Mumsnet Talk

Hi
We are going to Dubai with our three dc's. The older two will love to play games and watch films for the whole flight. However the 20 month old is a different story.

What advice can you give me to take to entertain her? I'm happy with the food, clothes, nappy stuff - it's more ideas to stop us having to spend the whole flight walking up and down the isle - as god for the figure as that may be

We went to Greece with a 22 month old and 4 year old - just over 4 hours.

The absolute BEST thing we took were some packs of new playmobil toys. We had the rabbits and donkey and cats ... honestly they played and played and PLAYEd with them on the flight and on the holiday. "My Animals" was the chorus as soon as they were up.
We also took some finger puppets, little fiddly things to eat like raisins in a box that take aaaaages, some stories, and some little lego packs that we had free at Christmas from a newspaper (from my Grandad) - fiddly things that are new. Novelty value is everything!

We also ordered food for each of them as meal-time became a picnic with exciting things - packages to open - drinks to pour everywhere etc!

I'd make sure you take a good supply of nappies and a few changes of clothes as both of mine wet through their clothes when on a plane trip - weird as they never do at home.

Good luck!

We did train through France recently. Can recommend rather large sticker book

Thanks for the tips - like the sticker ideas and also the small animals - not sure i'd do playmobil as think she would eat those.
Any other ideas anyone?

I took some tubs of playdough with a 2.5 year old on a 4 hour flight. Fairly successful. If you can bear to, make your own in various colours and take it in pots, as it is less smelly - that playdough smell is pleasant to me but by gum is it strong in an enclosed space

It's just occurred to me that this was so many years ago that it was before all the extra restrictions on flying that came in - have not kept track of whether playdough would be an issue!

Slightly off topic but apparently airplane toilets are sound proof in the case of tantrums

Toilet tip is a v good one and all the mirrors should put her right off screaming!! Someone else mentioned play dough too - sounds a bit messy to me but worth a try. Would think it would be solid enough to get through security, even if it might look like plastic exposives - or at least what I imagine they look like having never seen them!!

Thanks for the link - just got back from the trip. She was great - she wasn't interested in the new books or sticker books I'd brought and infact wouldn't look at them! Did like the Usborne flash cards, liked to be sung too and I spent a lot of the flights sat on the floor so that she could play in my seat.
Tip for limiting the clothes issue - when she got her first set wet, I left her in her nappy untill just before we landed. The plan was really hot and it limited washing!!. Fiddly snacks were good too. Thanks for all the tips