Solo travel with 18-month old

[LaVitesse2022]

First time travelling on my own with my 18 mo. Any tips for keeping him occupied during the 2.5-hour flight? We've travelled before with him but always the three of us, anything I should be aware of travelling on my own with him?

New book, new little cheap toys. Snacks. Little pillow or cuddly toy if the flight is around his nap time.

Obviously if you don't share a surname then a letter from the father.

One hand fold travel buggy to give at the gate/plane steps, for ease of getting around the airport with bags.

If you consider an 18 month old’s average attention span is quite short (what is it like, maybe 5 minutes?), you need a collection of different things to hold their attention and you can rotate for interest.
Start with a book, when bored put it away. Get out a toy, when bored put it away. Have a little snack. Get up and walk down the plane aisle and back again. Back in your seat, sing a song. Back to a book - same one if they like it, bring a few just in case. Bored of the book, get the toy out, same one or different, bring a few just in case. Keep rotating things. Doesn’t have to be as fast-paced as I’ve made it sound, the benefit is to have different options to avoid prolonged boredom.
Books where they can touch things. Toys where they are interacting. Keep the mind busy as the body will be less active.
If you are lucky you might be sat next to or in front/behind a kindly stranger who will engage with the baby too (this is always me on a plane, I’m always happy to make faces, peekaboo, etc), some people will be interested, some not.
2.5 hours is manageable by yourself, you’ll be fine.

I should read more carefully - 18mths old not 2.5 years 😂

Same advice as before, but I always brought the Ergobaby carrier for getting on and off the plane and before collecting the buggy. So much easier than holding a little one and wrestling your bag, changing bag etc.

If the flight is cheap then I'd also recommend buying an extra seat for space. Occasionally we ended up with a spare seat next to us and it made the world of difference.

Have you paid so he can have his own seat or will he be in your lap the entire time as he's under 2? If the latter, I'd pay extra for an aisle seat so you can walk him up and down the aisle as much as necessary.

Sorry, I should just edit instead of posting again. Major top tip - keep what you will need often, very handy. So a pack of tissues/wipes/1 nappy right in the outer side pocket of your rucksack for example.

Digging through a rucksack trying to locate a wipe with a squirmy lap infant , on Ryanair's tiny seat is awful! Get things like water bottle and snacks for him organized and handy before takeoff.

And go and do a wee yourself (and change him)before boarding!!

Thank you, these are all really good advice. We won't have an extra seat so I'll definitely choose an aisle one. Instead of bothering the 2 other passengers in our row he can go and bother all the others 😅 In all seriousness, we had already clocked that the aisle seat is the best as it gives us extra space. And easier to just get up and change him if any accidents.

I think the idea of taking several little things he hasn't come across yet is a good one. I'm wondering if people have used tablets at this age? We never do it at home but travelling feels like exceptional circumstances. Or is he too young?

I'll be taking the toddler carrier as it does help having hands free.

I've actually just checked the terms on a few airlines and they don't allow infants on laps in aisle seats... Middle or aisle only! That's a shame.

Lots of snacks! More than you think you need, and at least some that are slow to eat, small pieces they have to pick up and put in their mouth rather than a bar that's gone in 30 seconds.

Choose books with detail in the pictures, so you can talk about what you see and try to spot different things. For example, Fox's Socks has a duck somewhere on most of the pages.

A busy book can be good, lots of different things in one package – they make them for different age ranges, so you should be able to find something for 18 months.

A pack of those little post-it note strips for marking pages in books – let him go mad sticking them on the tray table/you/himself/whatever, easy to clean up when done.