Flying with a 16 month old who doesn’t like white noise

[xamyrose]

Hi,

So we’ve used white noise to get my toddler to sleep since she was a newborn. Now, she hates all white noise (hoover, hairdryer etc etc) and really really really goes crazy when she hears it.

I’m worried about going away with all the white noise of the aircraft. Any tips on trying to calm her down, as shell be hysterical.

Thanks!

Jdjdnjaudhw

What about ear defenders? Then the usual distractions of crayons and some paper to scribble on, some stickers, a few small (quiet) toys to play with. Snacks are a must for us. Or maybe try some headphones that go over the whole ear with some cartoons on a tablet to watch. To drown out the noise so she’s not as frightened. Babies cry please don’t worry about other people (if you are) Does she have a favourite teddy, book, dummy etc. If so take them in your hand luggage. I’ll be flying with a 5 year old and 16 month old in a few weeks. The youngest won’t be happy about being kept still on my knee so these will all be things I’ll be thinking of trying. Hopefully some one will come along with better ideas. Just go with what you would normally do. Stand in the isle and walk up and down if you need to.

Do you let her watch tv yet? If so Peppa Pig dvds on repeat?

The flight is at 3. I was thinking not letting her nap all day until then and give her milk on take off and hopefully she’ll sleep. What do you think?

Wouldn’t recommend delaying the nap, tends to send kids over the edge in my experience which would be exacerbated by the new experience of the plane. I don’t think You can have electricals on during take off or landing either ( I was asked to put my I pad away on Monday for landing ).

Or maybe try some headphones that go over the whole ear with some cartoons on a tablet to watch. To drown out the noise so she’s not as frightened.

I wouldn't do that unless the headphones are in part at least isolating. You can just turn the volume up enough to drown out the background, but as the noise at takeoff will be over 100dBA and the noise in the cruise will be around 85dBA, turning up a pair of headphones sufficient to mask that will be a lot of energy going into their ears. I'm always surprised to see adults using ordinary earbuds on planes, because they're almost certainly exposing themselves to a sustained 100dBA or more, and the safe exposure time for that is at most fifteen minutes.

My suggestions:

• try not to mess around with naps too much. Flight delays can play havoc with the best laid plans, as well as the fact that you will be hanging around the airport, boarding and all that prior to the flight.

• get some well fitting earphones that go over her head properly - the ones that the airline give out are far too big for kids. The entertainment systems normally have some decent kids TV and movies, as well as music that she might like to listen to

• take a bag of small toys that will keep her busy and little snack. Take them out slowly, one at a time, so as she is getting fractious you have something brand new to help distract her

• take something for her to suck during take off and landing, such as a sippy cup with an inbuilt straw, so that she can "pop" her ears

I’ve brought a headband speaker off eBay for babies which I’ll use for the flight with iPad... bring some toys and snacks...

I think on the day I’m going to see what happens with naps... have to be at the airport for one which is her normal nap time so maybe I’ll get her to sleep in the pram at the airport. Then she’ll be awake for the flight...

Dreading it as I hate flying myself 😫😫

@keneft most childrens headphones only go up to 85/92 db as far as I’m aware anyway. My ds headphones are limited to 85 db. They are the type of headphones i was suggesting. Maybe the way i worded it came across wrong. I’m not very good at expressing myself very well. I wasn’t suggesting turning a pair of adult headphones completely right up but just to play an episode or two of a cartoon to help distract her and hopefully not have her too upset. My first suggestion of ear defenders was for take off and landing to help minimise the noise as I don’t think electronics are allowed on then. My dd has a pair and worked perfectly for bonfire night.

@xamyrose i hope the flight goes well for you both. I’ve bought my dd some chunky crayons and some paper to scribble on. And a few smallish toys like cars etc (not too small as she is still tempted to put things in her mouth).

Recently did a 9:30pm-1am flight with my toddler who usually goes to sleep around 8pm. I was convinced it would be fine because he'd sleep. He only slept the last half hour. Definitely don't purposely delay the nap as I've found if mine are overtired they find it hard to fall asleep, and most toddlers will fight sleep on a plane. Can you try and have her nap earlier instead and awake on the plane?

On the flight back for us it was late morning. My toddler had an unusually early nap before the flight, he fell asleep on the transfer coach, and even stayed asleep when I had to lift him out of the pram to go through security! I was panicked that he now definitely wouldn't sleep on the plane but it was a breeze. He mostly watched Little Baby Bum on the iPad.

Thanks all! How did you download that on the iPad?

Do you have a Netflix account? If so you can download programs onto your ipad/tablet to be able to watch offline on Netflix. Can also do it with amazon prime tv. However i think you only get 48 hours to watch the amazon tv ones.

If you hate flying and your child is only 16 months old, why are you having to fly?