tips for flying with toddlers - longhaul flights

[lunarx]

next week, we are off to the US for 18 days with our 16 month old son in tow. its an 8hour flight there and 6.5 hour flight back.
we've never flown with him before.

so any ideas/suggestions/help/anything on how this may be? to keep him busy?

trying not to stress!! but when ds cries, he will not doubt get me some very dirty looks!

thanks!!!

Ring the airline direct & ask for a bulkhead seat with a bassinet. That way you can sit him in there & let him play to his hearts content.Take his favourite toys, books etc.

You also get extra leg room at bulkheads.

DO NOT worry about the other passengers. Worry about your child. If he cries & you are tense he will sense that & it could make him worse.

Offer his favourite drink at take off, the sucking will help with the ear popping. Take lots of little snacks. Try to avoid sweets tho as this will give him xtra sugar & it could make him more prone to be hyper. Sultanas, rice cakes, friut, that type of thing.

They always let families with children on first, so that's a good bonus. Keep your buggy with you until you are about to board, they usually take it off you as you go onto the plane, or just before.

I flew with DD at 16 months to Adelaide, I was shocked at how good she was. We always prepare ourselves for the worst!

Good Luck & Have a great time.

You may not be allowed to use a bassinet depending on the size of your ds. Airlines usually have a weight and length restriction for children using them and I suspect a 16 month old would be too tall. Some airlines have seats that click into the bulkhead instead of a bassinet, phone your airline and ask what they will provide.

Does your ds use a dummy? We found that very good for take-off and landing as our ds sucked on it and kept his ears at the right pressure.

portable dvd player - life saver for me.

we bought him a seat..(it wasnt a matter of money just our sanity!) he is very active and it would just be a nightmare to have to deal with holding him on the flight..
we are taking my laptop which plays dvds
he doesnt use a dummy =o i'm hoping he'll have some milk during take-off. i hope they dont mind me walking him up and down the aisles.
i hope we get a bulkhead seat!!

thanks for the advice so far.. anymore is welcomed!!!

we can take his carseat! luckily, as that will also save having to hire one in the US for the car!

thanks for the tips about wearing him out before hand at the airport.. his grobag won't fit around the car seat buckles, but maybe will take it just for something that reminds him of home (smells and all).
i plan to have a small toddler meal on me (those ones from heinz or beddina that are already in dishes, hopefully they might heat it for me. i dread to think what the airplane food might be! (although he would probably eat some of ours!)

thanks again!!!

i definitely think i am over-stressing about this!! he will probably sleep too. as the flight is just about at his morning nap time and we will be up early!

Load of threads on this but wanted to add to definitely take your carseat. Much safer for turbulence and children are used to being in them and accept having to stay still for a bit. Also means that you know you have a decent car seat at the other end too.

What time are you flying. We flew to the US with ds (3.5) and dd (12 mo) in february, and they ate dinner watched a bit of a film (ds) and then fell fast asleep. We had to wake them for landing. Same on the way back. It was fab! Are you taking a car seat for him? If so, definitely ask for a bulkhead seat. Dh had a toddler in a car seat behind him, and he was kicked all the way from Miami to Heathrow. He was NOT amused. Of course, he didn't say anything, and the parents wouldn't have been able to do anything about it, but if you have a bulkhead seat you won't have to worry about annoying someone less tolerant then my dh!

Take more than enough extra clothes - you just don't know. (And thats not just for them!)
We've flown quite a lot and had quite a few 'chuck ups' which have not only covered them but us too!! If its a night flight - its so much easier than trying to keep them amused the entire time!!! All the best!

very true, gem13..i didnt like the idea of hiring a car seat that wasnt mine..(not knowing the history of it or anything..) -

our flight out is 10.30am.. flight back leaves at 6.30 pm (arrives like 6am UK time) - no night-flights over there.. yep, am taking his car seat. i hope for a bulkhead seat. i have been kicked too on longhaul flights. not fun!! (i'm not too tolerant, but said nothing.)

good idea about the extra clothes!! too!! thanks!!!

Check and see if the airline does specific childrens meals, Virgin do, and they do loads of snacky nibbly things which they can keep back and munch on for hours, we took dd to USA on a 10hr flight when she was 16/17mths and she was great on the way out, but wouldn't settle on the way back (night flight, argh!) Calpol came in useful on the way back!
Also recommend yoghurt coated raisens for snacking, although your supposed to leave them on the plane as you can't take fruit/veg into USA....
Take some new toys/books, and produce a new one every few hours as well to keep them entertained.

