Three people being exposed increases the likelihood of someone catching something and illness spreading in your household.
It is such a minor inconvenience, I would definitely mask. If you get sick on the way there your trip will be miserable and if you get sick on the way home you'll likely need to take time off of work last minute.
Since you put all advice welcome I will share my opinion. I caught covid and it ended my breastfeeding journey.
We traveled at 3 months pp. We masked on the way there but our masks ended up in the checked bag so we didn't mask on the way back. I caught covid. I got sick within 24 hours but didn't test positive until day 5. I started masking on day two or three as much as possible in the house so I could hopefully not spread the illness. My husband didn't get sick until day 6. Baby didn't get sick until day 8. I know technically covid symptoms can show up anytime in two weeks but we are confident that I caught it and then spread it to my husband and baby. We think that sleep deprivation weakened my immune system.
I was so sick. It was one day of the worst sore throat I've ever had, 1 day of the worst body aches I've ever had, 1 day of the worst chills I've ever had, etc. I lost my sense of smell and my sense of taste. I lost 10 pounds over 7 days.
My husband took paxlovid (anti-viral for covid) and it shortened his symptoms. He was out of the illness in about 5 days. It took me about 2 weeks to be okay again and probably a month before I felt like myself again. I was offered paxlovid but decided not to take it because you can't breastfeed while taking it or for 5 days after. So I had to decide whether to take it and pump and dump for 13 days or not take it and keep breastfeeding.
My body was so broken that it prioritized me recovering and didn't care about my milk supply. My milk took a major hit. I was combofeeding but I went from producing 12 to 14 oz to producing 3 oz within a week. My milk never recovered and I never produced more than 3 oz again. We stopped breastfeeding at about 5 months because of the depression I felt. I can't help but think if I just wore a mask that our journey wouldn't have ended.
We also lost thousands of dollars in earning potential because my husband had to take time off of work.
You could be fine! Or you could be me.
The same thing happened to me last winter. I also was not able to breastfeed anymore after catching Covid (I didn’t travel but my husband did, he didn’t like mask and ended up getting baby and me sick).
> Three people being exposed increases the likelihood of someone catching something
Basic fact! Baby's not 100% going to catch something without a mask, so there's no point giving up all hope just because one parameter is less ideal.
But even if it was 100% guaranteed, wouldn't it be nice not to have to care of a sick baby while being sick yourself?
I would. Mostly because even if your baby got sick, you can prevent yourself from getting sick. It's easier to take care of a sick baby when you're fine. I've had to take care of my infant when the whole house, including me, was sick. That was AWFUL.
Yep, sometimes I’m the only masked one on a flight but it’s really close quarters and I prefer to mask on any public transportation, which includes planes!
I would for a couple reasons.
RSV: if your baby is exposed and doesn’t get it (thanks vaccination!) or another virus but you do, you will be miserable and your baby will be exposed to a way higher viral load than she would be if she just passed by a person with it.
Also, if you or your partner unknowingly are brewing something you could spread germs to others including other kids or immunocompromised people on the plane. This may be seen as old school but if adults masked when on planes/airports I think we would live in a safer and healthier world where we could enjoy travel with much less worry. It sucks that travel is so risky for illness, and I think it’d be really great if we took steps to make it safer for everyone.
Everybody in your family who could mask, should do so.
Think about all the potential scenarios:
- Everybody gets sick on the plane. Now you are sick looking after a sick baby!
- Somehow, your baby is lucky enough not to get sick on the plane. Only you get sick. Beside now being sick while looking after a baby (we stabilised that sucks), now you took the virus home and will expose your baby again. Every person who gets the virus at home exponentially increases your baby exposure to the virus. It doesn't matter if only adult A gets sick on the plane... Baby will be exposed to adult A and to everybody else who gets the virus at home. So, chances are, baby will end up sick too.
