Travel in covid times with an infant and a kid.
By: Pragya Ranjan
Tags: Infant, Kids, Motherhood, Breastfeeding, Covidtravel

I traveled from Bangalore to Patna about a month back with my 5 months old and 8 yr old and my husband.

We booked the ticket with indigo airlines and did online check-in 48hrs before from indigo site and booked the seats at 4th row by paying some extra amount.

It's easier to board and deboard the plane when seated towards the end, instead of somewhere in the middle. We also printed the baggage tags based on number of bags. Though this can be easily done at the airport at automatic kiosks. We planned the travel on Tuesday and afternoon time to avoid the crowd. Though the flight was fully crowded, but the airport crowd was relatively much less. They didnt ask for arogya setu app or anything. But they did ask for some id proof for the baby. Though I read in similar articles from other moms, it’s not needed. They easily agreed on request and asked to carry on next time. Also we boarded the plane at the last so we avoided the chaos while settling down and baby was also feeling better as he has to be in the flight for lesser time. During the entire flight of 2hrs 15 mins, he has been doing fine..only for 20-30 mins he got cranky.

I started feeding during take off and landing time as instructed.

He dozed off soon after and slept well for most of the flight. The flight was having prebooked meals option so many of them were served meals. We avoided to eat anything inside flight as it’s closed space. So, we had our packed food from home and had it at the airport itself. We chose to sit at place with lesser crowd around at the airport. Bought the face shield for the LO but he was not comfortable with that. So I carried a soft stole to cover the baby when needed.

Link to purchase shield: https://www.hopscotch.in/product/939139/al2b-dark-blue-shark-print-hat-with-face-shield I was carrying him most of the times. I also covered him fully in bodysuit dress and carried multiple mittens.

Because he used to suck his thumb, I kept changing his mittens time to time. I was carrying a separate cloth bag and kept dumping used stuffs like mittens, kerchiefs. sheets etc there and kept it separate. As we reached airport quite early, so I had enough time to feed the baby couple of times. As, he mostly used to do dreamfeeding..

The feeding room was quite clean still we kept sanitising the places before using. There were sensor based sanitiser stands everywhere at the airport so its very useful. I wore clothes comfortable for feeding and wore only mask. Didnt wear gloves or shield as baby was not comfortable.

I kept sanitising my hands. Carried minimum hand luggage with the stuffs needed for both kids. Extra pair of socks, gloves, mittens, masks, towel, diaper, wipes, set of clothes etc. I avoided using mobile too, as the dress didnt have any pockets so I kept it in the hand bag. I also carried nasal drop and colic aid for the baby, just in case if needed. For the elder one, I was concerned too much as I will be focussing more on the LO. I made him wear gloves with masks. He wanted to take it off so I kept multiple numbers, so that after sometime he will wear a fresh pair and kept applying sanitiser. He was at the window seat and was touching window shields and all smtms. So I ensured he is using sanitiser often. I sat in the middle so feeding position comfortable for me. My husband was wearing the ppe kit at the boarding gate inspite of all 3 from same family so it was a bit uncomfortable for him.

Shield and a ppe kit was provided at the boarding gate for him and for us, masks and shield. We came to airport by own car with a driver and a friend, to avoid cabs.

I hope this read might be useful for someone.

Just want to add at the last that this is going to be new normal for quite a long time and we have to find a way to live normal life with all the precautions wisely. All we need to do is be alert and take required safety measures.

Wish you a safe travel!!