Infants/Air travel/Dehydration

August 12, 2010

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Blame well-meaning parents for many an infant’s miserable air travel. 

Conventional wisdom says that infants become dehydrated in flight unless you keep pouring fluids into them. Columnists write, “Make infants drink a bottle for every hour in the air.” “Never let a flight attendant pass by without asking for fluids.” “Make them drink, drink, drink.”

In-flight dehydration is a myth. Solid medical evidence says it does not exist. Adults erroneously interpret their parched mouths and throats as dehydration. This dry feeling results from air conditioning removing most of the moisture from the cabin air.

Dehydration occurs with severe vomiting and diarrhea, heavy exercising in a hot environment, profuse sweating, and no access to fluids. Air travelers are at rest, in a cool environment and not ill. Fluids are available.

Adults are advised to drink at least eight ounces of fluids for each hour of flying. For adults, this is not harmful. It may even be beneficial, in a roundabout way – it forces them to walk to the lavatory and wait on line. This helps minimizes swollen feet.

But pouring fluids into infants is counterproductive. At cruising altitudes of jet aircraft the lower atmospheric pressure causes stomach and intestinal air to expand by about 20-30%. For adults, this merely causes mild bloating. But infants’ organs are smaller and may expand more. Add to this the bulk of the fluids and the air swallowed by sucking.  At home, overfeeding makes infants irritable. Likely, in flight, overfeeding makes them feel even worse.

Advice: Feed infants no more often in flight than at home. Bottles during takeoff and landing may help prevent ear discomfort – though this is largely unproven.  Stay tuned.

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