Tips for VERY long flight with a toddler?

[noramoo]

Hi everyone,

We are flying to visit DH's family in East Asia at the weekend with 16 month old DD. She's flown well before but only short haul. Flight involves a 12 hour night flight overnight, 2 hour connection then 3/4 hour final flight. So, needless to say, it won't be great fun for anyone! Mercifully we do have my DM with us too who is a huge help. We have booked the seats at the front with the bassinet but think DD too big to actually use it now. She doesn't have her own seat so will probably end up asleep on our laps.

Does anyone have any tips and tricks they can share? We don't do any screentime (just personal preference).

Also, any tips for navigating jetlag? Time difference is 9 hours ahead of UK.

Thanks so much. (I am really quite stressed about the whole thing and hoping for no meltdowns!!!)

Oh and biggest treat - milkshake! They hadn’t brought in the 100ml limit until the last long haul flight I took thankfully so I would bring cartons of uht strawberry milk in my hand luggage. (Breastfed until 18 months for each so not that young)

They don't use bassinet over 6 months (See my photo about the "seat")- they use this up to 2 years.
We did plenty long haul flight with no problem. I never worried about the child being bored. I worry about how the weather will be: every time when the seatbelt sign is on, you have to get the child out from that seat and have them on your lap with the seat belt on. That is very annoying when they are asleep. Pray for no turbulence.

On prime we love Button Moon, tumble leaf, tractor ted, kipper, the very hungry caterpillar, bagpuss!

On iPlayer the old fireman Sam and postman pat is good!

I love bluey but I still think it's a bit zingy until 2+.

I bought small things like this and wrapped them too. That also prolonged the novelty of taking off the wrapper and opening the box etc.

If screens are new to your DD she’s likely to be mesmerised by the action rather than the sound - just don’t have the sound on. Download lots of nursery rhyme songs with actions etc.

In the night garden is very gentle and good for that age.

Good idea to have stuff downloaded on the tablet as an emergency back up eg for the last hour of the flight when everyone's had enough. Also I like PP's approach of only doing screens after they've slept.

BA has two kinds of baby travel things. A bassinet for babies and then a sort of bouncy chair type seat for over 12 months or so. Our son 18 months was the right weight to still go in the chair at the front of the seats

Pingu and button moon are good without sound!

I'd be more concerned about arriving - chances are your dd given her size will get way more sleep than you both are going to get. Do you have a plan for the day you arrive with a wide awake dd and potentially exhausted adults responsible for looking after her. Can family be charged with looking after her so you can sleep when you arrive?

Not the same but we did a 5 hour drive with a 3 year old. I did a new thing every hour. New colouring book, new book, new toy, sweets, new game etc. Obviously hard for long haul flights but maybe something similar?

Remember... once you get off the plane, you never have to see the other people on it again. So if she screams for two solid hours like the poor toddler on our flight a few weeks ago... it won't follow you for ever. (Felt soo sorry for the toddler and parents, it was obvious the poor thing was in pain, over tired or most likely both.)

I also suggest playing airports before you go, as she may need to go through a security scanner by herself (so basically walking from parent to parent in your case)

Gift wrap some things, The Works are great for cheap stuff, when getting lairy produce a gift. Give calpol before take off and landing.

I posted this on a previous thread with a similar question recently:

From experience:

I’d avoid the bulkhead seats unless you are certain of a toddler seat. You won’t get a 15month old in a bassinet. The armrests on the bulk head seats tend to be fixed so it’ll make it difficult for them to sleep on you.

Encourage them to walk around the airport before the flight and tire them out as much as possible.

If you have a carrier then that’s a really easy way to board the plane and keeps your hands free for your carry on bag and your passports/documents

Don’t board at the beginning - you want to spend as little time as possible on the plane

Nappy change before you board - nappy changes on a plane are not easy. But with that in mind there’s usually a toilet that’s slightly bigger and easier to use the change table so ask the flight attendants if they don’t already point it out to you.

Change of clothes for you all - just in case!

All the snacks and a sippy cup to encourage swallowing during takeoff and more so during landing. If you’re breastfeeding then that’s perfect for take off and landing.

Some new toys - get them out one at a time. Don’t be afraid of a little screen time, especially if it’s not something that they are familiar with. Although we had a similar thought process and our little one just wasn’t interested!

Please don’t use a lollipop as a PP has suggested, it’s a huge choking risk

The jet lag can be hard on you all, but it is what it is.

And finally, don’t worry if they cry or make noise. They’re a small child and you’ve every right to be on that flight. Plus it’s unlikely you’ll ever see any of the other passengers again.

We were a low screen household at 16 months. Mostly illness and long journeys

Singing hands on you tube was good - makaton signing alongside nursery rhymes
Sarah and duck is quite low energy
Masked singer/dancer - the giant colourful moving performers semi gripped her but then zoned out during the talking bits and engaged with other entertainment you could probably do it on mute too

Do 16 month olds give a shiny shite about screens? There's no way it would have made a flight easier at that age here. But it won't be as bad as you think, they'll be interested in everything and they will sleep at some point.

We flew to Australia from the UK last year with a 21- month-old. I was also pretty stressed about how the flight would go, but it was honestly kind of fine. We didn't buy him a seat and it would have been a huge waste of money if we had as he just wanted to sit on our laps anyway. We booked the bulkhead seats and it was great to have the extra space for playing.

As others have suggested, bringing lots of small, new-to-him toys individually wrapped was quite useful, as well as things like those water mess-free coloring books. I also chucked in a few random bits like post its and masking tape which he also enjoyed sticking and unsticking on the seat etc.

You will be fine without screens if that's what you prefer. We don't have a tablet and our son wasn't interested in the mini tv in the plane. I had bought toddler headphones anticipating that he would want to watch something but they went unused the whole trip. I was also swayed by reading threads on mumsnet, thinking that we would never survive it without screens, but it was completely fine. We don't watch much at home so he just wasn't interested.

We were still breastfeeding which was useful. We also gave him calpol before landing which helped. The baby carrier was very helpful for the airports. We also talked about the trip for a couple of days beforehand and watched a couple of short videos about airports (you could read stories if you don't do screens) - I realise your child is a bit younger but I really think this helped.

It was tiring and my legs got very sore from a large toddler sleeping on them but it fine overall and in a way it felt like a fun adventure. Maybe we just got lucky and the next time might be a shitshow, but I wanted to share because it isn't guaranteed to be a disaster!

Good luck and hope you have a lovely time.

Just wanted to provide an update in case anyone finds it helpful!

We are still abroad and heading back tomorrow evening to the UK. The journey out here was surprisingly easy - DD slept 9 of 13 hours of the first flight and 2 of 4 hours of the second. The rest of the time she did stickers, books, LOTS of snacks and exploring. She slept on my DH the whole time though which was a bit rough for him, but overall she did very well.

Once here it took around 3 days to get her back into her usual routine timings wise. We just shifted her into it straight away as best we could. She has been considerably more tired than at home though, mainly due to constant overstimulation! By 5pm most days she's super grumpy and it becomes a challenge to get to a 7/7.30 bedtime we have also noticed an increase in general fussiness and some tantrums (we are usually very lucky in this regard as she's been relatively "easy" in toddlerhood so far)

I think she's had a great time but I'm sure getting home and back into our regular routine will be welcome