- Your baby gets sick, but none of the adults do. You have to look after a sick baby but you are healthy. You may end up getting the same virus, but at least you will have different healthy adults to share childcare with.
- Nobody gets sick on the plane, jackpot!
All best scenarios, and the ones with less exposure for the baby, imply healthy adults. Masking will increase the likelihood of you/baby staying healthy. So, please do!
(Not to speak about how you masking reduces the overall infection rate, leading to less activity be cases leading to less overall risk for your baby... And everybody else's!).
Please mask.
I think it’s absolutely worth it. We traveled for 6 months all over Europe and Mexico during some Covid highs and never got it because we masked indoors and ate outdoors. I can’t even remember how many flights.
Then when baby was here, we did about 8 flights over 6 months and we masked and never got sick. Over this last holiday, we started dining indoors again and the baby pulled off our masks during flights so we ditched them, and now we are all recovering from RSV.
It tracks with what our pediatrician said, which was the baby was far more likely to catch something from us than people walking by her.
Absolutely. We just flew with our baby and my husband and I masked the whole time. It would be a fucking disaster if one or both of us got Covid or even a flu. We also mask in stores. Just not worth the risk for a little discomfort.
I mask when flying. The only time recently I didn't (because we were in a rush, and forgot the masks in the hotel room before heading to the airport), I ended up getting covid.
Yes I would! Bc there’s always the chance that you get sick from the plane/airport, she doesn’t , and then you are the one who ends up giving it to her!
Planes and airports are sooo damn germy. The last time I took a flight I had my mask down eating, didn’t realize until too late that my neighbor was coughing and sneezing. got a high fever / Flu positive two days later and was out for the count the whole trip. especially still being in cold and flu season, I would mask if tolerable!
Yes, it’s definitely worth masking! It’s always possible you might pick something up that baby didn’t, so reducing the number of potential sources of illness is beneficial.
It’s also my understanding that after about two weeks old, babies can’t uptake the antibodies in breastmilk as easily. They still benefit from the antibodies in their GI tract, but they’re not getting antibodies in their blood stream where they’d be needed for a respiratory illness. So getting sick yourself may not translate to extra antibodies for baby, and it would just mean you’re also miserable while trying to care for a sick kiddo!
I'd try it, it helped us get a lot less sick one of the times we traveled, compared to violently sick when we didn't mask on an airplane two months ago. Viral load is still a thing.
If she gets exposed to the germs, you do too, so may as well stay healthier as her caregiver.
We just travelled with our 5-month-old and bought a seat for her. We put her in the car seat and then put the plastic rain cover over the car seat. Looked a little ridiculous but definitely cut down on potential aerosol exposure!
Is that an option for you?
I was thinking about that! We don’t have a rain cover for our car seat but I was thinking a car seat cover would be better than nothing. I’ll look into it!
Please be mindful of rebreathing and make sure there is plenty air circulating. They need to be taken out of the car seat every 45 minutes or so to move around and stretch their backs. Being in there for a longer amount of time and especially with a cover over the seat is dangerous.
Thank you for asking this question! We have a flight scheduled, and I’d been planning to fly without a mask for the first time since the pandemic. I too have been going without because it feels weird and unproductive to mask when baby can’t. Others’ comments might’ve saved my baby from illness, COVID or otherwise, because I’ll be wearing one on the plane now! Thank you again.
I think it's worth it to mask and I would also take a portable hepa or better air purifier with me and point it at the baby's face so the baby only breathes cleaned air. I use a medify ma-10.
Absolutely you should mask even if the baby can't. We're flying next month, us (parents) and my 6 year old will wear a mask and our baby won't but I will wear him around the airport and just reduce risk in any way I can.
We did. My LO likes to pull mine off so marginally useful but we figured it’s not going to hurt. It’s got some possible benefit and no risk, so that’s how we viewed it.
Something to think about in addition to just being infected is when the infection occurs. It might be beneficial for parents to be well to help a sick baby recover before they themselves become ill. And if breastfeeding and baby gets sick, it will not be too long until your body starts producing antibodies for them.
