3 Year Old Long Flight

[Rachey28]

Hi All, We are due to take our 3 year old and 9 year old on a 9 hour flight in a few weeks. They have both flown before but never for this long. My 9 year old will be completely fine entertaining herself for the duration but please can I have some ideas for the 3 year old?
So far we have cuddly toy,tablet, reusable stickers, snacks, normal sticker book, one of the LED drawing pads (like an etch-a-sketch where you can just draw and then delete and draw again). But I really want to be over prepared with more than enough to do.

I'll have wipes and a spare outfit in my bag for her already.

Thank you!

Crayola mess free colouring (Amazon)
magnetic puzzles
Montessori magnetic maze
new Book
snacks that they wouldn’t usually be allowed
limit the tablet until you’re on the plane
i made my 3 year old walk lots around the airport pre flight - he slept for 4 hours of it

Having sat on a flight recently with a wailing infant 2+ for 8 hours, does your child understand that they will need to stay seated during take off and landing? Are you going to mitigate any ear problems with air pressure? Finally, do they have their own special headphones which they could practice wearing (and their/your tablet set up?)

Do not rely on the airline to fully provide re food. Bring with you enough foodstuffs they both like for the duration of the flight.

Don't understate the power of budgeting for some airport tat. Or go to the charity shop and buy a fivers worth of magazine freebie-type tat and surprise DC with it when then are ebbing.

Book. Colouring. A few tablet games. HEADPHONES. Please buy dc comfortable headphones because they shouldn't hurt, should her DC get into their own world and will help reduce the outside noise for them too.

And play pass the parcel with DH on duty for the length of a film, then you. It makes such a difference knowing you have the chill time to recuperate before being On again.

Maybe safe, sucking type foods, like sweetie drumsticks so they can be occupied during takeoff and landing.

Same as someone has said, after an awful flight this week with a 3 year old crying and screaming behind me for 6 of the 9 hours, it seemed she just didn’t understand what was expected of her at all, as in that she needed to sit down on a plane rather than jumping up and down on the seat, other people don’t find it “cute” to be continually tapped on the back of the head by your child. So I’d say healthy snacks, not sugar fuelled ones. Try and tire the out before, let them know how to behave. Maybe a blanket and cushion so they can sleep comfortably.

My little girl is now 6 but we started with long flights when she was 4 (17 hours for the first time and then 15 hours last year).

My top tips for success:
Tablet with some downloaded movies on it (don't trust that the in flight entertainment will have something they will want to watch). Headphones - some airlines provide kids ones but others don't
Notepad and pens
We made up some imaginative games to play together on the plane - hairdressers and nail bar were good because she would just brush my hair and pretend to paint my nails and then I would do the same to her
Small card games like dobble/uno
A couple of blind bag toys that i would pull out when boredom starts to set in (try to avoid anything with small parts). Alternative take a few small toys from home but wrap them up in newspaper before you go because it will give a bit more novelty.
Magic water painting
A bottle for drinks - they usually just give kids one of those flimsy plastic cups and you don't want those knocking around your seating area for too long as someone will inevitably knock it all down themselves (or you - speaking from experience).
Snacks - my DD rarely eats the plane food offerings so snacks are key

We usually travel across different time zones so as soon as we get on the plane we adjust to our destination timezone and put Dd in pjs at the appropriate time, encouraging sleep where possible.

Hopefully that helps and you have a stress free journey!

Mine travelled long haul a few times at that age. I loaded up the iPad with their favourite CBeebies as you can watch offline and they enjoyed the familiarity of the programmes they knew and loved. I made sure i had a good snack selection and if you’re delayed you have food to hand. And, I started packing away toys and stickers etc from party bags to suprise them with on the flight. Don’t give all items at once introduce one thing at a time every hour or so.

Download much much more than you think you might need, tv shows, movies, audio books, music, games. You cant rely on wifi, so you must download it.

Chargers and back up battery/power banks. Some are banned on airlines,so check to make sure you have one that is allowed and always plug in to a wall outlet and keep the decices topped up as much as possible

run the dc before you get on the plane so they are physically exhausted before you take off

get the richard scary going on a plane picture book. It really helps to lay out what is going to happen

Bag stuff up into individual bags to keep everything organized

comfy clothes with layers for getting too hot and too cold

think twice about the 3 yr old having their own carry on as you will just have to carry it and keep track of it, fewer bags are easier

some kind of sucker sweetie for each take off and landing, and dont give it until you are zooming down the runway or they will finish it before you have taxied

dole out the snacks little by little rather than give a meal so that snacks become entertainment

be cautious about lots of fruit..can lead to loose bowels!

water bottles,yogurts, anything sealed will explode all over you when you open it after take off. Be careful you dont end up wearing it

take a fuzzy friend they can use as a pillow

Travelled long haul extensively with mine from birth - around this age is a challenging one, but highly recommend the following:

• snacks (high value ones, sweets acceptable)
• iPad loaded with Bluey or whatever kids watch these days
• individually wrapped mini gifts - basically toys they can unwrap every hour or so, if they’re good.
• busy bag with pipe cleaners (if they’re into crafty stuff)

I used to keep wrapped gifts they’d like and produced them when they got bored of the last thing they were playing with. But really never needed to do this much, they were quite happy playing with the buttons on the seat entertainment system. And run them ragged at the airport, depending on the flight time they might nap for a good few hours after take off (if day flight).