Thinking about travelling with a baby or preschooler? Here are 10 good reasons not to travel with children under 3 — and why you might want to give up the idea entirely and stay home. Every single one of these is a true story from parents who’ve been there.
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#1. The Mountain of Equipment
- Make a long list of everything you need while staying with friends who don’t have children.
- Decide the list is too long and start again.
- Second list is slightly shorter, but now you’re realising just how much stuff a baby or toddler actually needs.
- Phone your friend to ask if she can borrow anything from anyone — no luck, you’re on your own.
- Make a third list, crossing off the steriliser (“we’ll take the risk”), the bottle warmer (“cold will have to do”) and the ten spare dummies (“we can buy more there”).
- Work out your luggage allowance and realise you’ll either need to pay for an extra seat for your one-year-old or pay overweight baggage fees.
Lesson: Never plan to stay with friends who don’t have kids — it’s really not worth it.
#2. Overweight Luggage
You arrive at the airport for the first time flying with a budget airline, only to discover your bags are overweight the moment you’ve stuffed in the blankie and every other baby essential. You end up paying a fine to transport the necessities, because of course your child doesn’t get their own baggage allowance since they’re on your lap — because you decided the extra seat wasn’t worth the cost.
Lesson: Budget airlines can catch families out on baggage. Weigh everything at home first, and factor essentials into your allowance before you get to the airport.
#3. Security Stress
To get through security with a baby or toddler, you’ll need to:
- Take everything off the stroller you’ve been using as your second pair of hands.
- Empty out toiletries, electronics and loose change.
- Take off your shoes while answering “Why do you have to take your shoes off, Mum?” and “Why are they checking all our things?”
- Get everything onto the trays while apologising to the person behind you — inevitably someone travelling light with just a laptop bag.
- Taste-test the baby’s bottle or juice cup to prove you’re not smuggling anything.
- Reassure your toddler that yes, they can walk through the “magic archway” on their own.
- Endure the extra check while security investigates the mysterious goo stuck to the bottom of a toy.
- Get everything back off the trays, shoes back on, baby and bags back onto the stroller.
Lesson: Security with small children takes real time — build in extra minutes and keep essentials easy to reach.
You might also enjoy Tips for Travelling with Baby Made Easier and Top Tips for Travelling with Toddlers
#4. Boarding
With most airlines now boarding by priority tier — frequent flyers, premium members and so on — there’s rarely priority boarding for parents with small children. That means queuing for 30-45 minutes while jiggling a baby or wrangling a toddler who wants to run off, and inevitably someone needs the toilet or a nappy change two minutes before boarding starts.
Lesson: Get to the gate early and find a spot to sit and wait rather than standing in a long queue. Don’t worry about the space you take up with bags, snacks and small humans.
#5. On the Plane
You’ll lose your carefully earned spot near the front of the queue the moment you reach the tarmac, because you have to fold up the stroller and gather all its bags first.
You climb onto the plane carrying three bags, a baby under one arm and a toddler in tow, only to find the only seats left together are in the middle of the plane.
The toddler will need the toilet during take-off or landing.
The toddler will need reminding — repeatedly — not to kick the seat in front.
The baby will need changing. Ever tried changing a baby on a plane? It’s a Houdini-level task: squeezing yourself, the baby and the toddler into a tiny toilet, lowering the changing board, changing the baby, and stopping the toddler from squeezing soap everywhere or feeding paper towels down the toilet.
You get back to your seat and realise you forgot to go yourself, and the seatbelt sign is already on.
The “clean” baby then produces the nappy of the century, and you end up changing them on your lap because the plane has landed but hasn’t reached the gate yet, and you’ve no idea how long it’ll take to get to a proper changing table.
A fellow passenger gasps at the state of the nappy and asks if you’re sure that’s a girl.
You clean everyone up, stuff the evidence into the bag under your seat, and twist your neck, back and arm getting children and bags off the plane.
You arrive smelly, sore and exhausted.
