We recently came back from Hong Kong and Raychel came along too. Toronto to Hong Kong is a long 16 hour flight (this is of course direct, which wasn't the case for us since we connected via Chicago) for any adult, so I spoke to my doctor in advance about the precautions I could take and any advice for taking care of a 6 month old baby. My doctor is quite well-spoken and I enjoy my relationship with him a lot so his advice is very valuable to me. Since Raychel was already an experienced flyer (we travelled to Florida in Feb), it was pretty much the same pointers: bring something for her to suck/swallow to help with ear popping, keep hydrated, gripe water to help alleviate any tummy pains, gas, or hard crying from teething. One thing he said to me really resonated: Babies will cry on the plane and yes you might become the parent that everyone despises on the flight, but in the end, there's not much you can do about it. It will pass and if you can't stand it anymore, take him/her for a walk around the cabin to distract them for a bit.
Gripe water became my best friend on the flight and it did work when the crying became too much. When I could see that clearly she was in pain and frustrated, I gave her the proper recommended amount and a bottle of water/juice to drink afterwards. She even received Arrowroot cookies (3 in total on the whole return trip) just to show her that she behaved well on that long journey and also to show her that we loved her dearly. She was very happy to see me pull out a cookie each time I felt she deserved it.
One other thing that was a huge life saver on this trip was my Boon for feeding her, especially with tight quarters and lack of table space. I would fill the Boon spoon up with the right amount of baby food, squeeze and voila! No mess, no fuss dinner. Ray and I first saw this spoon in the summer of 2009 when a couple was feeding their infant down at Harbourfront and we always told ourselves that we needed to buy it. It can be a little much - $16 might not be worth it to parents but I think it was a wise purchase.
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