long haul with 2 year old. Argh! help help help!

[LionsnTigersnBears]

Am taking DD, who will be 2 years 1 week on long haul London to California at the end of the month. I've been in awesome levels of denials but 'the fear' is kicking in now. She is a lousy sleeper so she is not going to sleep much on the flight. Can anyone suggest any ideas to keep her occupied? She's never watched TV so I don't think the inflight entertainment is going to help much. Arrgh! what have I got myself into?????

(breathes into paper bag)

Hi,
I have found colouring books very useful on flights, so what if she scribbles all over them?! Plus various packs of cards, eg Peppa, that she can match/pile up the characters from. And tons of snacks, for distraction purposes! Also, let her go up and down the aisle with you every so often. Nearly everyone will smile at or talk to her and you won't get DVT!

It's not as bad as it seems. We took DS all the way to Japan when he was just 22 months old and he was no problem at all (bad sleeper at home here too).

In fact i've always found both my DCs easier to entertain on a long flight than a short one.

Colouring books, stickers and a small photo album are all good for keeping them amused. And even though my DCs don't watch tv at home, they always love the movies on board a flight. In fact sometime they'll even watch the same movie non stop!

We took a portable DVD player with lots of DVDs, books, colouring books, crayons, lots of snacks, own blanket etc.

It was fine, both dc slept a lot too. ( aged 2 and 4 yrs- London Miami )

We took ds to Canada (West) when he was 13m. He was a good sleeper and good baby but I did not know what I would do on the flight, which ended up being 14 hours.
I checked MN too and suggestions were; get a good stash of NEW toys he has never seen before- simple little trinkets, needn't be expensive, try the party bag section of supermarkets, stocking fillers etc, and a good idea is to wrap each one up, I used tissue paper for ds. On the hour, every hour, let him choose one from the bag of goodies, and as it's new it will be quite a novelty and probably play with it for a while. Stickers are great. Magic painting books, you can use your fingers instead of a paintbrush (which prob won't be allowed on the plane) with a plastic cup from the steward.
Every other half hour take him to the toilet, let him wash his hands, splash in the sink- or you may get some water toys in his bag which are always popular. I ended up with a great selection and didn't even get through them all. It may seem a little excessive but you all need your sanity, and he will not be used to being cooped up/ restricted for so long. If you don't want him to end up with all these new toys as you leave the plane, hand them to another child in the airport!
Also agree with Jules, everybody loves a little one walking past, sometimes they walk with them too, often older ladies!
And don't forget......anyone who complains of any noise, misbehaviour etc, just remind them that we were ALL babies at one time.
Good luck, but I'm sure you won't need it.

I also took a DVD player. Recently flew to Argentina and DS 2 did not sleep much. He was really quite good. Its amazing how you cope. I found that most people are very helpful too.

ipad - better than dvds/entertainment system because they can play all sorts of games so they don't get bored too quickly. Also lots of snacks (all rules go out the window on a plane!) and a few new toys should help too.

.... though having said that, if she's never watched tv I'd say she'll sit there transfixed for the whole flight!!

good luck - I've got a 20 hour with DS (2.11) in 10 days - am also in denial but at least it's overnight!

I'm doing 10 hours with 14m DS at the end of the month. more worried about the luggage tbh. New small toys, hopefully inflight entertainment with no sounf, iPhone in protective case, lots and lots of boob and 500? on a separate seat

Portable DVD player with a stack of DVDs and a pair of baby headphones. Honestly, if your DD doesn't watch TV she will be totally transfixed. I did 13 hours with a non sleeping DS overnight when he was 2.4 and he was too excited to sleep but too tired to play or read any of the new toys and books I bought, and it was my saving grace as 11mo old DD also refused to sleep.

He watched Cars on the inflight entertainment 4 times back to back on the way there without even having the headphones on and didn't move a muscle (he didn't even realise that it was supposed to have sound poor love )

LOTS of easy to eat dry snacks and fruit and water bought air side with a snack an hour helped keep a tired toddler the right side of complete meltdown (most of the time ) plus both refused to eat a single mouthful of the inflight food.

I'm chuckling away at the thought of ipanicked DS's happily watching a mute film 4 times

We're off short haul (thank goodness) with our 2, 3 and 8 year old soon and the one thing I remember being a real faff last time was constantly picking crayons and other small 'rollable' objects up from the aircraft floor where they'd rolled off those silly little seat back trays. This year I've got them all those pens with different coloured clicky nibs so less to drop. We shall also be relying on iPods & my iPhone quite heavily.

Thanks everyone! I'm a bit calmer from reading this :-). I was going to get her a pair of those baby headphones for the inflight movie- are they worth it do you think, or can you use the standard ones that you get on the plane? I am a complete novice at all this- I've never watched inflight movies myself when flying so I'm clueless. Also can anyone recommend any DVDs for the 2 year old bracket? She will watch and name animals from pictures on my laptop happily enough- but I am not buying her one of those for the flight!

My 23 month old LOVES Finding Nemo. We brush off the beginning by saying 'fast fish', and for now that seems to satisfy him! He also watches DVD series of his favourite programmes such as Thomas and Bob the Builder. Good Luck!