25+ things to pack for baby's first flight

We did it! We survived our first flight as a family of three. Even after months of research I was surprised by how many times I was caught off guard during this adventure with our Little.

Despite all the advice I read, we quickly learned it's pointless to carry everything through to the gate check. We ended up doing all the heavy lifting and then the airline just sent our bags right on through to baggage claim anyway and we never got the stroller for our layover. So I recommend just traveling through the airports with a backpack as diaper bag and a stroller (make sure it is marked as "gate check" only and not "transfer" if you want it for your layover).

But it's a tough balance: how to pack everything you need in that diaper bag without lugging around too much stuff... so here's my list for your Little's first flight! (For reference, our Little was 12 months old for this experience).

Travel changing pad with storage.
This is my #1 must have for every traveling mom! Every women's bathroom at an airport has a changing table, but you can bet it's disgusting. Get yourself something like this. I loved having a travel changing pad strapped to the outside of my backpack, so I could just grab it and walk with the baby into the restroom where I laid her on this clean mat and the mesh cubbies fell over the side. I had easy access to a couple diapers, travel-size bag of wipes, diaper cream, hand sanitizer and a spare onesie. Our Little got sick with a tummy bug on our flights home, so with this little kit I could easily and cleanly change her diaper every hour and try to keep ahead of the diaper rash. She still had a blowout on my lap on our last flight, which is where that spare onesie came in handy.

Extra outfit for baby and for you.
Did you really process what I said above? A blowout ON MY LAP. On a plane. With 90 minutes left to go on that flight, and yet another flight to go, and then a 90 minute drive home after that. A spare onesie for your Little and a spare shirt and pair of bottoms for you is always necessary. If your Little is really little then you're all too familiar with the spit up scenario, so maybe pack a second extra top for yourself too. Better to have those spare clothes and not need them rather than walk around with Baby Blowout all over your pants for half a day like I did (thankfully my pants were black so people couldn't see it and my husband swore he couldn't smell it. He's such a sweet liar.)

Ziploc bags.
I was left having to wrap up Baby Blowout clothes in restroom paper towels and shove it into a pocket of the travel changing pad. My kingdom for a baggie! Always pack an extra Ziploc... or three. Just in case.

Diaper disposal bags.
I had run out of diaper disposal bags by the end of the trip otherwise this would have been another great option for wrapping up the Baby Blowout clothes. Do yourself a favor and get a diaper bag dispenser!Now if you don't want to buy the expensive baby name brand, the Dollar Store has a great deal on doggie poop bags and they have little handles which makes it super easy to tie them up and toss them out.

Your TSA-friendly quart-size Ziploc bag of liquids should include:
   -Spray hand sanitizer (because your Little will explore and touch the most disgusting things)
   -travel Lysol spray (to sanitize all the things that fall on the floor, clean the tray table, etc.)
   -Baby saline nasal drops (because airplane air is very dry and your Little will likely get stuffy, or possibly get a nose bleed)
   -Baby hydrocortisone cream (again it was so dry our Little had a ton of eczema spots pop up)
   -Diaper cream (diaper rash is the worst, I never leave home without some)
   -Tylenol &/or ibuprofen + syringe (nothing is scarier than a sick baby. Be prepared to fight a fever!)

Thermometer
Perhaps it's just our Little, but she runs a scary high fever hours before she shows sign of sickness. Any time she starts to feel even slightly warm, we check her temp and start keeping track.

Formula, two bottles & clean water.
My Little was breastfed until she weaned herself at 11 months and we had actually transitioned to whole milk a couple weeks before this trip. But I brought along some organic powdered formula just in case and I'm so thankful I did! I wouldn't have been able to travel with breast milk and keep it cold the whole time, we traveled nonstop for 14 hours there and then again on the way back. And there is nothing worse than seeing hard-earned breast milk go bad. We were able to buy her warmed milk at coffee shops at each airport, but what if your flight is delayed and you don't have time on your layover? Or what if, like happened to us, your flight is stuck on the tarmac for over an hour due to a thunderstorm and no one is allowed to get up from their seats? The flight attendants couldn't bring us milk and Little was having a major meltdown. Formula to the rescue! I packed a couple of these formula dispensers which just rolled around in my bag.


These are fantastic because they nestle into the bottle too and don't take up any extra space. It's also great to have your Little nursing or drinking from a bottle/cup during take off and landing to keep him/her swallowing and help those little ears adjust to the changes in cabin pressure. Our Little wasn't thirsty after chugging her bottle on the tarmac, but sucking on her pacifier for takeoff seemed to do the trick. Note: the TSA says you're allowed to bring formula, breast milk and juice through security if it's for your Little, they'll just take extra time testing it. 

Sippy cup & snack cup.
Your Little is going to drop everything. We love this little snack cup that keeps the spills minimal and protects the contents from the dirty ground. Likewise we're starting to attempt to wean her from the bottle, so it was nice to feed milk/formula in her old bottles but keep her sippy cup filled with clean water constantly.

Lots of snacks.
A bored Little is a hungry Little. We carried tons of healthy snacks like her beloved Cheerios, packets of applesauce, fruit & veggie freeze-dried yogurt drops, raisins, teething crackers, etc. (For meals at airport restaurants I ordered her some grilled chicken and steamed veggies. Kid menus are full of fried stuff, but I've never had a problem with the kitchen whipping up something healthy that's off-menu, especially when they know it's for a Little.)