Lesson: As soon as you board, ask the cabin crew where the changing table is and try to sit close to it. The moment the seatbelt sign goes off, take baby and toddler to the toilet to sort everyone out. Always keep spare wipes within reach.
You might enjoy reading 10 Reasons to Holiday with a Toddler or Baby
#6. Long Haul Flights
Having decided to brave a long-haul flight with your baby or toddler, you discover that the “bassinet” you booked is essentially a cardboard box that clips onto the tray table in front of you. Baby has to come out of it every time the seatbelt sign goes on, so you end up waking them so many times that the bassinet becomes a storage shelf, and you spend the flight with a sleeping baby draped across you instead.
Lesson: There isn’t really a lesson here — long-haul with a baby rarely goes to plan. Expect the unexpected, and anything that goes smoothly is a bonus.
#7. Iffy Car Seats
You book a hire car seat online in advance. You arrive after a long flight to find a seat that looks like it’s survived several previous families and a war. The rental agent shrugs — that’s all there is.
Lesson: Bring your own car seat if you can manage the extra luggage. It’s one less thing left to chance.
#8. The Missing Stroller
You climb off the plane exhausted, laden with heavy carry-on bags, expecting your stroller to be waiting at the arrival gate as promised — only to find it’s been sent through to the baggage carousel with the suitcases instead. You trek what feels like miles carrying everything that should have been on wheels, only to find it’s not in the baggage hall either. A kind baggage handler lends you a spare stroller left behind by another family, on the promise you’ll leave it at your next departure gate.
Lesson: Double-check with the departure gate staff exactly where your stroller will be handed back. It’s worth being “that” parent who asks twice — the alternative is a long walk with a baby, bags and no wheels.
#9. Ear Pain from Air Pressure
On one 45-minute flight — the longest 45 minutes of this parent’s life — a 16-month-old screamed the entire way due to ear pain from the cabin pressure change. As a first-time parent with no experience of ear infections, it wasn’t obvious what was happening, and well-meaning fellow passengers kept asking, “Is she okay?”
Lesson: If your child has a cold or seems a bit congested before flying, it’s worth checking with your pharmacist or GP beforehand about ways to ease ear discomfort during take-off and landing. Feeding — breast or bottle — or offering a dummy during take-off and landing can help, as sucking and swallowing eases the pressure. Keeping your baby awake for take-off and landing, rather than settled and dozing, can also help.
#10. Favourite Cuddly Toy Packed in a Missing Suitcase
On one straightforward flight, the suitcase containing a daughter’s favourite bedtime toys went missing at the other end. Cue a distraught toddler and a late evening spent filling out lost-luggage forms, facing bedtime with none of her comforts. “You’d be surprised what turns up here from all over the world,” said the airline rep — not exactly reassuring at 9pm with an overtired toddler.
Lesson: Never pack favourite toys in checked luggage. Repeat: never pack favourite toys in checked luggage.
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Over to you now — have you had any frightful travel experiences with a baby or toddler? Share them in the comments below!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it a bad idea to fly with a baby or toddler under 3?
Not at all — plenty of families travel successfully with young children. This list is a light-hearted look at the things that can (and do) go wrong, but with a bit of planning many of these hiccups are avoidable or at least manageable.
What’s the biggest thing to plan for when flying with a toddler?
Time. Almost everything — security, boarding, nappy changes, meltdowns — takes longer with small children in tow, so building in extra time at every stage makes the whole day less stressful.
Should I bring my own car seat when travelling abroad?
Many parents prefer to, simply to avoid an unreliable or poorly maintained hire seat at the other end. Check your airline’s policy on car seats as checked baggage before you travel.
What should never go in checked luggage?
Anything you can’t easily replace or that your child truly cannot do without at bedtime — favourite cuddly toys, comfort items, and any essential medication or feeding equipment are best kept in your carry-on.
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Related Articles
- Traveling with Baby Made Easier
- Top Tips for Travelling with Toddlers
- 10 Reasons to Holiday with a Toddler or Baby
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Not ready to book anything just yet? Browse more of our family travel ideas for inspiration whenever the time feels right, or save this article to come back to before your next trip.
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