air travel

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My 18 yr. daughter is making a major trip this summer and has never flown before. She is not to worried about anything other than if the plane will bother her sensory issues. She is worried about the pressure and noise with her hearing sensitivity. Is their anyone with that experience and ideas how should she plan for it?

You can bring along a bottle of Melatonin. When nighttime rolls around, she can pop a pill, and fall sleep for hours, saving herself the trouble of dealing with sensory issues. If she'll be flying on a non-US airline, they serve alcohol onboard to anyone over 18.

Twenty to thirty dollars (U.S.) in five dollar increments is a sure way to make it through a long overseas flight. Had a nice bottle collection going both going to and coming from London over the summer. Not even the crying kids or the person that keeps leaning their seat further and further into your personal bubble gets to you after a couple rounds. This is completely non-scientific reaching, but I think the air pressure or altitude or something has an effect as well. Or is there more oxygen in the cabin than in "normal" air? I don't know, but something felt different about it.

Hello,

I have flown 20,000 miles the last year.

i used to get horrible ear and sinus infections from the air pressure. I found the way to battle this is too listen to loud rock and chew gum, especially during takeoff and landing. I surreptitisously do this because a lot of times they tell you to turn them off.

I am plagued by bad sinus's, allergies, and asthma on top of AS. Besides helping with the ear pressure, I have found that the distraction of music that I love played loudly drowns out the distractions and the uncomfortable feelings associated with being so close to so many people for so long (my last trip home had three connections and took a total of 32 hours traveling, I never would have made it without my music)

Good Luck, Tell her to always have patience especially with the security.

crazedchef

Hi there,

We live in Australia but are from the UK and have make the journey twice with our AS son. Admittedly he is only 7 but noise is a major issue for him too. The worst times are take off and landing for both noise and pressure and we found chewing or sucking something - drinks, sweets etc is a big help with the pressure. Also because we fly long haul there are loads of games and films and tv to watch and of course they come with headphones which drowns out a lot of in flight noise.

Is there any way your daughter can take a short flight somewhere to test it out? There are fear of flying courses at some airports which may help, not because she's scared necessarily but because she will get a pep talk and a short flight that could help her to find out before the expense of a bigger trip if she's up to it. Just an idea.

Good luck,

Joe's mum

Have your daughter bring sudafed to keep her sinuses clear enough to pop her ears when the cabin pressure changes. As someone else mentioned, chewing gum can help this as well.

Also, bring ear plugs for protection against the general loudness and the screaming baby that invaribly ends up next to you.

she will travel OK to CA and CA to Australia. Thought also about buying some of those bose headphones that cut out all noise, if they work.

Those noise cancelling headphones are great...they sell for about $35 at walmart. You might need to make sure it comes with the separate adapter for your airline(some airlines use the one plug, some use the 2 plug).

Not only do they cut down the noise, but they make the airline programs sound MUCH better.
I would also STRONGLY recommend a set of covers for the eyes, airlines are notoriously bad about turning lights on at weird hours.

My third recommendation would be tylenol pm...being drowsy on an airplane is better than being wired on an airplane