flying with your child

[ohiodad]

anyone have any suggestions for children on an airplane to keep their ears from hurting do to pressure? My daughter is to young for chewing gum. thanks

 

[bigsis1970]

Try a seach under "earplanes".. we have not used ours yet but they look really neat.. they are ear type plugs that equalize the cabin pressure in your ears..

 

[aprincessmom]

Let her take sips of water from a sippy cup or sports bottle during take-off and landings. Also solves the dehydration issue from dry airplanes. My daughter has been doing this since she was a baby and we've never had any trouble.

 

[AKASnowWhite]

She's too young for chewing gum...does she still drink a bottle? VERY effective from my experience, that or a pacifier....the sucking motion should help. Good luck.

 

[tjmw2727]

For my girls small lollypops work great. The sucking helps the ears and a bit of sugar keeps the stomach from getting queazy!
TJ

 

[Barb D]

Try giving her a little Sudafed before you take off. My doctor said it would be fine. He also said it was fine to give plain Sudafed (only the Pseudafedrine and no other ingredients) along with Dramamine.

My 23mo would not sip on her sippy cup as we were taking off or landing. She didn't seem to have any problems with her ears, though. I don't know whether to credit the Sudafed or if she wouldn't have had problems anyway.

 

[tjmw2727]

If you are considering using a decongestant and or dramamine be sure and try them once at home before the flight. You will want to check for adverse reactions esp if you haven't used them with your child yet. Many children become very hyper with sudafed and that could make an airplane ride difficult to say the least. If your child dosen't get motion sick in the car then I wouldn't worry about the dramamine and would actually avoid it unless you know its absolutely necessary.

Make sure your child is well rested, have a favorite toy as well as a small surprise or two. A juice box or sports type water bottle to sip on and some snacks and you should be fine. As I mentioned all my girls need is a lolly to suck on and they do fine. If your child is under say 3 I would also seriously consider using the carseat. Its familiar, they are comfy in it and (for the most part!) they know they can't get out and run around while in it. You will also need it for the trip so it saves about $10 per day.

Have Fun.
TJ

 

[BethC]

I'm going to give the earplanes a try on our next trip. Even though my kids are older (8 and 6), they still have a terrible time with the landings and unfortunately, chewing gum or swallowing drinks does not help.

I'm hoping these things work as good as everyone says they do!

 

[KangaT]

On our last trip in May, my 7 y.o. DS had problems the instant the plane started descending, despite having had 1/2 a Dramamine before we left home (pediatrician's recommended dose). Chewing gum didn't work, drinking didn't work, opening and closing his mouth didn't work. I tried helping him "pop" his ears and that didn't work. The stewardess got him 2 plastic cups with paper towels that had been wetted and microwaved for about 10 seconds. This moist heat seemed to keep the problem from getting worse as we descended. He still had problems hearing for about an hour after we got off the plane - as if he had a bad cold and his ears were clogged - but the pain stopped. Coming back home, I gave him a full Dramamine and he didn't have any problems.

 

[josierac]

Earplanes are great. My kids now ask for them as soon as we get on the plane. They never had problems (they have been on planes since they were babies and now are 4 and 7) but a couple of years ago they started to. You put them on before takeoff and then you put them on again 30 minutes before landing.

www.earplanes.com

My doctor who is against medication unless absolutely necessary suggests dimetapp.

The cominbation of the 2 has worked great.

 

[tjmw2727]

Dramamine is for motion sickness and will have no effect on the ears. The discomfort in the ears is a result of pressure changes in the cabin - a direct effect of rate of ascent/desent the pilot uses depending on weather and traffic routing. You can be fine on one trip and have problems on another. Most healthy people, children and adults, will be fine with gum/candy or even a sneeze or yawn. Others take a bit more time and some unfortunately experience discomfort.

That said:

My friends dd has tubes in her ears and is very sensitive to the changes in pressure, the earplanes worked great for her.

HTH
TJ

 

[Hunnybee]

Last March, we flew to FL with my DS who was 15 months at the time. On the flight down, we didn't have earplanes -- just tried to get him to drink from sippy cup or suck on a sucker. I forget what meds we gave him. I believe some Tylenol (or was it Benadryl -- I forget, he also had a cold at the time). He had no problems whatsoever. I on the other hand had excruciating ear pain. So, we bought earplanes at a Walgreens for the return trip. I don't think I could have gotten him to wear them properly. There was something that needed to be done before inserting them that I couldn't have gotten him to do. (Sorry, this was so long ago, I'm already forgetting! ) Thankfully, no problems on the return trip either -- and the earplanes seemed to work pretty well for me. If you can, I would definitely purchase a seat for your daughter. My DS didn't try to get down at all. He knows, when he's buckled in to his carseat, he needs to stay buckled. The absolute best thing we did (even better than the wrapped gifts we brought) was bring our camcorder along. Because we have the sidescreen, we were able to play videos for him and he could watch them on that screen. It worked beautifully! We watched "Baby Mozart" over, and over, and over, and over ...