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Parenting

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Original poster

First flight with a toddler

4 replies

btna · 09/02/2022 12:13

Hello,

This will be our first flight with our toddler (2 years old) and looking for travel packing tips please. What to take on a flight/away with us? Also wondering what to do about a car seat for the other side?
It's a 5 hour flight

She is a bit of a cautious one so am worried she may get scared. Any guidance around prepping for the flight welcome too ☺️☺️

Any tips will be very much appreciated
Thanks

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Cazziebo · 09/02/2022 12:22

Get some sticker/picture books on flights to read before you go.

Take some activities with you for the plane journey and produce them at intervals to keep her occupied.

Been a while since mine were toddlers and luckily they were fantastic travellers. (just as well as most of my family are in the US/Canada!) They did sleep for some of the time. Going to the loo was a slight problem as the space is so limited but I did have two with me.

Re car seats, I hired with the hire car. I know some people have had bad experiences with dirty/broken car seats but the ones I was allocated were always quite new and clean. (I travelled on my own with the DCs so no way could I carry a car seat as well. I did have a problem with at Toronto airport when I had a 3 year old and a 6 month old and had no way of picking the case up from the carousel and nobody to help! )

MaizeAmaze · 09/02/2022 12:46

Flight:
Clean set of clothes for both of you.
Bottle they will drink out of, even if they usually use open cups. It is miserable Sat for hours in a damp, sticky, orange juicy teeshirt!
Snacks incase they veto the food
Headphones if you can find a pair they will tolerate. If you load games \ videos onto a tablet, they need to be sound off or Headphones on.
Sticker book (peal the while background bit off before you start).
Don't take too much on the plane. You need to be able to juggle it all.

Carseats are difficult at that age. Either put one you don't mind getting bumped in the hold, or hire one when you are there. Some people buy plane cateat, but there aren't many in the uk that meet plane standards.

Original poster

btna · 09/02/2022 19:29

@Cazziebo @MaizeAmaze
Thank you for both your replies. Really helpful.

What a great idea with stickers as she is obsessed with them at the moment. Will make a little activity pack to take.

Appreciate your tips. Thank you x

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allfurcoatnoknickers · 09/02/2022 20:46

I'm in the US, so YMMV, but we have a super light weight car seat that can go on a plane as it's approved by the FAA. It straps on to the plane seat, but it's also approved for cars. Not sure if that's a thing in Europe/the UK? We attached it to the back of the BabyZen Yoyo to go through the airport.

Other than that, we brought a million snacks, some lollipops for takeoff and landing, some new books, a fully loaded ipad and headphones, change of clothes and a mountain of baby wipes. Oh and finger puppets! They were a hit. We had a snake that slithered all over our seats and it was great fun.

DS was a gem which was NOT a guarantee. He's usually feral. He's 2.5 and loved the airport so much and behaved really well on the flight other than a bit of singing and one loud demand for chocolate.

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