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Anyone do a 10+ hr flight with a toddler?
We're thinking of taking DD to visit family in Israel this Fall, it's a 10 hr flight there, 12 hours back. Give it to me straight, are we insane? Have any of you done this? What were your sanity savers? It'll be overnight flights, I'm really most concerned about DD refusing to sleep in her seat and wanted to wander around and scream at everyone else who is trying to sleep. She is not one to sit still.
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Re: Anyone do a 10+ hr flight with a toddler?
We did a 6 hour flight when DS was 13 months old. It was easy. But he's an easy kid.
I think it's be easier now because he likes to watch TV more. We did overnight on the way there and day flight on the way back. Overnight was cake-- got him his own seat, put him in a carseat and bottle fed him alot until he fell asleep. Slept the whole flight.
On the way back, it was alot of treats, DVD player, books. He napped for 2 hours on the way back, which helped.
As for getting up and moving around, it was just never an option. We had him strapped in the seat and, if he got antsy, we'd offer food, drink, movie, book, etc. to distract him.
If you are flying at night, I doubt you'll have any problems.
Thanks for the tips so far! A couple of follow up questions then....
1. Is it better to put her in her car seat in the airplane seat, or just have her sit in the airplane seat itself? We were hoping to avoid taking the car seat all together.
2. Does security let you bring milk through for bottles? DD drinks almond milk (dairy allergy) and we obviously can't buy that in the terminal, but will they let us bring it through security? It's obviously a question for the airline, but maybe someone here has experience with it?
I don't know. I know people who have done it with LOs and been fine and those who haven't. My sister is getting married there next week and we're not going b/c I don't think mine could have handled the flight (and the fact that it would have cost us a small fortune to get there).
We haven't had problems taking sippy cups full of soy milk on planes before. Check with Starbucks to see if they sell it too. That was our back up plan in case we had to dump it.
Yes, I think you're crazy!
We've done a 5 hour direct and DD had her own seat, and didn't sit for 5 minutes. She's super antsy. We were allowed to bring milk (I brought 2 of the 10oz Horizon "boxes") and food (applesauce, yogurt, LOTS of snacks).
The longest flight we've done with DS about 6 hours, but we fly with him about every 1-2 months so we've developed some strategies over time. Honestly, I've never flown with the carseat in the plane seat, but we've never had a direct flight longer than 6 hrs and none overnight, so it seemed like more of a hassle to me at the time. Like your DD, DS drinks almond milk due to a dairy protein allergy and on long flights I'll bring a few insulated sippies of almond milk plus a back-up carton of shelf-stable almond milk in the diaper bag. I've never had ANY issue going through security, domestic or international with the milk, occasionally they just ask me to open the sippies so that they can wave a chemical test strip over the top. Just in case I've always carried a letter from his allergist in the diaper bag explaining the allergy, but I've never had to produce it and we've been flying with almond milk since he was 13 mos (So about 6 roundtrips, 2 of which were international).
Our entertainment strategies as of recent have consisted of the following: Color wonder coloring books and markers, travel magna doodle (with light. I don't know why it has a travel light, but the light itself is an extra toy!). Blank sketch pads with lots of crayons as we tend to lose them frequently down the aisles of the plane. But the best toy of all is the ipod touch. We've loaded it up with toddler games (shapes matching, flashcards, etc) and his favorite tv shows. We only break it out on planes and at restaurants when he's really wearing down so it's quite the special treat for him and he can spend hours playing with it on the plane. I also usually pack one of his own blankets from home so that he has something comfortable and familiar to snuggle up with when he wants to nap, but he's pretty good about falling asleep on the plane when it's his usual nap time.
GL on your trip!
duplicate post...
Mommy to DD1 (June 2007), DS (January 2010), DD2 (July 2012), and The Next One (EDD 3/31/2015)
We did a trip to England last fall, so DD had just turned 2. (And I was about 22 weeks pregnant.) The flight out was easy. It was an overnight flight, and she slept from about 2 hrs into it until we were about to land. She had her own seat and we did bring her car seat onboard.
The flight back was a daytime flight, and I'll be honest, it was pretty miserable. It took off around her normal naptime, so she did nap for about two hours to kick off the flight... and then that was it for sleeping. And we still had about 8 hours to go in the flight! Really not fun, but we all survived it. For that flight, she had her own seat, but we did not bring the car seat onboard. It puts her at just the right spot for kicking the seat in front of her, so for a flight where we knew she'd be awake most of the time, we didn't want to spend the whole flight telling her, "No kicking."
Sanity savers: DVD player, Playdoh (although they thought it was explosives when we cleared security at Heathrow on the way home???), and lollipops for when things got really bad.
re: milk, DD drinks soymilk, and we don't usually bring it with us when we travel. She's perfectly happy with water, and it's just easier that way.
Mommy to DD1 (June 2007), DS (January 2010), DD2 (July 2012), and The Next One (EDD 3/31/2015)