Vital-Side Blog

As a nervous system regulation and brain retraining practitioner, I spend my days helping people understand how their bodies and brains respond to stress, unpredictability, and overstimulation.

And then I boarded a plane with my baby.

There’s nothing quite like being 30,000 feet in the air, holding a crying child, and realizing your ability to co-regulate is the only thing standing between collective meltdown and collective grace.

This post isn’t just a how-to on flying with a baby. It’s a real-time reflection on nervous system resilience — what happens when routines are disrupted, support systems are far away, and you’re relying on presence over perfection.

I’m a full-time breastfeeding, contact-napping, co-sleeping mama to a baby boy who’s been a dream traveler — mostly. But we had one flight that tested every nervous system regulation tool I teach.

Let’s talk about it.