My Benadryl Adventure (Or How I Learned to Get Over The Fear of Flying with My Kids)

Going into this summer's vacation, I'd never given my kids Benadryl to make them sleep on an airplane. Trust me though when I tell you the suggestion has been made to me more than once... usually by complete strangers. Those are the moments of motherhood I treasure.

Like many moms, the very thought of flying with small children makes my blood pressure start to rise. As I started to pack for our upcoming trip, I heard those strangers' voices in my head again – could Benadryl really make it all better?

Being a firm believer in the theory that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, I've been living in a bit of mommy fear on the topic. Scared that the Benadryl would have the exact opposite intended effect and hop up my kids more than a trip to Toys R Us. Or worse, that they would fall so deeply asleep that a trip to the ER would be necessary upon landing. You know, the usual paranoia.

As the date for our red eye departure grew near, my kids were getting more excited about the trip. I just had to think: why would I drug them for the plane flight? I mean, it's a real-life Dream Day when they get to go to the airport, like they've actually turned into Little People. Why rain on that?

Now I've heard the argument both ways - a dose can't do any harm (the cool moms are doing it) and drugging your child for your own peace and quiet is tantamount to child abuse (the cool moms are definitely not doing it). So I looked a bit into the whole Benadryl thing before our flight... Do I or Don't I?

In the drugstore Cold & Flu aisle, it was pure confusion. I could only find some Walgreens look-alike Benadryl that had warnings all over it that it was not for kids under age four and should not be used to induce drowsiness. That definitely did not pass my "would I be okay doing this if a story about it ran on the front page of The New York Times" sniff test. (Sometimes having a background in marketing can be good, right?) Then I moved on to the Walgreens Bennie meant for infants age two and up, obviously a different cocktail, that happily proclaimed "Compare to the ingredients in Zyrtec!" Like that's a good thing, to be giving toddlers Zyrtec? Well, no mommy folklore had ever told me to slip my kids a Zyrtec on a flight. So that box was out too. By then I was just kinda creeped out by the whole Big Pharma-selling baby medicine-to-parents thing. I left Walgreens empty handed.

Driving away from the store I had an idea though. Maybe I already did have a drug of choice for my kids. One that I was not afraid to dispense if needed... yes, it's called television. Moments before we left for the airport we loaded up our iPods with $1.99 episodes of Team UmiZoomi and Bubble Guppies, and off we went.

You know what? The TV shows worked like a charm during some interminable terminal time and in the rental car post-flight for the long four hour drive. On the flight itself, they weren't even needed.

That's right. My kids don't need no stinkin' Benadryl. They slept like champs on that plane. To all the parents on Delta LAX to Detroit that evening, in my mind every kid on that plane was an angel - even the ones that were screaming (yours!). We did it! To the woman in front of my two year old who had her seat kicked fifty times, you're a saint and I'm super sorry. To the guy next to me who thought having his overhead reading light turned on for the entire red eye was a good idea, you need your head examined. But that's the joy / curse of traveling with wee ones... and adults. We're all a bear to deal with at times. That's why drink coupons were invented for the big kids, I guess.

My name is Beth, I love my kids, and we flew Benadryl-free. This was my story.

Reprinted from the MOMS Club of Monrovia's Newsletter (Sep 2011)