Flying with a 1 year old

[thattravelphotographer]

Any and all advice welcome here please!

In August we will hopefully be traveling with our then 1 year old, involving a 7 hour flight, 3 hour stop over followed by a 2 hour flight. How can I keep it as stress free as possible? And what are your top tips when flying with a baby?

(Unfortunately we cannot afford her own seat, so will be an on-the-lap job for the flights)

Oh man, is there no way you can get her a seat? This would be torture for me. We took a 4 hour flight when my son was 17 months and it was terrible.

But, assuming this is a trip you want to make, I hope someone better comes along to give you more helpful advice! 😂

Try and give your LO a drink whilst taking off and landing to relieve any pressure in his/her ears. Either that or encourage them to suck your finger or a dummy (that works for longer!).
If you're taking a dummy, get a dummy clip.
Make sure you have at least one change of clothes on the flight and bring a spare top for yourself. Just in case!
Aim to choose an aisle seat near the front of the plane or if the aircraft has a bulkhead seat (usually long haul) try and book one if possible. This will allow you to have plenty of space and will give you the mobility to get up and walk around if you need to, plus you can board and leave the plane much easier. I like an aisle seat when flying with kids as I can easily get up to get things and go to the toilets.
Some parents do prefer to sit near the bathrooms at the back, but noise levels can be higher. This might be useful depending on how your LO responds to noise, take this into consideration.
Most airlines will allow you to take the pushchair right up to the plane door and then staff will pop it under with the luggage. Ask at check-in whether you get it back on the Tarmac once you've landed or whether it will turn up on the carousel. You should get priority boarding.
Order all baby food and nappies that you want/need for the flight and when you're waiting for your flight online to be picked up from Boots at the airport after security. This will hopefully save you some time in the security queue as you will have less liquids to be checked and perhaps save a little room in your suitcase too. Win, win! You are allowed one standard airport shopping bag on to your flight in addition to your hand luggage. e.g You can have hand luggage + 1 Boots bag or hand luggage + a standard bag from another airport store.
You can get Calpol and Ibuprofen sachets. Perfect for travel and in handy 5ml sizes.
Several airlines now have baby food available as a pre order option for your flight, so check this out first.
Put hand luggage in a back pack so you have your hands free.

Good toys to take:
A set of nesting eggs or stacking cups- can be used for playing hide and seek with snacks (like raisins and Cheerios)!
Finger Puppets
ELC star links
Fisher Price snap lock caterpillar
John Lewis discovery cube
Sticklebricks
Edushape curiosity cube

Sling or a buggy you can take on the plane itself (like the yo-yo)
Loads of snacks
Bag of little toys they've not seen before
Loads of spare clothes & nappies
If they're walking/toddling, be prepared to spend a lot of time walking up and down the aisle.

Having flown a fair bit with mine at that age, I'd definitely see if you can get a spare seat - we dropped lucky a couple of times with the budget airlines on not full flights and they moved us/the other passenger so we could have the middle seat but I guess it depends on the airline and how busy it is.