Parents slammed for taking toddler with fever on long-haul flight

“Ahhh, so this is why my son is always sick after flying…”

A family has been slammed online for taking their baby, who had a 40-degree fever, on a long-haul flight.

Alina and her husband were giddy with excitement about their trip to Thailand. They had been tirelessly planning to take their son, who recently celebrated turning one, on a holiday overseas, and the day had finally arrived. 

However, shortly before they were set to depart for their eight-hour flight, their son developed an intense fever. 

They took him on the flight anyway. 

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Parents take toddler with a fever on long-haul flight

“My one-year-old son’s temperature rose to almost 40 [degrees]," the concerned mum shared on TikTok, which has since accumulated over 1.4 million views. 

Their little boy’s condition was so bad that the parents were considering calling off their entire trip. 

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“My husband and I even wanted to cancel the flight,” she confessed. 

But once they realised how much they were going to lose if they missed their flight, they changed their minds. “Our tickets would have been wasted, and the trip that cost us $3,000 would have been wasted,” the mum wrote. 

In the clip, the parents were seen walking their son around, cradling the poorly toddler as he cried uncontrollably. 

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Luckily, the parents “managed to bring down the temperature”, but they weren’t convinced their son would keep quiet for the rest of the trip. 

“We were so worried about how the baby would feel on an eight-hour flight,” she continued, walking the baby up and down the corridors of the airport, trying to calm him down.  

Despite their child presenting a 40-degree fever, the parents decided they’d still take their son on the plane. “One plus of this flight was that the flight was at night, and the child could sleep and recover,” the mum wrote. 

However, their dream of having a perfectly sleeping child on their long-haul flight was merely a fantasy, because their son would not calm down for the rest of the flight. After all, he had a skyrocketing fever; it seemed unlikely he’d settle in an aeroplane that’s flying anywhere from 30,000 to 42,000 feet above the ground. 

“The flight turned out to be difficult,” Alina confessed. “The baby kept waking and crying.” 

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Alina was worried about her son's health. Picture: alinamotherhpod/TikTok

In the middle of the night, their son’s fever returned, which forced the parents to “bring the temperature down again” and left them ”very worried” about their son’s health. 

Their baby’s fever took a toll on the parents, too, complaining of feeling “squeezed like a lemon” while trying to keep his temperature down. “We took turns looking after the baby so each of us could sleep,” she said. 

In a later video, the parents defended their choice to take their son on the flight despite his intense fever and blamed it on his teething, not sickness. 

“Our baby wasn’t sick, he was teething, and that’s why he had a fever,” she said. “If our child had been sick, we would have cancelled everything ... I consider myself a wonderful mother.” 

She explained that when she and her husband boarded the plane, their son “did not have a fever”, but before flying, they “warned the check-in counter that our baby was teething and had a fever”. 

According to the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, while teething may cause a temperature in babies and toddlers, it will usually only reach a maximum of 38 degrees; anything higher requires urgent medical care. 

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Their son was restless throughout the long-haul flight. Picture: alinamotherhpod/TikTok

“Trips come and go; your baby’s health is priceless!”

Online, the parents were slammed for even considering taking their sick child on an aeroplane, especially an overnight long-haul flight. 

“It’s OK, don’t worry about making anyone else on that flight sick,” a sarcastic comment read. “This is so tremendously selfish, you are appalling for doing this to him and others.” 

“Ahhh, so this is why my son is always sick after flying,” said another. “We were very worried, so we took him on a flight instead of to the Dr,” a third penned. 

“I was in the same situation," a parent said. “I lost all bookings, but who cares, my daughter comes first always and forever, no matter the amount of money!”

“Trips come and go; your baby’s health is priceless!” read a comment. “Forty degrees is a hospital admission! Not a flight to Thailand!” 

However, not everyone was as judgmental, with many parents extending their sympathies to the first-time parents.

“I know you did what felt best, and that's all that matters,” a person commented. “We don't know how much it weighed on you.” 

“You know what’s best for your baby,” someone chimed in. “Everyone will say things. But only you will know when you are in that situation.”

“Everyone is a first-time parent,” another defended. “This was a lesson learned. A baby’s health is of utmost importance. No holiday is more important than that. I hope he is OK now.”

Originally published as Parents slammed for taking toddler with fever on long-haul flight