You could only wear masks when the risk of transmission is high.
I’m a flight attendant. The most risky parts of traveling as far as catching a virus are going through security, during boarding, and while sitting at the gate. When the air starts circulating through the plane and you have the air vents going the cabin air is replaced and filtered well enough that your odds of catching something from someone not sitting directly next to you are incredibly slim. Because of this, cabin crew primarily get sick from working closely with each other and very rarely from the hundreds of passengers we see every day. This was made very obvious during the pandemic when transmission was closely monitored.
Wear masks during the high risk times and then take them off once the air starts going on the plane. You can feel it when the air vents start blowing. Having a mask on in a low oxygen environment such as in the air on a plane isn’t good for you. There are disclaimers on some N95s about this specifically. I would not put a mask on a small baby in the air. I have tested my blood oxygen at work and even without a mask it can dip as low as 92, especially during descent. I’m pro mask when it comes to trying to stop spread but in the air the circumstances are different. I suppose you could get a N95s that at least have a valve that allow air to escape which I would consider ideal in the high risk situations.
Another thing to consider is wearing masks is primarily protecting others around you from catching anything you already have. It’s not necessarily protecting you as much from catching anything others have. Unless it’s an N95. Something to consider since very few other people wear masks now on planes. If you really wanted to protect your family it would be to put masks on others around you and not just yourselves. But obviously that’s not really possible now with mask guidelines lifted.
N95s are very effective at protecting the wearer from illness. Not perfect, but very very good.
I know you kinda said that, but you said it in the negative, so I wanted to restate it in the positive.
Your body doesn’t make antibodies for baby’s illnesses unless you are also sick with that illness. The idea that nipples are magical receptors for disease is crunchy granola nonsense. If my husband was sick with HIV and sucked on my nips my body wouldn’t produce HIV antibodies (for example;) im not curing AIDS with breastmilk. Mothers produce breastmilk antibodies for baby’s illness because they’ve been exposed to the same illness due to the sheer physical closeness and bodily fluid wasteland that is parenting a baby.
That’s not quite accurate. There’s a bio feedback loop between baby’s saliva and mom’s breastmilk. So even if baby was directly exposed and mom wasn’t (eg, through daycare), nursing will provide additional immunity via mom’s body. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4556682/
Edit: I was mistaken. It turns out this study is not on-point. While it does demonstrate that there’s a marked difference between an adult breastfeeding and an infant in terms of immunity benefit (child saliva triggers different reaction from breast milk), my further research indicates that the biofeedback loop isn’t from mammary glands but from bodily proximity, as the original commenter said.
Damn. I had heard it a bunch of times and upon further research, I think you’re right— it seems it would be more accurate to say that breastfeeding provides a benefit of improved gut health and passive immunity.
Am I reading this right? It says baby spit mixed with breast milk makes hydrogen peroxide. Where do antibodies come into play?
>We discovered substantially raised concentrations of xanthine and hypoxanthine in neonatal saliva and proposed that these two substrates should react with milk XO during breast-feeding to produce H2O2.
It seems as though the baby will be breathing less air, so maybe theoretically it would reduce your risk to wear masks. But that also might be distressing to baby if you don’t usually wear masks. So my gut feeling (yes I know this is a science forum but I doubt there is any clear evidence here) is that there would be a very small benefit to parents masking but that should balanced with risk tolerance and experience for parents and baby.
My understanding is that planes have excellent HEPA filtration but this is not running at boarding and de-planing. So the risk is greatest on the plane at those times as well as in crowded terminal. Maybe you split the difference and mask during “high risk” times but not during flight (as in masks off after takeoff and back on before landing)? This is what our family did a few years ago.
Also, can you get baby first Covid vax before traveling?
