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As we begin the summer travel season, many passengers — and parents — dread a long trip in the car or a long airplane flight. Their fear: a baby who won’t stop crying. Some parents say they’ve found a way to calm their traveling child, but it’s very controversial.

Many parents know the feeling. You’re on a long flight, the plane is packed and your baby starts crying.

Sherrie Gonzalez-Rubio remembers that feeling vividly. “My daughter was colicky and she was freaking out,” she says. “I mean, she was losing her mind – and I was breaking a sweat, ‘cause I was so stressed out.”

Kristy Whitehurst, mother of three, is still living such incidents: “People will just look at you like, ‘grrrr, shut that kid up.’”

For some parents, one solution is a drug.

“I don’t do this all the time, but sometimes I use Benadryl [on trips],” says Jennifer Hancock, whose youngest is nine months old.

But many parents wonder if antihistamines like Benadryl are a safe way to calm a child.

“[Antihistamines] can cause lightheadedness; some folks will have dry mouth, very dry nasal passages, things of that sort,” says pediatrician Dr. Bakari Morgan. “But the biggest thing is giving a medicine that’s really going to knock somebody out. And you don’t want to necessarily do that.”

He says some antihistamines can, in fact, sedate a child – but “there are some that will have the opposite effect; where, you know, it really revs them up a little bit – and so now you have someone who’s twice as worked up as they were.”

Sherrie says she’s tried antihistamines before, “and it just had adverse effects. I tried it with my son and I wouldn’t do it again.”

Which is why experts say that parents with fretful children should try distractions first.

“It could be reading a story, you know,” says Dr. Morgan, “it could be having a hand-held TV for kids that are a little bit older or, you know, it could be some little toy that they like to play with.”

But when all else fails, he says, “I’m not opposed to using the Benadryl, for instance, for helping a baby out – or helping them to feel a little bit better.”

Jennifer, meanwhile, says she’ll continue to use it as long as she needs it.

“It works for me and it helps my flight be a lot less stressful,” she says, “and it’s obviously not harmful to them — and that’s my decision.”

What We Need To Know

• Try to travel around your child’s schedule. If you can, plan your flight during their naptime, when they will already be sleepy. (Bakari Morgan, M.D., pediatrician)




• Breast or bottle-feed during taking off and landing. This will help babies equalize the pressure in their ears. (Nemours Foundation)




• Using cotton balls or small earplugs may help to decrease the decibel level your baby is exposed to – and, as a result, make it easier for her to sleep or relax. (American Academy of Pediatrics)




• If you plan on using antihistamines to sedate your child, find out how your child reacts to them first. Make sure they don’t cause excitability, rather than sleepiness. (Bakari Morgan, M.D., pediatrician)

Resources

• Berkeley Parents Network
• American Academy of Pediatrics

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