First plane journey: tips wanted!

[hernehillisabel]

Any tips?

Easy jet 6hour short flight

1 year old wriggle bottom boy

Anyone have any tips ?

[womanofdulwich]

6 hours- short??

sedation sounds good to me.

[canela]

I think there are quite a few threads on plane journeys that you could have a look at. best tip is to enjoy it - if you make it fun, your LO will hopefully love it too. good luck!

[Pickle]

6 hours is considered short in our family, it takes over 30 hours door to door for us to visit my family :)

Lots of new little toys, plenty of snacks, and try to relax. I've travelled long haul a lot with various combinations of my kids at different ages, and it's always fine. If all else fails, the crew call button is usually fun to play with ;)

[ludoscotts]

You will get to board first with travelling with little one which is a bonus. Have bottle ready for take off and landing either milk or juice so that they are sucking to help with ears popping. If possible delay nap till you are in flight so that they sleep some if the journey. New toy not seen before. And when my daughter was little it was sticker book that kept us sane. Let her sticker all over new colourig book kept her busy for hours trying to pick off stickers.

[canela]

you can probably also hire headsets to watch some telly on a 6 hour flight. well worth it!

[Ginster]

The lap seatbelts that they give parents to secure toddlers to their seatbelt for take off and landing provided at least an hours entertainment for my nephew on a flight. Good luck!

[Chillaxed]

This might sound a bit nuts, but the last time we did the trip back to NZ with our little one I kept wishing I'd brought a net to block off the end of our row of seats i.e. turn the limited space into a little play area. He can't sit still for 2 seconds so the idea of him being entertained sitting down (not to mention by the seat-belt) is pie in the sky. Have fun!

[MichelleT]

If you are flying with someone else, let them go ahead and board and find seats and get settled. Stay in the departure lounge for as long as possible! Buy some cheap toys and every hour or so produce a new one as a surprise. Load up IPhone or Ipad with favourite tv shows - you can download shows from BBC Iplayer and watch for up to a month - kids apps or bring a dvd player. Snacks and food that you know they will eat. Buy kids headsets if you think you will need as most children don't like the plane ones, though they are fun to play with. Bring a complete change of clothes for the baby and perhaps some spare things for you as well, in case of spillages. And have look forward to your holiday!

[pommie]

I too am off on a long haul flight to south Africa in September with a 5 year old and an 18 month old. Neither have ever been on a plane before and I am not a great flier (usually resort to diazepam!). My partner has said he has no problem keeping an eye on the kids but I am dreading it

[Gooders79]

Chillaxed the netting idea made me laugh... On a flight when our son was 16mo I sat on the floor to block the exit.

Slings help just to free up your hands, generally I find they are quite interested in what's going on around them anyway. Keep them on their uk routine throughout flight if you can. Regular snacks, small toys can be good. We tried stickers at 16mo but he didn't really get them so it might be worth trying these a bit at home before you go if you decide to try them out.

Resign yourself to the fact flying is different with a toddler and ignore what other people say around you.

Good luck, in all the flights we've done both long and short haul they have never been as bad as I thought they would...

[verds]

I think someone should invent an end-of-row net!

Just to add: I find Easyjet a great airline with children - they were so helpful on my last flight, when we had to run to the gate after an incident involving a hire car and two lots of car sickness. I ended up boarding without any milk for the baby and the cabin crew gave me some, as well as helping me with my bags when I was struggling. Enjoy your holiday!

[hernehillisabel]

Thankyou all ! I'm ganna try all tips given and comment on them after (for future readers) can't wait to shop for new toys for the way there and back!

[canela]

you might find it's not that bad. Depends on the kid. My son has always loved any kind of journey even from a young age....and was so excited by being on a plane he would just and play quietly with buttons, look out of window etc. To the extent that I experienced the extremely novel sensation of being complemented by strangers on how well-behaved my child was!!!

[ED-Nanny]

Snacks, SO MANY SNACKS!!

[Convex]

Books that you colour in with water pens

A grown up sippy bottle (eh bobble bottle) was a bit hit

Sling definitely

[ClareC]

If you can get a seat it's helpful - I found the hardest part with a one year old was take off and landing because he had to sit on my lap and didn't want to - once he could sit in his seat he was easily entertained with iPad / stickers/ play dough/ colouring/ new toys etc.

I make up a travel rucksack for each child to carry - books /colouring/ play dough etc this entertains them as they like carrying it and being able to choose what to do. I also wrap up cheap toys (?1 shop good for this), so I can produce a wrapped present at times of boredom and have the added bonus of bribery - if your good etc!

When travelling with a toddler and a baby with neither having a seat (I tried to purchase one for the toddler but wasn't allowed) my partner and I sat with a seat between us (me at the window, him at the aisle) as we knew the flight was not fully booked and suspected no one in their right mind would choose to sit with us. We were right :)

Later discovered there are only 4 oxygen masks per row of 3 seats anyway so you can't have 3 seated passengers in those seats if there are two infants in the row.