Plane travel with baby

mstewart71611

My son is 14 months old and we are vacationing in Europe.  I would LOVE some advice on what has worked for moms!  How did you survive the flight? (Ours is 6 hours) and what were the essentials that you packed?  Thanks!

LimaD

We brought lots of snacks, books, and toys.  I put away a few of DD's favorite toys the week leading up to the flight so that they were more "new" to her and she didn't get bored of them quickly.  Also, for us the huge thing was the time at the airport before the flight.  It gave her an hour to run around and explore.  She burned off most of her energy so that by the time we got on the plane she was okay with just sitting and playing.  Plus, she was really winning points with the passengers that were on our flight, so they already loved her before we boarded (made me feel better in case she threw a fit on the plane, but thankfully she didn't!)  

hilsy85

We flew 5 hours at 15 months...at that age, new books were a HUGE help. We bought two truck books with tons of flaps and they literally entertained him for like 2.5 hours. He slept for about an hour on the flights, and I brought a lot of new snacks that I could feed to him a little at a time, so that took time up too. Also, little hot wheels cars were awesome (or mini whatever-your-kid-is-into).

NDarya

I just flew with my 14mo a few days ago. 13 hour flight plus 6 hours layover plus 1h30min flight to the final destination. We are posted overseas so the trip home was very long. And I was traveling alone with DS on my lap. I thought I would never survive the trip but it went much better than I thought.

So, if you make your LO sleep that's a big plus. I packed snacks (pouches, graham crackers, etc) besides DS was enthusiastic about the plane food. I took his favorite toys (like 5). I downloaded his favorite shows (like Yo Gabba Gabba) on my Kindle. I packed 7 overnight diapers for the whole plane ride and of course DS had diarrhea so we almost ran out of them. We walked a lot on the plane and played with headphones, plastic cups and neighbors. And I let him have pacifier the whole time although we only use it for night time.

My advice is - remember that the flight will start and end and hopefully you'll never meet people from the plane again. If your LO has a meltdown try to distract him with anything. There are many small things around plane seat  that move, open, switch. Good luck!