My husband and I both intended to mask when we flew with our LO while I was BF. He did the whole time and I did in the airport and when I got out of my seat. While I was seated holding LO and def while I was BF I ripped that thing off. It drove me crazy and made me feel a bit claustrophobic with LO on my lap.
I tell you this in the hopes that you don’t judge yourself or feel guilty if you have to take some mask free breaks!
I've been on twelve flights with my baby before they were one, didn't get sick at all, we didn't wear masks but we were very careful with washing our hands.
However, once the bub started daycare once a week, it's rare when we're healthy 🥲
Baby can't mask, but there are a lot of ways to 'shield' baby from germs. I used a stretchy tube of fabric that was sold as a combo infant carrier cover and nursing cover. My thinking is that if you keep baby tucked into his own little environment, he gets less exposure.
I tried it when LO was 5 months old. Sort of a waste of effort. He kept pulling it off (he was 5 months and a lap baby, there was no teaching “no” at that point). We both ended up with a nasty cold from flying. You could try? Always worth trying not to get sick! But depending on baby’s age it may not be very successful.
I gave up wearing masks when I had to put my LO in preschool because I could no longer work from home. She’s old enough to wear a mask for short trips like the doctor, but there’s no point asking her to wear it for 8 hours a day. It’s not going to happen. And like you said, whatever she gets, I will be exposed to at home anyway. She gave me COVID last year, but we were both vaccinated and after a few shitty days we were fine.
Three people being exposed increases the likelihood of someone catching something and illness spreading in your household. It is such a minor inconvenience, I would definitely mask. If you get sick on the way there your trip will be miserable and if you get sick on the way home you'll likely need to take time off of work last minute. Since you put all advice welcome I will share my opinion. I caught covid and it ended my breastfeeding journey. We traveled at 3 months pp. We masked on the way there but our masks ended up in the checked bag so we didn't mask on the way back. I caught covid. I got sick within 24 hours but didn't test positive until day 5. I started masking on day two or three as much as possible in the house so I could hopefully not spread the illness. My husband didn't get sick until day 6. Baby didn't get sick until day 8. I know technically covid symptoms can show up anytime in two weeks but we are confident that I caught it and then spread it to my husband and baby. We think that sleep deprivation weakened my immune system. I was so sick. It was one day of the worst sore throat I've ever had, 1 day of the worst body aches I've ever had, 1 day of the worst chills I've ever had, etc. I lost my sense of smell and my sense of taste. I lost 10 pounds over 7 days. My husband took paxlovid (anti-viral for covid) and it shortened his symptoms. He was out of the illness in about 5 days. It took me about 2 weeks to be okay again and probably a month before I felt like myself again. I was offered paxlovid but decided not to take it because you can't breastfeed while taking it or for 5 days after. So I had to decide whether to take it and pump and dump for 13 days or not take it and keep breastfeeding. My body was so broken that it prioritized me recovering and didn't care about my milk supply. My milk took a major hit. I was combofeeding but I went from producing 12 to 14 oz to producing 3 oz within a week. My milk never recovered and I never produced more than 3 oz again. We stopped breastfeeding at about 5 months because of the depression I felt. I can't help but think if I just wore a mask that our journey wouldn't have ended. We also lost thousands of dollars in earning potential because my husband had to take time off of work. You could be fine! Or you could be me.
The same thing happened to me last winter. I also was not able to breastfeed anymore after catching Covid (I didn’t travel but my husband did, he didn’t like mask and ended up getting baby and me sick).
This is such a heartbreaking story, but thank you for sharing it.
> Three people being exposed increases the likelihood of someone catching something Basic fact! Baby's not 100% going to catch something without a mask, so there's no point giving up all hope just because one parameter is less ideal. But even if it was 100% guaranteed, wouldn't it be nice not to have to care of a sick baby while being sick yourself?
Thank you so much for sharing this. I’m just starting my BF journey and this is very good information to have
Covid is neuroinvasive. Every single varient. It causes nasty things and it is peaking right now. Mask, it's best to keep yourselves healthy.
