5 Things I Learned When My Daughter Threw Up on a Plane
August 24th, 2008 @ 8:12 | Filed under Family Travel | 12 comments
Written by Jane Rytina
My children are hard-bellied, seasoned travelers. Except when they’re not. Not long ago, I was traveling alone with them from San Francisco to London. Half an hour into the flight, my 2-year-old daughter spilled yogurt all over me.
I felt irritated as I cleaned it up, which seems laughable in retrospect.
A few minutes later she threw up on me, and continued to do so for the next 9 hours. I arrived at Heathrow the next day so saturated with child vomit that my own mother opted to postpone hugging me until I’d had a shower.
Here’s what the experience taught me:
- The seat pocket in front of you won’t help you. I discovered the hard way that you don’t always get your allotted one sick bag per paid seat. These days (when I have finally managed to cram my bags into the overhead bin) the first thing I do is check for a sick bag. More often than not, I find the airline hasn’t bothered to provide one. That’s why I always request 4 extra bags (while my husband cringes) when the flight attendant comes around offering pretzels and a drink.
- Flight attendants won’t help you. I suppose they can’t risk spreading what could be E. coli as they merrily pass out drinks. They did eventually hand me some paper napkins, which was less than useful.
- Fellow passengers won’t help you. Let’s face it, no one wants to get close enough to smell you, let alone help you.
- Even fellow passengers with kids won’t help you. They will murmur sympathetically, but that’s about it. Who can blame them? It’s frightening enough exposing your children to a filthy plane without exposing them to a vacation-destroying virus as well.
- A change of clothes for the kids won’t help you. I am a sensible mom who brings a change of clothes for my children on long flights. Not for myself though. I looked and smelled like puke for 10 hours.
The upside of all this is that I have become an expert at recognizing signs of sickness and catching it in a bag—a useful skill, I’m sure you will agree. The whole experience has made me develop my own safety procedure before take off: 1. Check seat pockets, 2. Ask for bags, 3. Sit back and hope for the best.
Now it’s your turn. Got a comparable story? Misery loves company.





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