so madly we are taking 3 and 1 yr old on 23 hour flight to Sydney - any tips for a pleasant flight (?!?!?!)

[HenriettaHippo]

We madly booked flights with a 2 hour stop off in Hong Kong... time to have a shower.

Flight leaves UK at 22.30 so hopefully they'll sleep for a bit at least at the start....

Anyone got any failsafe tips for making the journey as stress free as possible (I realise there will be moments (hours?!) when it's difficult...

Thinking so far of taking:

• snacks
• toys (small!) and books (borrowed, so that they are new to them, and old favourites)
• wondered about a Leapfrog book for DS1
• ear plugs (for me and DH and other travellers around us

Any other tips very gratefully received...

Anyone got a recommendation for a sedative if all else fails??? Thinking esp of DS2 who will be 1 the day we leave, and won't understand what's going on....

Take a big bottle of mediced with you

problem with sedatives is that they can go the other way (ie make them hyper) so test before you go

also, if your flight leaves at 10.30pm, you are talking airport 7.30pm so not sure if you will get sleep in tbh

mn travel tips here

We did NZ with 5 year old dd and 20 month old ds and that demanded great courage and fortitude but we got there in the end!
Hmmm dd was absolutely fine and happy to watch hours of films and also slept a bit.
Ds.....mmmm....much more difficult. Food is a good idea, I spent alot of time fully exploring all the faciities in the loos(!)
I did wrap up some toys for ds but he wasn't that interested. I'd guess it would be a tad easier as your 1 year old won't be that mobile (?).
Didn't drug mine - at one point ds was asleep on the transit lounge floor bless him.
Tell you what though once you've done it you feel like you've got loads of parenting brownie points.
Good luck.

Hi,
I did Aus at Christmas with a 3.9 dd and a 13 month old dd ( who walked 1 week before we flew!!!). We stopped off in Dubai for 3 days on the way out and 1 night on the way back.

I just told myself it would probably be the worst 12/24 hours of my life walking up and down the aisles with a screaming child and anything better would be a blessing.

Actually it was all fine, they behaved like children do - fidgety (sp), loud occasionally but in general fine. They slept ok but on our laps. The travel cot provided was too small for our dd2.

We took all the stuff you took plus:
favourite cuddly toy/blanket for sleeping.
Those sound books that you press picture to make sounds to go along with the story (they sound really loud at home but we could barely hear them on the plane).
Crayons/paper for drawing.
All the small toys (cheap plastic things) I put in a (child friendly) bag the elder one played with the toys and the younger one took them in/out of the bag for a loooong time.

Most airlines also have childrens packs which kept mine amused for quite a while.

WE took piriton syrup with us, which had absolutely no effect except to make dd2 sick just as we took off!

If the airline doesn't have personal tv screens I'd see if you can get a second hand portable DVD player and take a widdddddddddde selection?

Buy a trunki here
My dd loves hers and for a trip when she was 19mts I filled it (and I mean filled it) with cheapy (little toys-not all suitable for her age group either as I figured I would be keeping a close eye on her).
I painstakingly wrapped them all-some from Hawkins bazaar,some party bag fillers etc etc.Whenever she got a bit bored,we allowed her to unwrap a present.

Thanks for the tips. We're priming DS1 already about it being a long trip, and he's quite excited about going to sleep on the plane (although suspect he thinks he'll have a bed...!!).

Whoosh, thank you, I just ordered a Trunki - they look fantastic. DS1 will LOVE all the little hidey holes, and it even has a seat belt for Teddy!

Thanks for all the other tips. My SIL had a disaster with piriton when it made her DD go totally hyper.

DS2 is very mobile, only crawling but fast..., but in some ways that's harder, he keeps banging his head on the seats when he sits up from all 4s... Oh dear.

olive, I'd thought that with the flight going at 2230, figured hopefully they'd sleep in the car going to the airport (2 hour journey), then be tired again by the time we get on the plane. Fingers crossed anyway...

re Trunki, they look fab fab fab

HOWEVER

what is the luggage allowance for them, ie hand luggage wise

we are (hopefully) going to Australia soon and will have dd1 and dd2, can they take one each?

I presume they will be classed as hand luggage for me and dh but then where do you put all your other 'essentials'?

thanks

does it depend if you've booked the children seats? We booked both of ours a seat (DS1 because he's over 2, and DS2 because we couldn't bear the thought of having him on our laps for 23 hours) - if they've got a seat, then don't they have their own luggage allowance?

not sure, you may be right

logical, since other adults could have booked those seats, and they'd have luggage allowance, so why shouldn't children who've booked the same seats? but logical might not come into it...!!!

Yes, afaik, children with seats have normal luggage allowances. I think you get one bag for non-seated kids, too, although I'm not sure, with all the recent changes.

Children,if they have their own seat,get the same luggage allowance as an adult.
Trunki also fits in the new handluggage size regualtions.
It's actually quite amazing how much you can get in them.
DD had to keep a tight hold on hers as there were many other small ones who wanted to get their hands on it!

Whooosh, hopefully that will encourage DS1 to stay "seated" on his trunki, and not run off into the crowds at the airport... Excellent, another use for it!

hey those Trunki things are going to be on Dragons Den in a minute

BBC2 now

We took 2x 1yos to Australia, all around Oz( 12 internal flights),and back again. My best tip is to put your watch/clock on to the arrival time, and work your routine on from that, eg put them to bed in Oz time, breakfast in Oz time (even tho it is the middle of the night Uk time). That gets them used to it earlier, therefore, less disturbed sleep when you arrive. We survived by doing night flights, buying loads of books/toys in OZ, wrapping them up for the internal flights etc, and taking Piriton. We had tried it out at home before we flew and knew that it did have the correct effect. DS started teething his back molars on the flight from DBX-SYD and it was horrifc(sorry). Apart from that, remember to take clean clothes for you to change into, as well as the lo - makes you feel so much better.Nothing worse than spending 14 hours plus in vomit covered T shirt in a pressurised metal tube.
Good luck.

thanks, I had been thinking about the time difference. I thought we'd just go with the flow on the flights, and then we land in Sydney at 6 am. There's no way we'll get through a whole day without sleep, so depending how tired, we might all go to bed when we get to our accommodation for a few hours, then get through the afternoon and evening, go to bed a bit later than normal, and then get them up the next morning on Ozzie time (maybe plus an hour or so....!)