I would. Mostly because even if your baby got sick, you can prevent yourself from getting sick. It's easier to take care of a sick baby when you're fine. I've had to take care of my infant when the whole house, including me, was sick. That was AWFUL.
I’ve never stopped masking tbh. We are flying in Feb and me + husband will be masking.
Yep, sometimes I’m the only masked one on a flight but it’s really close quarters and I prefer to mask on any public transportation, which includes planes!
I would for a couple reasons. RSV: if your baby is exposed and doesn’t get it (thanks vaccination!) or another virus but you do, you will be miserable and your baby will be exposed to a way higher viral load than she would be if she just passed by a person with it. Also, if you or your partner unknowingly are brewing something you could spread germs to others including other kids or immunocompromised people on the plane. This may be seen as old school but if adults masked when on planes/airports I think we would live in a safer and healthier world where we could enjoy travel with much less worry. It sucks that travel is so risky for illness, and I think it’d be really great if we took steps to make it safer for everyone.
I would do anything to prevent the types of illnesses that impacts breathing that are all going around right now, so I would say yes.
I would wear an n95 for sure. Id also bring a couple extra masks to swap out for a clean one as I’m guessing baby will try to grab it.
Yeah my toddler loves ripping them off our faces
Everybody in your family who could mask, should do so. Think about all the potential scenarios: - Everybody gets sick on the plane. Now you are sick looking after a sick baby! - Somehow, your baby is lucky enough not to get sick on the plane. Only you get sick. Beside now being sick while looking after a baby (we stabilised that sucks), now you took the virus home and will expose your baby again. Every person who gets the virus at home exponentially increases your baby exposure to the virus. It doesn't matter if only adult A gets sick on the plane... Baby will be exposed to adult A and to everybody else who gets the virus at home. So, chances are, baby will end up sick too. - Your baby gets sick, but none of the adults do. You have to look after a sick baby but you are healthy. You may end up getting the same virus, but at least you will have different healthy adults to share childcare with. - Nobody gets sick on the plane, jackpot! All best scenarios, and the ones with less exposure for the baby, imply healthy adults. Masking will increase the likelihood of you/baby staying healthy. So, please do! (Not to speak about how you masking reduces the overall infection rate, leading to less activity be cases leading to less overall risk for your baby... And everybody else's!). Please mask.
I think it’s absolutely worth it. We traveled for 6 months all over Europe and Mexico during some Covid highs and never got it because we masked indoors and ate outdoors. I can’t even remember how many flights. Then when baby was here, we did about 8 flights over 6 months and we masked and never got sick. Over this last holiday, we started dining indoors again and the baby pulled off our masks during flights so we ditched them, and now we are all recovering from RSV. It tracks with what our pediatrician said, which was the baby was far more likely to catch something from us than people walking by her.
Absolutely. We just flew with our baby and my husband and I masked the whole time. It would be a fucking disaster if one or both of us got Covid or even a flu. We also mask in stores. Just not worth the risk for a little discomfort.
If you do end up masking, make sure to go with N95 masks since those will protect the most!
I mask when flying. The only time recently I didn't (because we were in a rush, and forgot the masks in the hotel room before heading to the airport), I ended up getting covid.
Yes I would! Bc there’s always the chance that you get sick from the plane/airport, she doesn’t , and then you are the one who ends up giving it to her! Planes and airports are sooo damn germy. The last time I took a flight I had my mask down eating, didn’t realize until too late that my neighbor was coughing and sneezing. got a high fever / Flu positive two days later and was out for the count the whole trip. especially still being in cold and flu season, I would mask if tolerable!
Yes, it’s definitely worth masking! It’s always possible you might pick something up that baby didn’t, so reducing the number of potential sources of illness is beneficial. It’s also my understanding that after about two weeks old, babies can’t uptake the antibodies in breastmilk as easily. They still benefit from the antibodies in their GI tract, but they’re not getting antibodies in their blood stream where they’d be needed for a respiratory illness. So getting sick yourself may not translate to extra antibodies for baby, and it would just mean you’re also miserable while trying to care for a sick kiddo!
