NIP on the plane

[speairson]

I just got back from vacation and had to share my NIP on a plane experience. With layovers and everything we were on a total of 4 planes. We boarded first because of flying with small children and dd wanted to nurse right away. So, I'm sitting in an aisle seat nursing her while all the other passangers are boarding. I was being discreet, but not using a blanket or anything, and I'm pretty sure you could tell what I was doing. Anywho, I didn't get any negative comments or ugly eyes at all. I even had someone comment on how cute she was while I was nursing her. On the last plane we took a guy did hand me an airline blanket. At first I was like oh that's nice, but I don't really need this. Then I realized he probably wanted me to cover up and that kinda irked me. He did give me a disapproving look, but whatever. Anyway, I just had to share my overall pretty positive NIP experience.

[frontierpsych]

Awesome, thank you! I plan on traveling while my baby is still very young, so it's nice to hear these stories.
I meant to ask though-- about the liquids thing, how exactly do they check? Do you go through an x-ray type thing or something? Do they pat you down?

[Meredith&Alexander]

Honestly, some of my best NIP experiences have been on airplanes. Seems like when people hear a crying baby in another part of the plane, then see mine nursing peacefully across the aisle from them, they get really ok with BF real fast.

DS figured out very quickly that the airplane was an all-you-can-nurse zone, and never failed to take advantage of it.

[speairson]

With the liquids thing they just x-rayed our stuff like usual. I did get a bag check because I had an empty sippy cup in my diaper bag, but it wasn't any big deal. We learned to leave the lids separate from the cups. The really annoying part was that you can't even buy water after the security check and take it on the plane, so I got really thirsty on the plane. All in all it was a good experience.

My dd has also learned that plane ride = nursing

[firstkid4me]

I never use airline pillows or blankets, they get washed every 3-5 flights (or something like that.) NASTY! I would have been really ticked off if someone handed me a germy airline blanket to cover up my nursing child with (it's one thing if it was OUR blanket, but quite another when it's someone else's blanket.)

It's good that you didn't have a Barbara Walters clone on your flight

[kalisis]

That's good to hear, it really is.

I've never had a problem on a plane and I fly every month (I did have one guy one time when DS was tiny and I was still exhausted wake me up to remind me that my breast was exposed...but I chalked it up to him being nice and some weirdo waiting for my nipple to show).

Since we fly so often, I stole a blanket one time and I wash that and then use it. It's little enough to pack in my bag and not bulky like most of our other ones. And for some reason lately, DS is crazy for blankets, he always wants to be covered up, even if it's like a billion degrees.

I told the flight attendant on the last flight that I was a nursing mother and I would need a few extra waters early on in the flight to tuck in the seat pocket b/c they ran out of water on our last flight and I couldn't risk that again. He was very accomodating - I was mighty impressed.

[bodybookresearcher]

awesome

That's awesome to be able to show how beautiful motherhood is. Thank you for telling your story!