flying with 1 yr old

[poppy2133]

any ideas how to keep a 1 yr old occupied on a 4 hour flight? he is normally very very active & I can't imagine him being occupied for that long without wanting to get up & crawl around. He's almost walking now. He will be having his own seat on the plane. Thanks

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what time of day is it?

We just flew to Scotland with our 13 month old, and she was most interested in walking on the pull down tables! A couple of new books, a small sports water bottle that she can suck from as a change, a few things she can bang the tray in front with, ice in a cup from the hostess, the emergency leaflet was also very entertaining to her as it was brightly coloured! When she was 9 months we flew to California, and was entranced by the bag of toiletries that was provided. Lots of small bottles with liquid in to shake up and down, a toothbrush to chomp on, and she slept as normal. You'll be fine!

I fly quite a lot with my 1yo and have never had any problems. Like Cod says, she often falls asleep and if not plays with the table. sick bag or emergency advice leaflet. I also normally take loads of snacks (inlcuding things she doesn't normally have much of like crisps or cakes) and if she gets a bit uptight it distracts her. Other than that, a few toys and books and you'll be fine- honest!

(probably jinxed myself now as we're flying again next week..)

Poppy, is it wrong of me to have laughed when I saw the thread title and thought 'whatever class will they think of for babies next'?!!

DS is nearly one and though I've never flown with him, he's been on a coach trip for about an hour (and back again) and he was fine - just looked out of the window, played with toys, breastfed and napped.

Bribery. Food, for one thing cereal, miniature crackers, raisins in little boxes. New toys (cheap and cheerful and in quantity like many mothers I let my baby play with toys that are for 3+ on the airplane where I can guaranteed I will be riveted to her every move). Household objects he doesn't usually get to play with (a paintbrush, a cheap wallet with cards you don't care about or laminated photos in it). Books with peekaboo/touch and feel features. We have a rule that magazines are fair game for destruction above 5,000 feet, which will get you several minutes usually. Cups and ice from the airline are also good fun, and the sick bag is a useful hand puppet.

I am currently stashing objects to fly San Francisco-Zurich by myself with a 13-month old. She used to fall asleep quite consistently on take-off (the rumble of the engines is very soothing) but even so if she woke up in flight a constant stream of diversion was definitely the way to go. Everything must be either discardable or possible to tie/link to something so it doesn't get thrown away and lost.

if you can choose your seats, then your sorted choose wisely, kind looking old women are always good, they seem too like entertaining little ones, or sit behind/infront of other small children they will entertain each other!

we did a stint to New Zealand (32h travel time all together eeeeeeek) when dd was 18 months and tbh we just let her run up and down the aisle when she wanted to. Nobody seemed to mind too much. Well one guy sort of mumbled something and I very nicely explained to him there are 2 possibilities... 1) happy toddler ambling up and down the aisle saying hello occasionally or 2) screaming toddler 2 rows in front of him

Otherwise, toiletry bag was a hit with our dd too, and she was given toys by the stewardesses and then she found a littel friend and they went a bit wild

you'll be fine

I can't imagine him sitting in his seat for any length of time - he NEVER sits still, sits on our knee etc. I'm just worried in case I can't keep him in his seat

don't worry too much. I think in general if you keep him with you during take off/landing the flight staff don't mind too much.

The only time we had a problem with a stewardess was flying to Norway and dd had her own seat. The stewardess insisted that dd sit in her own seat during takeoff/landing but we insisted that I have her on my lap with a baby belt as she wouldn't sit still by herself. Also dd aged 2.5 was only 9kg so a total lightweight. So along came the chief stewardess and gave us the baby belt straight away do I need to say that the first stewardess was really miffed?