plane travel with a little one

[chickiewoo]

We are travelling to Spain in a couple of weeks. We flew twice last year and swore never again! Our son, who is now nearly 3, was not very well behaved and also suffered with travel sickness. We tried the usual bribes of toys, books, food etc. but really struggled to keep him amused and calm for the journeys. Today I went to our Doc for some advice as a friend had recommended Phenergan - apparently it relieves travel sickness and also has a calming effect - which sounded like a good idea to me. However my Doc wouldn't recommend Phenergan or even prescribe anything for children so young and now I wondering what we are going to do. Has anyone used any over the counter remedies with success or does anyone have any ideas that may help to keep him occupied - he is a typical boy, extremely active and can't sit still for 5 mins! I'm new to Mumsnet, joined today, so would really appreciate any help you can give me.

Sounds like you tred your best last time...the fligt will be shor though won't it?
He may have changed in his attention span since last year. Make sure you have sacks and drinks for him and we found sticker books invaluable. dd3 spent over an hour peeling them off and sticking them into the right places...

lots of little things wrapped up

ie small books,sweets

Agree with dropdeadfred sticker books are brill keep my dd amused. Last hols we got a book with 600 stickers! from Tesco for £3.95

Kept my dd happy on 4 hour flight to Lanzarote during hols and on the return.

Have just purchased another one for our next next flight.

Sorry to hear about your son's travel sickness.Is he just sick from air travel? or in the car as well.

If he travels ok in car maybe something else caused him to be ill on the plane ie over excitement or a different drink etc.

You can buy Phenergan over the counter at the chemist. It is an anti-histamine so it mightbe worth having anyway in case he gets bitten by insects. It does help with travel sickness but its most notable feature is that it sends them to sleep (which is why people use it for travelling with)!

I wouldn't say do it all day every day or even regularly, but two afternoons a year whilst you travel to and from you hol?

A quick note about phenergen, which we have used, for some children it seems to have a opposite effect and can make them a bit hyperactive - might be good to do a trial run first. When we used it for our dd (for travel sickness) she was about 5 I think. It worked for the sickness, and she did sleep for some of it, but she woke up and seemed rather 'drugged' and a bit out of it and a little distressed. But obviously, every child will have their own response to it.