Long haul flight with 16 month old!!

[Laurajamie82]

Hi, any advice on this would be greatly appreciated! I'm travelling to Los Angeles with my partner and our little girl in about a month and wondered if anyone could give any tips on keeping them entertained?? She's quite an active child so realise this is gonna be a challenge but was hoping for some advice from anyone who's done the same!!
Many thanks in advance!

Laura-Jamie

Hi, we took our 19 month old to New York. 7 hour flight.

We went with ba and booked the bassinet seats as ds was under 2. He was too big for a bassinet but we used the platform the bassinet sits on for extra table space. We also had a wall in front of us instead of seats which gave more leg room and room for ds to sit on the floor and play.

We booked him his own seat and purchased a CARES safety harness so he could sit in his own seat.

We took lots of snacks and little toys which I wrapped up and brought out every hour if he was getting bored. Things that didn't have bits that would fall off but kept his hands busy.

The iPad was a god send with favourite cartoons downloaded also his fave apps to keep him busy.

We had to leave our house early as we flew glasgow to Heathrow first before getting the connecting flight to ny so ds was very tired halfway through the flight so slept a good chunk of the way too.

Thank you for your advice!! We're going on Virgin and have booked a bassinet for her but realise she's probably too big for it!! We havnt booked her own seat but do have an iPad. I'll just download as many apps as possible! And download a series of her favourite TV shows I guess! I think our flight is around 9am so she'll definitely be up earlier so hopefully will be tired enough to sleep a bit!

1. Gift wrap some new toys - your DD will enjoy unwrapping them
2. Try and get one of those front seats as mentioned by Harrys - the extra leg room will help
3. Sticker books if your DD enjoys them. They kept our DS occupied for quite some time
4. Loaded up and fully charged iPad will save your sanity :)
5. We also took some child friendly headphones for DS as we knew he wouldn't want to watch his cartoons on mute and we didn't want to disturb others in the flight. However, DS was 3 yo and I am not sure if you get child friendly headphones for 16 mo
6. Extra pair of clothes for yourself and DH - in case DD gets sick all over you (or as in our case, DH will spill his drink everywhere!)
7. If your DD has a soft toy or blanket she cannot sleep without, I would recommend you carry it with you. Especially an extra blanket as I find long haul flights very cold and the blanket that comes with the bassinet is not always clean enough
8. Snacks
9. A travel aquadoodle or something similar if your DD likes to draw

Also, at the check in counter, ask if they have any seats in business class and if they would bump you up :)