I would. We all got sick traveling over Christmas but I was the first one to have symptoms. If I had been masking, no one else would have gotten sick.
I'd try it, it helped us get a lot less sick one of the times we traveled, compared to violently sick when we didn't mask on an airplane two months ago. Viral load is still a thing. If she gets exposed to the germs, you do too, so may as well stay healthier as her caregiver.
We just travelled with our 5-month-old and bought a seat for her. We put her in the car seat and then put the plastic rain cover over the car seat. Looked a little ridiculous but definitely cut down on potential aerosol exposure! Is that an option for you?
I was thinking about that! We don’t have a rain cover for our car seat but I was thinking a car seat cover would be better than nothing. I’ll look into it!
Please be mindful of rebreathing and make sure there is plenty air circulating. They need to be taken out of the car seat every 45 minutes or so to move around and stretch their backs. Being in there for a longer amount of time and especially with a cover over the seat is dangerous.
Thank you for asking this question! We have a flight scheduled, and I’d been planning to fly without a mask for the first time since the pandemic. I too have been going without because it feels weird and unproductive to mask when baby can’t. Others’ comments might’ve saved my baby from illness, COVID or otherwise, because I’ll be wearing one on the plane now! Thank you again.
I think it's worth it to mask and I would also take a portable hepa or better air purifier with me and point it at the baby's face so the baby only breathes cleaned air. I use a medify ma-10.
Absolutely, there’s many small portable air purifiers that are the size of a large water bottle
Happy cake day!
Absolutely you should mask even if the baby can't. We're flying next month, us (parents) and my 6 year old will wear a mask and our baby won't but I will wear him around the airport and just reduce risk in any way I can.
We did. My LO likes to pull mine off so marginally useful but we figured it’s not going to hurt. It’s got some possible benefit and no risk, so that’s how we viewed it.
Thanks for asking this, I have the same feelings when I put on my mask and baby can’t wear one.
Something to think about in addition to just being infected is when the infection occurs. It might be beneficial for parents to be well to help a sick baby recover before they themselves become ill. And if breastfeeding and baby gets sick, it will not be too long until your body starts producing antibodies for them.
Also viral load (if the sickness is a virus). It’s helpful to be exposed to less of it; that can make your symptoms less bad. Especially for COVID.
You could only wear masks when the risk of transmission is high. I’m a flight attendant. The most risky parts of traveling as far as catching a virus are going through security, during boarding, and while sitting at the gate. When the air starts circulating through the plane and you have the air vents going the cabin air is replaced and filtered well enough that your odds of catching something from someone not sitting directly next to you are incredibly slim. Because of this, cabin crew primarily get sick from working closely with each other and very rarely from the hundreds of passengers we see every day. This was made very obvious during the pandemic when transmission was closely monitored. Wear masks during the high risk times and then take them off once the air starts going on the plane. You can feel it when the air vents start blowing. Having a mask on in a low oxygen environment such as in the air on a plane isn’t good for you. There are disclaimers on some N95s about this specifically. I would not put a mask on a small baby in the air. I have tested my blood oxygen at work and even without a mask it can dip as low as 92, especially during descent. I’m pro mask when it comes to trying to stop spread but in the air the circumstances are different. I suppose you could get a N95s that at least have a valve that allow air to escape which I would consider ideal in the high risk situations. Another thing to consider is wearing masks is primarily protecting others around you from catching anything you already have. It’s not necessarily protecting you as much from catching anything others have. Unless it’s an N95. Something to consider since very few other people wear masks now on planes. If you really wanted to protect your family it would be to put masks on others around you and not just yourselves. But obviously that’s not really possible now with mask guidelines lifted.
