Advice for long daytime flight with 4yo

[longhauler]

Hi,

I am taking my 4 year old on our first longish-haul flight at half term and am looking for some advice from parents who've done this! The longest flight she's been on before now is 4hrs.

For the return flight it's overnight so I'm very much hoping she will sleep. Unfortunately the outbound flight was only available in the day. So we leave the UK at 10am our time and fly for 11 hours, arriving at our destination at 3pm their time (9pm UK time).

Does anyone have any advice or tips both for the flight and what to do when we arrive at our destination? Should we try to keep child awake on the outbound flight? There will be a transfer of an hour to our hotel and I'm sure she will fall asleep. Should we just let her or will that make the new bedtime a nightmare? Should we do the opposite and try to keep her awake throughout the whole thing until 7pm ish their time?

Also on the flight itself does anyone have any advice other than iPad with downloaded films? What do we do for 11 hours?! 😩

As well as the films how about a trip to somewhere like the Works. You can usually get some no mess art sets.

Yes thank you that sounds good

Will she nap?

I did similar flights regularly with DS at that age. Ran him ragged in the airport play area, and that combined with the early wake up/excitement/strong encouragement, he'd drift off for 2 hours early on in the flight. Then kept him up til around 6/6:30 local time and because of the additional time spent awake all day, he slept through. Took a while to figure out that method though!

For entertainment, we did his Amazon tablet with stuff downloaded, the odd craft activity but honestly he was pretty happy with screen time and interacting with the flight attendants/eating!

My new book

'Parenting with Cable Ties and Gaffer Tape' is coming out shortly

Make sure you practice with headphones first if she's going to be watching stuff – they can take some getting used to for little ones. We also have some games on the tablet (colouring, mazes, jigsaws, some letter and number ones), most of which can be played without sound if they don't want to use the headphones.

Otherwise, colouring/drawing, sticker books, regular books for reading, small puzzles, card games, small figures of animals/disney characters/whatever. An activity book with a mix of things like spot the difference, cartoons, colouring, etc. can be good, but a lot are slightly too old at four. We also had those wooden sewing kits from Hobbycraft, and got given a bracelet-weaving set on one flight, but again, I think those depend on your four year old – a bit old for a lot of them.

Yes shes fine with headphones and all those activities. But no way will she nap!!! Also I am not sure about things like beads as I can see then falling everywhere and her getting upset (plus other passengers!)

She's very spirited and on full battery until she's asleep so just trying to find her and different things that will peak her interest.

Lots of running in the airport first! And board the plane last. If you have two adults, you might want one to board first with bags, then the second wait with child until the end. If you board first you’re adding 40 mins on to the time you’re stuck in the seat.

If you use screens normally, reduce them in the run up so they’re exciting. Double check everything is downloaded and working on your tablet (some downloads only last 48h before you have to connect to refresh them).

Some people like to wrap up toys/activities and present a new one every hour or so. I trawled charity shops, silly things like a new small toy cow kept mine entertained purely because it was new! Baker Ross kits which are basically stickers are good. (Take these apart ahead of time and put in zip lock bags). Also sticker books. Magic water painting (get the type where the pen holds water rather than a paintbrush).

ALL THE SNACKS. Honestly, assume your child will eat zero plane food. But check restrictions on what you can take in to the country and throw away anything you can’t while on the plane.

On arrival - basically try to go in to the new time zone as quickly as possible. Depending on times we might have a brief nap (alarm set!) mid afternoon, but then push through until local bed time. If she won’t sleep, still do quiet/dark overnight. Lots of outside time especially first thing in the morning. I let mine sleep in the car after arriving at airport, fighting it just doesn’t work.

@TeamPlaying thank you that's all really helpful

Allow a nap during transfer to hotel but after that stay awake until bedtime to adjust to the new time zone
Lots and lots and lots of snacks and treats for the plane. Calpol and Nurofen, just in case.
At that age i used the Crayola mess free range, they were brilliant.
Tonnes of downloads on the ipad of favourite shows.
Kiddie games on Ipad, mine loved things like bubble pop, a game where she could do nail painting etc
I take a thick drawing pad again from The Works and some glitter and pastel gel pens for her to draw with.
I got mini jigsaws from The Works, also have a poppit tetris game: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ainiv-Educational-Learning-Intelligence-Silicone/dp/B0BGS97ZX3/ref=sr_1_5?adgrpid=1180876404746904&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.OJBasROMK2B1MQr42OmRw3Z3CBNDd-lNKGmdNy63woxz8R7Lvov1AH_ofWtdxN7CAzVLw3NzeOwpsJKe6CJoDblP52j2w2ekUC9JDQuLcHOf4tDGbwj5uKgkkOjvRMGjudVtQ9uEV7utmGe3N616x78FNrcsqe-S9t5ZBkt6pawc9d4RPFyKIoGgT0mKq558yjv8nQ0fSbgMQciNIT3_ra3a2tY_fSuskl5uOmiU8IksGTU-93lySozN1LD38IaOZ9Y3zp2jl4q4TM3RptsTit6u1Q00tN3kmuLVgWaNXn0.oTn1H_AmG2fJ8soHcv1ir1b6eDxECkimB0TIUY878Nw&dib_tag=se&hvadid=73804979451415&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=41843&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-73804931190645%3Aloc-188&hydadcr=20054_1829817&keywords=poppit+tetris&msclkid=3fce447a90b21af09cef237d0873232b&qid=1728551115&sr=8-5

I second the wrapping up of small things that can be brought out at intervals and then used or played with.