Just wanted to add a few things. It really does depend on the ariline you are flying about some things. For instance, we are due to fly to Florida tomorow with our two, one of whom is 16 months old (we are actually postponing til later in the week now due to hurricane, but that is another story!) Wer are flying Virgin who will NOT allow car seats onbaord. They provide an infant care chair if child has own seat (as we have booked for ds), but I have no experience yet of how good this is. Are you SURE you can use your carseat onboard?

If you have booked a seat for your toddler, you will almost certainly NOT get bulkhead seats. They save these for families who have infants on laps. If the plane is empty, you may be lucky.

Meals are hit an miss. I was told that jars of baby food are available on flights, but they generally will only be fruit jars. Kids meals on Virgin are appallingly full of sugar - actual contents of one meal includes at least 3 different kinds of chocolate bars and a fruit shoot to drink. BA have recenlt come out with a healthy option kids meal, but it needs preordering of course. We are bringing our own food with us for the kids.

Hope some of this helps!

I always used to take homeopathic teething granules with me when flying. I used to give to give dd when taking off and landing as they contain chammomile which can help soothe sore ears,distract and maybe get them to swallow. You can buy them in boots.

Lol - teething granules wouldn't do anything for my ds! We use medised!

make sure you have a parachute and hold them tight?

when i phoned continental (i plan to do so again today as i am quite anal about double checking details before flights!) they said i needed to bring my car seat. i plan on double checking that, the luggage allowance and meals today.

i dread the meal being full of sugar or salt. i will have my bag packed with food/snacks/drinks for him.. he doesnt need any help being hyper! lol

teething granules dont seem to work for ds, although i have used them when he was in his early teething days..unfortunately, now he is just content with a wooden toy to chew on..

my husband is more keen than i am to take the medised... but then again i can cope better with ds's whingeyness than he can!!

we'll get him a new book and toys this weekend. something special for the flight (as no doubt he will get presents for the return flight.. but we are hoping (ha!) he sleeps!!)

and yes. a pocket parachute! must get one of those too this weekend ;)

I have heard that using priton/phenergan (sp) etc can sometimes have the opposite effect and make them hyper. Dont know if it's true but might be worth checking out.

when we've used medised when he's sick (or very restless at night) it does make him sleepy. luckily!

hmm.. just called continental airlines... anyone who has flown UK to US, have you taken your carseats? i was just told that unless my carseat has a special label on it (the it conforms to UN standards) it will not be allowed on the plane. and that my son will NOT be provided any sort of safety seat, that he will have to sit in the adult seat. (ha! yeh, lets hope for us and the rest of the plane, it doesnt come to that. he doesnt know the meaning of sitting still.!)

thanks again..!

still stressing

There is quite a lot of stuff on the internet about car seats and flying. Most of it is American, so if you have a look at that, it might help you with regards to the 'special label'. We've never flown to the US, only within Europe / Cyprus, so can't help with specific US regulations.

I think in general the staff at the airport / on the plane seem to be less strict than the ones 'on the phone'. We've often been told no to things, only for somebody at the airport to say it is fine.

One consideration, if they say at the airport that you can't take your car seat on the plane, would you be happy for it to go in the hold? I didn't want my isofix one going in the hold and possibly getting knocked, so we got a cheaper one to take on the flight.

You can get grobags which are designed to fit in carseats.

Remember to bag your buggy up well, or it will get knocked and scraped - we've used either a stoller bag / surf board bag / heavy duty garden rubbish bags and black tape. Good to have extra on hand to put car seat in if needs be.

Medised sounds a fantastic idea, would probably have used it if we had flown for any longer distances.

Can you ring the Continental desk at the airport and see what they say?

Hope you get it all sorted.

I was advised to used medised or piriton to sedate DD slightly on our flights to Oz. I decided against it tho as I am not a fan of giving meds unnecessarily. She Didn't need it anyway.

Dont know if it's been mentioned, but take extra outfits for all of you in carry on luggage, incase of accidents. DD spilt milk all over DH, luckily we had change of clothes.

dh looked at the carseat on his lunchbreak and it does have the E number labelling that does specify it conforms the EU standards. i dont know. i printed some stuff out which pretty much says the ECE R44.03 and the UN conformity are the same..(if not VERY VERY similar.) although no one at Britax was able to tell me this.

what a bloody headache !!!

i hope they arent as strict at the airport. now i need to confirm that our carseat can be secured and fitted with only a lapbelt.

continental desk have just told me it needs to conform to UN standards.. i dont think they can do much else at this point.

definitely packing some extra outfits just in case!

sigh... after phoning Britax, it turns out our catseat cant be fastened with only a lapbelt, so it is not approved for airline use...

I would assume that you can only actually use the carseat if you pay for the seat it is to be strapped in? We fly loads (one of mine is the same age and it is grim) and that is what I have always understood.

Sedation really is the only answer.