers. But don't wait for dehydration to occur. Call your pd if the stools are very loose or occur ore often than after each feeding (six to eight per day)
e13. The main concern with diarrhea is the possibility that dehydration can develop. If your baby is over two months and the fever lasts more than a day, check his urine output and rectal temperature; then report your finding to your doctor so she can determin what need to be done.
e14. This problem is unusual in breastfed babies because there appear to be certain substances in breast milk that destroy many of the microorganisms that cause diarrhea.
Sympotoms:
. Liquidy runny stools(not seedy like a breastfed baby's stools)
. Sometimes: Increased frequency, volume, mucus in stool, blood in stool, vomiting
Cause
. gastrointestnal infection (viruses, most often rotavirus, also bacteria parasites)
. somtimes, another infection
. Teething (possibly)
. sensitivy to a food in the diet
. Too much fruit or juice (particularly apple or pear)
. Antibiotic medication (feeding yogurt wwith live cultures to baby on antibiotics may prevent this type of diarrhea
Method of transmission
. via the feces-to-hand-to-mouth route, or by contaminated foods.
Incubation period:
.depends on the causative organism
Duration:
.Usually anywhere from a few hours to several days. but some cases can become chronic if not discovedand corredted
Treatment:
.protect baby's bottom from irritation by changing diaper asap and spread a thick ointment
. Cietary changes
..
enteritis?

Sunday

e1. Early Tuesday afternoon, external electric power started fluctuating wildly.
e2. A nearby underground transformer exploded.
e3. Power went out for a large section of downtown San Francisco
e4. hemorrhoids
e5. He received the highest civilian honor bestowed in the U.S., the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Monday

e1. Is this scheduled for a release in the not too distant future
e2. whacky
e3. There is an initialization call to fiotgf from spasmbht where one of the arguments (nvec) is uninitialized.

Saturday

e1. a well-sought-after speaker
e2. hypothermia
e3. intestine
e4. gastrointestinal tract
e5. gastroenteritis
e6. if your child is prescribed drugs
e7. take his temperature rectally using a thermometer lubricated with petroleum jelly
e8. armpit
e9. rectum
e10. wriggling

Taking temperature
two years old: rectally: into rectum 1 inch + 1~2 min
seven years old: armpit
mouth

Thuesday

e1. The changes a baby makes over the first year is incredible
e2. We know how swiftly babies grow (swiftlet)
e3. portrait with gilded edges mounted on ar board

Monday

w1. fungal
w2. dispense
w3. gecko

Sunday

Last week review

Overall, the last week is very good, I finished the following things which I think it is very important

1. send out the I-485 to the laywer
2. finished a follow shop of vecella
3. asked the medical record of the baby
4. discussed the medical bill of the hospital
5. on the work, test another mpi case, and integrated the new version of MPI send
6. take cared the baby's rash/eczema
7. borrowed the baby's book and read it. understand more baby's behavior

So it seems last week, I did lots of non-work stuff.

In this week, I would like to do better. Beside all the baby/wife stuff, I decide to do more work stuff, learn more thing. specifically, the plan of this week is as follows.

a. continue cook good dish for my dear wife, and try to understand why I need to do this
b. sleep with my dear wife, so I can give her more sleep
c. finished Dr. Chattopadhyay's request, the paper modification
d. return the book borrowed from the library
e. take care of the bills, and signed the lease
f. call the lawyer about the progresses of the I-485
g. learn 5-10 words and sentense of english
h. finish mpi mesg related work, and finished timing problem
i. finish understanding the whole QA stuff, include the qa_script
j. finish writing a new version of rmobj
k. take care all QA stuff

In the word, the ambition is big.

Today's words
w1. vacation, vocation, avocational

Saturday

1 gallon=4 quaters, 1 quater=32oz

English words
w1. suffocation
w2. fleece
w3. colostrum
w4. constipated
w5. sterilize
w6. metabolic
w7. reclamation center
s1. The lambswool fleeces have been implicated in a few cases of suffocation
s2. If it is warmer, you should dress her more lightly
s3. For bouncing chair, be sure he is strapped in to keep her from slipping
s4. Breastfed babies don't get constipated, they are also less prone to diaper rash
s5. Each baby has its own appetite and metabolic rate
s6. minimize your discomfort

485 is sent out -- Man proposes, God disposes

Finallly, finally, the 485 is sent to the lawyer by Fedex

Man proposes, God disposes

The diaper rash of the baby has been recovered!

Due to our two-day hard work of take caring of him. The diaper rash went away and away. We actually did not realize this. What we know is following what the book said, the internet says, the friends said, the parents said, the doctors said. And suddenly, this morning, when we check his diaper rash area, it going away!

This is the best news we have had recently. Our effort gets paid.

Also, we got some lessons.

1. Books always gives you more complete information than internet. So please read book
2. Internet always give you what you concern. So please also check the internet if you have any questions
3. Don't be shy of asking your PD. You paid them, and they should answer your questions.
4. Do need get more sleep, spend let time on the internet!!!

God blesses our baby!

we bathed our baby officially

Our baby was bathed officially today, especially to me.
Why it is for me only. Because I realized the baby needs/loves bath everyday since today.
poor baby!