flight to New York with 18 month old - will it be fun or fiendish??

[chocbutton]

what will the flight be like, and what will an 18 month old with jet lag be like? Never flown with DS before, so no idea what to expect.
Any tips for lasting the flight, recovering from jet lag, getting back to normal sleeping when we return etc?

are you buying him a seat or will he be on your lap?

Dd was 3 when we did this and never seemed to suffer any jet lag at all. Way out she watched Harry Potter and had a bit of a snooze. Way back she slept most of the night. Me and Dh were knackered all day and she was full of beans. Never caused a problem...

def buying him a seat as fear would be like cuddling a bag of eels (heavy ones!) for 7 hours!
not sure he'll watch a filem, only likes ITNG and only for a bit at a time

opps film

Bag of eels? Sounds like my son!
We fly all the time and my dd (3) is a dream and always has been. My ds (17 mo) is a demon and always has been. Too wiggly.

Since you know your ds personality, you can guess how it will go. How is he on long car trips? Just bring 'special' things however awful they might be in real life. Like chocolate or a new toy or a silky blanket, or whatever he will love. Some friends give their children medication, but I've never tried that.

we went last year and dd was about 18 months then, she was fine, we brought her a seat so she ahd plenty of room, crayons, paper, magazines (i know he might seem too young but good way to distract them and usually get soemthign free with them) plenty of food, which is easy to eat and not too messy. dummy if he has one (as much as i hate them it was a lifesaver for the flight as good to suck on take off and landing adn when she started gettigna bit grumpy we just plugged it ina dn instant quiet )

she seemed to cope with teh jet lag better then we did as did my two elder boys, its a holiday to them and they get excited at staying up late and being in a new place so no worse than calming them downa dn getting them back into a routine than when we had gone away in the uk.

ny is fab for children so much to see and do and they were so fussed over in the restaurants and diners, their food portions often bigger then the adults!

above all i would say relax and have fun, try not to let it streess you out. for em the worst bit is flying but then i hate flying, it wasn;t my children stressing me out it wasmyself about the flying and being ina confined space that gets me stressed.

thanks everyone - staying with my sister so she has promised us lots of sights to see that he will like and nice restaurants (he likes eating!)
Just need to convince DH that the flight will be ok and not result in monstrous DS!