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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
airplane trips
who's taking their lo on an airplane? we live in virginia and we're planning a trip to california. any tips for keep my child happy on the flight??? what things did you do or bring for them?
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Re: airplane trips
14 months:)
We flew with dd at 3 months and again two weeks ago. I'm not gonna sugar coat, it was rough. Not horrible, just exhausting (for me, lol)
Things that helped: Snacks (a TON of them and a large variety). "forbidden" foods (i.e. for us it was a bunch of those gerber "snacks" dd never gets those so it was a snack, I only pulled those out when desperate), flash cards, empty mini liquor bottles, dvd player for about 20 minutes and the skymall magazine.
DS first flew at 9 months and he slept the whole entire flight..we chose an early flight for that reason. Then we flew again at 1 year and he slept the whole time too and it was a day flight..and we just flew down to California 2 weeks ago and are flying back up to Oregon on Tuesday, granted its only a 2 hour flight..but for our flight down here, he slept for the first hour then was up for the rest of the flight..I agree with PP, lots of snacks and toys and stuff to keep them entertained..
Lately I've been trying to pick flights that happen during DD's nap time. Even if she only ends up sleeping for 15-20 minutes, that's 15-20 minutes less that I have to find something that will occupy her. I try to bring some toys but I'm often by myself and I don't have a lot of room in my bags for toys so I usually just have one or two. It's just as well because she usually finds the magazines and barf bags way more interesting.
The last flight I was on was 3.5 hours. DD was on my lap (we were in the window seat in a very full plane). She fell asleep on takeoff and slept for about 1 hour. After she woke up, we watched the seatback TV for a bit. Then we had a few snacks and something to drink. We sang a few songs. Then we went for a little walk and to change her diaper. Back at the seat we flipped through some magazines. And then it was time to land. I basically try to drag each activity out for as long as possible before moving on to something else.
We flew with DS at the age. The best thing we did was buy him his own seat and bring a lot of snacks.
I would suggest flying in the morning or when your DD is happiest. DS does not do well at night and our night flight home was miserable. GL!