Baby: Flying with a Sick Toddler

We are now in San Francisco. Daddy E and Alyssa are now sleeping, but I am still wide awake. I took a nap earlier.

Twelve hours before our takeoff, we were almost all set. We just needed to fix our carry-on bags. I thought it was going to be stress-free. But lo and behold, Alyssa's temperature suddenly went up to almost 40C. That's almost 104F. I had to control her fever by using the emergency travel meds her pediatrician gave.

Her temperature went down a bit during and after the flight.

Does this look like a sick baby to you? Here we are, playing with the camera in SFO. Uhm, I look worse than my baby. Haha!

It is a good thing to visit your pediatrician a week before traveling out of the country, to make sure everything's AOK with your baby. More importantly, ask for a detailed list (with dosage and all) of medications for ALL common illnesses you can think of. Buy the meds beforehand at your local drugstore, and put the most important ones in your carry-ons. Don't worry, airport security lets these through even if the bottles are more than 3 oz.

To be specific, ask your pediatrician medications for the following:

• fever or pain
• cough
• cold or congestion
• allergy or asthma
• vomiting
• diarrhea
• colic
• Important: antibiotics
• Optional: Benadryl or Iterax to help your baby sleep during the flight. Ask your pediatrician first if this is okay for your baby.

You don't have to bring all these meds in your carryon. I only brought the ones for fever, cough, congestion, allergy and Iterax. On a side note, the Iterax dosage the ped gave didn't work for Alyssa. She couldn't get a decent sleep during the flight.

I also found it very useful to ask the check-in attendant to reserve bulkhead seats for us. More legroom, but you have to store all your bags in the overhead compartment. So make sure you have the meds and a few other things handy already:

• toys and books to keep baby entertained (those without sound so you don't disturb the other passengers)
• towel / wipes
• extra diapers
• travel changing pad
• extra clothes
• formula
• water -- as long as they're in your baby's bottles, they're okay with airport security
• a few ziplocks