Should parents drug babies on long flights?

Parents taking infants on long flights are turning to medication to help their children sleep. But is the practice safe - or a dangerous abuse of parental power?

On a recent afternoon flight from Miami to Los Angeles, travellers were impressed with the three young children who slept most of the way and then played quietly. How sweet and well behaved they were, the passengers commented.

But the woman sitting next to me was not buying it.

"I think she drugged them," she whispered, gesturing toward the mother watching a film as her children snoozed.

Parents who medicate their babies and toddlers with allergy or cough medicine on long flights say it helps the children sleep in increasingly cramped planes and helps combat jetlag. It is a polarising topic on parenting blogs, with debates often turning nasty.
On the Urban Baby website, which allows users to post anonymously, a typical post about how to occupy tots on long flights quickly grows heated:

more extreme human behaviour > > >

maybe they just shouldn't take babies on long flights!!

I am an adult so it's okay for me to drug myself with gravol for any flight.

[quote author=VillageBelle link=topic=78927.msg492193#msg492193 date=1365011968]
maybe they just shouldn't take babies on long flights!!

I am an adult so it's okay for me to drug myself with gravol for any flight.
[/quote]great idea and not just for flights . Imagine the peace and tranquility there would be if this can get women to be quiet