4 hour flight with an 18mo

[Yazi23]

Got a four hour flight next week with our very lively 18 month old.
Any advice? Best things to take on the plane to entertain him??

Stickers...music on a cd player with headphones.. crayons ..paper.... sweeties... can you download cartoons or films on an iPad? Go well armed. ! I'll used to do shorter flights alone with my two 2 and 4 years old. Nightmare but...it gets beytter!! Make friends with the hostesses and they will.look out for you. Wet wipes ..snacks.. sit near the loos....
Have a great trip and good luck!

iPad and child's headphones (need to be these as they limit the volume to avoid the risk of them accidentally upping it). Download multiple favourites from CBeebies / Amazon / wherever. Make sure you get the headphones ASAP so he can get used to them at home. Also, lots of snacks for distraction. Small toys and books, obviously, but make sure you don't bring anything that makes too much noise as that will inevitably become the thing he HAS to play with for the entire four hours...

Airplanes with small people means that I would totally ignore usual limits on things like screen time!

We did it in September and he was amazing, watched nemo on the ipad. However many snacks you think you need - double It (great advice from here) And be ready to walk up and down the plane 500 times.

We took small ‘lift flap’ books, wrapped up to add to ‘excitement, little finger puppets, magnets and a little tin, and tons of snacks. iPad with stuff on it.
Did 11hr, then 12 hr- it was fine. With 19 month old.

Buy them their own seat. If you can’t then get to airport super early and ask at the check in desk if the flight is full. If it isn’t, ask if your child can be given a seat. If this doesn’t work, board as soon as you can and ask the same question to the cabin crew. This has usually got us a seat. The main issue we had is with them refusing to sit still and kicking the seat in front so if you can book bulkhead seats then even better. You can’t rely on being able to walk up and down the aisle particularly if it’s a small plane. Take a tablet and plenty of books and snacks.

Thanks everyone. Some good tips. I've downloaded two hours of Little Baby Bum onto my iPad along with some Thomas the tank. Got a tonne of snacks coming on the next shopping delivery and I've kept back some of his stocking filler type toys to bring out. We're going away with all my family so there's a huge group of us so I'm not too worried about the people around us (sorry family ) its more about getting him to sit for a period of time more than 5 minutes. Hubby will be on the end seat ready to do plenty of strolls with him though. It'll be worth it when we get there fingers crossed!

Took then-2yo DD to New York which was a 6-7 hour flight.

Yes to all the tips above, but also - only get 1 thing out at a time and spin each thing out as long as you can. And yes to walking up. And down. The sodding plane. About 57 million times.

Aqua doodle. Can draw with no mess and 15 month old obsessed with it at the moment. Travel one is small and light too

We did a flight to Chicago about 18m. We watched a load of Timmy Time, and he slept a lot too. We got a bulkhead seat, and he was able to sit on the floor and play too.

I've never done a flight that long, but regularly do train journeys of around that length.

As well as what PPs have said, I also find it handy to have a small bottle of emergency bubbles - good distraction if it looks like something's about to kick off.