Long haul with challenging 2 year old.

[Borntobeamum]

We are flying next week with a 1 year old and a 2year old. The 2 year old is non verbal. No diagnosis as yet but being referred in Sept.
Lovely nature but very moany and extremely loud.
We need ideas of snacks to keep him occupied which take a while to eat. He tend to grab food and put it all in at once. Think a small pack of haribos gone in 10 seconds.
Whilst we don't want him to eat all the way to America, we know he will sit for take off and landing if he can nibble on something.I'm also packing small toys which will distract him.
Please offer any tips that worked for you.

I would take along all their favourite foodstuffs and do not rely on the airline to fully provide. Does he like things like cheesy nibbles, pieces of fruit, carrot sticks, breadsticks etc?. BTW if you have any uneaten fruit left over, leave it behind on the aircraft and do not bring that into the US.

Which airline is it, would you wish to make them aware that your 2 year old is non verbal?. Will your two year old have his own bag of toys etc with him?. Airlines tend to board families with young children first. What seats have been allocated to you all, are they for instance bulkhead seats?.

What tv shows do they like, can you buy/borrow a portable DVD player?.

HTH

some airlines provide a car seat like attachment to the airline seat. DS was far more comfortable in this and had the advantage of the straps being familiar. You usually have to book these in advance.

Give him the food piece by piece (you can move his hands to make the 'more' sign before you give him each one while you're at it!) I don't suppose he still has a bottle of milk? That always killed time when DS was tiny and often sent him to sleep on a plane.

Play dough is always crucial to have on hand for our DS.

Take a trip to Hawkins Bazaar (had closed down but now seems to be re-opened) to buy millions of small cheap sensory type toys. They may not all interest him, but the novelty value might kill a bit of time.

Do you have a portable DVD, tablet or ipad that you can play films or programmes on?

Does he like being read to? Finger puppets? You might have to turn into the best children's entertainer for 10 hours, I can't say I'm envying you right now!

Thank you all for your replies.
The boys are actually our grandsons and their parents will also be there too!
He loves grapes and strawberries but I don't think we can take them thru security?
Would we be able to buy them airside?
He loves plastic animals so I plan on taking Few of those together with some unopened corgi cars. Letting him open them should pass a minute our two!
When I say he non verbal I mean he says probably 5 words.
ALL for all gone.
SORRY.
Ci for Merci. He's half French.
Woo Woo for dog. (Woof woof)
Non for no.

Yes you can take food through security. And drinks for babies/toddlers if you take them out of the hand baggage and put them in the tray thingy. Then they may ask you to taste them after it's been through the scanner thing.

So get chopping those grapes and strawberries .

Hopefully you'll have taught him 'more', 'grape' and 'strawb' by the time you land!

We just did two days driving with 3 year old (ASD) and 2 year old (NT). I-pads are a life-saver! Download new apps and films, but save them for the journey. The only difficulty might be the noise as our DS won't wear headphones.

We also had a lot of new magazines, books etc...

I found the book 1001 great ideas for teaching children with ASD a great help as it has lots of tips of how to make everyday situations into games.

Thank you for all your advice. We have an iPad for him to use too x