RAS and Flying

[Duvetdaytoday]

My 8 year old son has approx 2 RAS a year although sometimes they will come in a cluster. We are going on holiday next week and he’s getting very anxious about flying, he’s flown many times before so not sure where this has come from but I’m so worried that he will have an RAS on the plane if he gets too worked up. His last one was about a week ago so he definitely hasn’t grown out of them yet. I just wondered if anyone had advice on how to avoid RAS when flying and what to do if he does have one.

[RASconcerns]

Hi. How long is the flight? We've had one one on a long haul from Australia. The airline staff managed it really well. They can't compromise safety but if you tell them then they understand and keep an eye out and check on you.

The key for us is plenty of rest before the flight, drinking plenty before the flight and whilst on board to keep blood pressure up and if there's any sign of our daughter feeling rough in any way I give her a dose of ibuprofen/nurofen about 20 minutes before the flight. To avoid clusters, we always carry ibuprofen sachets which she gets into her mouth immediately after an attack as it's the severe headache (or sometimes the pain of the initial injury) which seems to trigger the cluster.

They found us a few seats together after her attack on the plane so she could lie down and sleep.

We also take lots of little things to do on the plane to distract her. When she was around 8 I bought a few little bits like plasticine, a puzzle book, a few little treats and a few pound shop bits and wrapped them up so that every hour she could open something. It completely distracted her and settled her anxiety. I'm also going to take some Rescue Remedy pastimes this holiday.

Hope all goes well xxx

[Stoney1]

Hi, I told the air hostesses when we got on the plane so they was aware hun. X