7 Ways To Keep You and Your Children Stress Free When Traveling

When traveling with children, you must Plan Before You Stand!

When you dress your children for travel, remind yourself that
they too need to wear clothes with little or no metal. Overalls
will alarm. Small children will be asked to remove their shoes,
so have them wear slip on shoes.

If your child is traveling alone, parents are allowed to walk
them to the gate with an escort pass from the airlines. Just
show your escort pass to the metal detector screener. Ask for a
supervisor if the screener questions the pass.

Primary screening is hard enough for children, especially if the
screener requests the parents to divest the child's security
blanket or favorite stuffed animal. Children don't understand
why; all they know is that something they treasure and love has
been stripped away from their tiny hands, and now they are
upset. By this time they are pitching a fit. They are in the
middle of a breakdown. As the child throws a tantrum, the parent
is trying to get him or her to walk through the metal detector.
The child just stands there and cries. At this point they pick
up their child and walk through together. They both alarm. They
go back and check to make sure that all of their metal items
have been divested, and they walk through again. They alarm
again. Now there is a bigger problem as they are both required
to go to secondary screening, and the child is even more upset.
The crying turns into screaming.

Remember the child started crying at the metal detector and now
is in secondary screening. They both alarmed, so the parent
holding the child has to be screened too. You cannot pass the
child off to the other parent until both child and parent have
been cleared.

I have seen three things happen when a child is screaming at the
top of his or her lungs. One is that the parent and the child go
into private screening, which enables the child to calm down in
a private place. The second is that the parent allows the child
to scream while the screener performs secondary screening on the
child. At this moment, the child usually starts to hit the
screener. The third is the parent calms the child down first and
screening begins. Ideally, private screening would be the
perfect place for an over stimulated child to calm down. This is
not the appropriate place for a timeout.

In every case, the screener should clear the child first. Then
the child can sit in his or her stroller and recover from such a
dramatic experience while the parent is cleared. Some children
don't have a problem with undergoing secondary screening, even
if they don't understand what's going on. The reason is
collaboration between the parents and the screener. A parent
must be present in order to conduct secondary screening on your
child (under 18 years old). The parent will need to explain the
process to their child, and if the child is too young, it is up
to the parent to ease the child's fear of the process.

Strollers, car seats, and baby carriers in any form must go
through x-ray.

TIPS

1. An infant will either have his or her own boarding pass or
there will be a stamp on one of the parent's boarding passes.
Check your tickets before leaving the ticket counter.

2. Carry your baby or small child through the metal detector to
avoid stress.

3. Make sure your children are not placing their hands on or
near any part of the x-ray belt to avoid injury.

4. Once you are through the metal detector, pick up your items
and move down. Leave room for others to come through too.

5. Place all carry-on items, including baby blankets, toys, and
food, in a bin or bag.

6. When going through the maze (roped area leading to the x-ray
machine) keep your children close to you. This is for safety and
security reasons.

7. Ask the airlines for an escort pass if your child (under 18)
is traveling alone.

About the author:
Natalia Ippolito, a former airport screener and author of: I
MIGHT AS WELL BE NAKED: How to Survive Airport Screening With
Your Clothes On.

Receive her FREE Tip of The Week, Sample Chapter Ultimate
Packing List or Unknown Violations and Fines Report at
http://www.airportbook.com