Flying with a Flyebaby hammock and twins

by Yvette Summers-Gervai

Can you imagine anything worse than two energetic 18-month-old boys flying without booked seats (i.e. they could be seated on our laps) from Auckland, New Zealand to London Heathrow via LA?

I’m pretty pragmatic and was preparing for a worst-case scenario despite having flown the same route really easily with the twins when they were 8 months old. I’m glad I was prepared! Our boys are great sleepers so I planned to travel on the night flight from Auckland so that they would sleep at least for the first leg. The boys probably scared the living daylights out of everyone at the waiting lounge as they well-and-truly wore themselves out screaming around the room in hysterics. No use quietening them down when we were about to go into a cramped environment…

The plan should have worked, but how wrong I was!

On board, we settled into our four middle-aisle seats with lovely friendly airhosts introducing themselves. We felt so lucky to have a row of four seats—two more than we had booked! I got organised…when the plane took off everything was at-the-ready—toys wrapped up ready to entertain, building click -together blocks, books, wet wipes etc. We had hoped that the twins would just fall straight to sleep. They didn’t. They were completely overtired and started to throw wobblies, screaming their lungs out and wanting to break free. We tried everything, ending up pinning them down in our arms trying to settle them. Then our meals arrived! How do you eat with a screaming child in your arms, who is determined to eat your meal even though he’s just eaten his own?


Luckily, we had the backup of two FlyeBaby Hammocks—one old-style cotton one and one plush new-designed one. Jacob had already crashed on Michael so we transferred him to one of the spare seats between us to carry on sleeping. Eli however was smartly put into the new style plush hammock which I set up and strapped around myself. Note of caution: Make sure you’ve gone to the bathroom yourself and are comfortable before you put your child in the Flyebaby hammock because once strapped on with a sleeping child you’re not likely to get out in a hurry.! FINALLY Eli settled and slept thank you Flyebaby!

I chose to use the new-style hammock quite by accident, but what I did prefer about it was the wider crotch strap. The old style has quite a crude crotch strap which is actually taking the majority of the child’s weight so the new style is better as it has a wider crotch material strap which looked a lot more comfortable. The new style was, however, made of plush-type material which actually made Eli very hot while sleeping whereas the cotton old style material would have been better suited for the hot plane.

Building on our outbound experience, on the flight homewards we concocted a way to strap the Flyebaby hammock onto the spare seat next to us without it being strapped to me. To do this, just slip the Flyebaby hammock down to the bottom of the meal tray and then tighten the straps that usually go around you onto the straps of the seat plane. It may have helped with Eli being on the taller side for the hammock limits so his height took his body to be slightly lying on the plane seat. This was ideal for us—he was strapped in comfortably and able to sleep in his own seat rather than needing us to be stuck in our chair.

I had looked at other flight child support options but none were available here in New Zealand and if I had to fly again (and of course my children were still of the correct height and weight) then I would buy one just for the peace of mind. When the boys are bigger and flying in their own dedicated seats, then I probably will want a restraint that doesn’t need me to be strapped in with them but instead has a harness for them to be alone and safe on the seat, such as the CARES child aviation restraint.

Yvette Summers-Gervai lives in Auckland, New Zealand
Vist her website: Little Kickers