5 Things I Learned When My Daughter Threw Up On A Plane

My children are hard-bellied, seasoned travelers. Except when they're not. Not long ago, I was traveling alone with them from San Francisco to London. Half an hour into the flight, my 2-year-old daughter spilled yogurt all over me.

I felt irritated as I cleaned it up, which seems laughable in retrospect.

A few minutes later she threw up on me, and continued to do so for the next 9 hours. I arrived at Heathrow the next day so saturated with child vomit that my own mother opted to postpone hugging me until I'd had a shower.

Here's what the experience taught me:

1.     The seat pocket in front of you won't help you. I discovered the hard way that you don't always get your allotted one sick bag per paid seat. These days (when I have finally managed to cram my bags into the overhead bin) the first thing I do is check for a sick bag. More often than not, I find the airline hasn't bothered to provide one. That's why I always request 4 extra bags (while my husband cringes) when the flight attendant comes around offering pretzels and a drink.

2.     Flight attendants won't help you. I suppose they can't risk spreading what could be E. coli as they merrily pass out drinks. They did eventually hand me some paper napkins, which was less than useful.

3.     Fellow passengers won't help you. Let's face it, no one wants to get close enough to smell you, let alone help you.

4.     Even fellow passengers with kids won't help you. They will murmur sympathetically, but that's about it. Who can blame them? It's frightening enough exposing your children to a filthy plane without exposing them to a vacation-destroying virus as well.

5.     A change of clothes for the kids won't help you. I am a sensible mom who brings a change of clothes for my children on long flights. Not for myself though. I looked and smelled like puke for 10 hours.

The upside of all this is that I have become an expert at recognizing signs of sickness and catching it in a bag---a useful skill, I'm sure you will agree. The whole experience has made me develop my own safety procedure before take off: 1. Check seat pockets, 2. Ask for bags, 3. Sit back and hope for the best.