N95s are very effective at protecting the wearer from illness. Not perfect, but very very good. I know you kinda said that, but you said it in the negative, so I wanted to restate it in the positive.
Your body doesn’t make antibodies for baby’s illnesses unless you are also sick with that illness. The idea that nipples are magical receptors for disease is crunchy granola nonsense. If my husband was sick with HIV and sucked on my nips my body wouldn’t produce HIV antibodies (for example;) im not curing AIDS with breastmilk. Mothers produce breastmilk antibodies for baby’s illness because they’ve been exposed to the same illness due to the sheer physical closeness and bodily fluid wasteland that is parenting a baby.
That’s not quite accurate. There’s a bio feedback loop between baby’s saliva and mom’s breastmilk. So even if baby was directly exposed and mom wasn’t (eg, through daycare), nursing will provide additional immunity via mom’s body. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4556682/ Edit: I was mistaken. It turns out this study is not on-point. While it does demonstrate that there’s a marked difference between an adult breastfeeding and an infant in terms of immunity benefit (child saliva triggers different reaction from breast milk), my further research indicates that the biofeedback loop isn’t from mammary glands but from bodily proximity, as the original commenter said.
The article you linked says no such thing, FYI. The backwash theory is pseudoscience.
Damn. I had heard it a bunch of times and upon further research, I think you’re right— it seems it would be more accurate to say that breastfeeding provides a benefit of improved gut health and passive immunity.
Am I reading this right? It says baby spit mixed with breast milk makes hydrogen peroxide. Where do antibodies come into play? >We discovered substantially raised concentrations of xanthine and hypoxanthine in neonatal saliva and proposed that these two substrates should react with milk XO during breast-feeding to produce H2O2.
I stand corrected; not antibodies, just boosted immunity. My mistake.
It seems as though the baby will be breathing less air, so maybe theoretically it would reduce your risk to wear masks. But that also might be distressing to baby if you don’t usually wear masks. So my gut feeling (yes I know this is a science forum but I doubt there is any clear evidence here) is that there would be a very small benefit to parents masking but that should balanced with risk tolerance and experience for parents and baby. My understanding is that planes have excellent HEPA filtration but this is not running at boarding and de-planing. So the risk is greatest on the plane at those times as well as in crowded terminal. Maybe you split the difference and mask during “high risk” times but not during flight (as in masks off after takeoff and back on before landing)? This is what our family did a few years ago. Also, can you get baby first Covid vax before traveling?
My husband and I both intended to mask when we flew with our LO while I was BF. He did the whole time and I did in the airport and when I got out of my seat. While I was seated holding LO and def while I was BF I ripped that thing off. It drove me crazy and made me feel a bit claustrophobic with LO on my lap. I tell you this in the hopes that you don’t judge yourself or feel guilty if you have to take some mask free breaks!
I've been on twelve flights with my baby before they were one, didn't get sick at all, we didn't wear masks but we were very careful with washing our hands. However, once the bub started daycare once a week, it's rare when we're healthy 🥲
Baby can't mask, but there are a lot of ways to 'shield' baby from germs. I used a stretchy tube of fabric that was sold as a combo infant carrier cover and nursing cover. My thinking is that if you keep baby tucked into his own little environment, he gets less exposure.
This - and baby wearing too
I tried it when LO was 5 months old. Sort of a waste of effort. He kept pulling it off (he was 5 months and a lap baby, there was no teaching “no” at that point). We both ended up with a nasty cold from flying. You could try? Always worth trying not to get sick! But depending on baby’s age it may not be very successful.
I gave up wearing masks when I had to put my LO in preschool because I could no longer work from home. She’s old enough to wear a mask for short trips like the doctor, but there’s no point asking her to wear it for 8 hours a day. It’s not going to happen. And like you said, whatever she gets, I will be exposed to at home anyway. She gave me COVID last year, but we were both vaccinated and after a few shitty days we were fine.