Plastic bib.
If you've got a messy eater then you know you'll need a bib. I suggest finding a simple plastic one, like these, which is easy to wipe down after lunch, fold into your bag and then use again at dinner. A fabric bib will hold on to everything your Little spills and who really wants to do laundry while on vacation unless you absolutely have to?

More diapers than you think you'll need.
At home I check Little's diaper every hour (or earlier obviously if I can tell she needs to be changed), but even then I would guess we're only using 6-8 diapers a day and one or two overnight diapers. Well I took half a pack from our big box which was like 50 diapers plus 10 overnight diapers. That would average out to about 12 diapers a day and we used every single one. With her tummy bug on the flight home, I changed her every 30-60 minutes and we used the last diaper an hour before we met up with our checked bags. That was a stressful hour before we could get to our suitcase and break into the stash of overnight diapers. Of course you can always buy more diapers on vacation, but they're going to be overpriced and you may be trapped on a plane like we were with no options but some dry paper towels. It was a close call. A scary close call. Take more than you think you'll need.

Hundreds of wipes.
   -Baby wipes: You'll use hundreds of wipes while traveling, I'm only barely exaggerating here. In fact, we used an entire pack of baby wipes in just four days and I was thankful I had packed two travel size wipes in the changing pad kit. From diaper changes to trying to keep little hands clean to wiping a boogie nose, you'll be thankful you have too many rather than risk not having enough.
   -Bottle wipes: We had two bottles and still needed to clean them throughout the day. That's where these breast pump accessory wipes came in handy! They're pricey but I used them when pumping at work and had a few leftover so I through them into the diaper bag. I'm sure it wasn't the most sanitary way to clean her bottles, but when you're on the go it's so much better to use a wiped bottle than pouring fresh milk into a bottle with remnants of old milk which could make Baby sick. I think it's worth the cost to keep her bottles as clean as possible!
   -Pacifier wipes: even with a pacifier leash the pacifier ended up on the ground at least twice a day. I felt a little better wiping it off with these wipes before giving it back to her in a time of distress where she absolutely had to have the comfort of her pacifier. I don't like the litter that comes with individually wrapped wipes, but it's been a lifesaver having a few of these stashed in the diaper bag, the stroller, the car, etc.

Sweatshirts and a blanket.
Planes are often very, very cold. I carried a sweatshirt for myself and for our Little (that's what you see looped through the top of our backpack). I also carried a Muslin blanket, which was light and stuffed into the bottom of the backpack. I never needed them, but I liked knowing I could have wrapped her up if she was cold, created some shade if our window partner wanted the visor up, lay it on the floor for her to sit and read her toys, whatever.

Toddler headphones.
We bought these kids volume limiting headphones hoping we could entice the Little to watch some cartoons we downloaded from Netflix or maybe watch a Disney movie I had bought. She wasn't interested at all but it was nice to have them.

Toddler backpack with leash.
This was a good idea in theory... but I think our Little was just too little. We knew it would be good to let her walk as much as possible on our layovers to tire her out, but we were so worried about losing her in the crowd. I bought this little backpack which had a leash so she could have her own carry on (just packed with her headphones, extra pacifier and a snack) and we could hold on to her. Well she was only 12 months old and each time we tried to put it on her, she fell backwards like an upside-down turtle! It was hilarious, but obviously we knew it wasn't going to work until she was a bit older. We just clipped it to our backpack and carried it the rest of the trip. She did like opening it up to find a snack though!

Extra pacifiers and leashes.
If you have a Binky baby, then you know the meltdown that ensues when there's no pacifier within reach. We have been working with our Little to just use her pacifier at bedtime to prevent her from sucking her thumb, but this first big trip was so overstimulating (stressful and exciting at the same time!) that she reverted big time and needed her pacifier quite often to be soothed. Even with leashes to prevent them getting dirty or lost, we took three and came home with only one. Take extras!

Board Books.
Our Little loves to read, so it was great to have this 100 First Words book someone gave us for her shower and these mix and match books that someone gave for her birthday as a fun way to interact and also be quiet on the plane. At one point she got one very dirty, and I was able to just spray it with our travel lysol and wipe it off!

Comfort item.
If your Little is attached to a blankie or Lovie or whatever, by all means bring it along. Our Little loves adventure but she also needs to be comforted during big new experiences and second to our arms, a comfort item (in her case right now, the pacifier) is the only thing that can help her feel safe and comforted. Just be prepared to watch that item like a hawk. So many things get lost along the way, and something irreplaceable could really derail the mood of the whole trip.

Copy of Baby's birth certificate & your ID.
I know, I know, you never leave home without your ID. Except that I had a friend once who did. She got out of her routine and left it in her regular purse and got distracted before transferring to her travel crossbody purse. Needless to say she missed that flight. You need a copy of the baby's birth certificate as proof of his/her age under 2 to allow them to fly for free on your lap, but you're not going anywhere without your ID. Make sure you have all your documentation, like passports if necessary.


Phone charger & external battery.
I loved taking pictures of our Little along the way and though we try to limit her screen time, we let her play a toddler game where you pop balloons to keep her entertained during the long stretches where nothing else would keep her from climbing toward the third person sitting in our row. Needless to say my phone battery was down to the single digits by the early afternoon, so I just plugged it in to the external charger (we have this one which will charge two phones and our iPad before needing to be recharged itself) and voila! I like keeping this in my purse 24/7 in case of emergencies, I'm never running the risk of being stranded on the side of the road with a dead car and a dying phone (can you tell I've been there before? So stressful.)


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