Flight with mobile 9 month old.

[luckyno7]

We are going to be traveling about 3 hours in an airplane with a very recently mobile 9 month old. He is all over the place at home and loves to move. Our flight leaves at 7 am so I’m hoping since he’ll be woken early he’ll nap for part of it. I’m going to try and keep him up as much as I can before the plane takes off. I’ll bring some easy snacks for him to munch on but are there any other suggestions on what I can do to keep him entertained?

[pooh8402]

I flew with my son when he was 7 months old, to Hawaii from Houston, so about 7 hours for the Dallas to Honolulu leg, and just learning to crawl. Lots of small toys, a combination of favorites and new ones. Finger foods that you dole out one at a time. He did take a nap on the flight. I attempted to nurse him for takeoff and landing, but he wasn't having it and he wasn't really a pacifier baby.

[gt7301b]

if the flight isn’t full try sweet talking someone into giving you an entire row, so he can stand in between you while the flight is in the air. (I reserve the window and aisle and hope no one gets stuck in the middle seat)

The plastic cups and bags of peanuts can buy you a few extra minutes each.

[simpsongal]

I flew to Hawaii with dd at that age, and she was just starting to walk independently and crawling everywhere. Ugh two 5+ hour flights and a 4 hour layover. Brutal.

Walk the aisles, let your lo play on the floor in front of the seats. Bring lots of little toys have a change or two of clothes for both of you and plastic bags. Good luck!

[minionkevin]

Get them their own seat and strap them in the car seat. Easy, done.

[fayeelle]

DD's first flight was at 9 months. I scheduled the flight around typical naps so she slept through most of it. I brought several smaller new toys and finger foods to keep her occupied. However, she found the most joy playing with my empty water cup for 30 min so there's that. Lol. Also, while the plane was boarding we occupied the aisle and window seats. The gentleman that was assigned to our row happily moved to an exit row as soon as he saw us which was helpful.

[luckyno7]

Mar 3, 2018 12:08:12 GMT -5 minionkevin said:

Get them their own seat and strap them in the car seat. Easy, done.

Oh I wish...tickets were over $500 and we already had to purchase 5 for the rest of the family. Flight is full.

[ewall]

Lift the flap book, light up toy phone or remote, stacking cups, empty water bottle or cup, lots of puffs and pouches.

[knx9211]

I’m doing this tomorrow. 3 hour flight, 1 hour layover, 2 hour flight. Pray for us. I’ll let you know if I have any words of wisdom after

[nessness]

Nurse or give him a bottle at take-off and landing to help with ears.

[jordylee]

Post it notes. We just flew with our 10 month old and they were a huge hit.

[luckyno7]

Mar 3, 2018 16:01:22 GMT -5 nessness said:

Nurse or give him a bottle at take-off and landing to help with ears.

Luckily (or unluckily) he’s got tubes so dr said ears shouldn’t be an issue.

[luckyno7]

I love some of these suggestions. Especially the post it notes...so true. I bet he’ll be entertained for hours. Also, he’ll love a water bottle to play.

[ebeth]

Plastic cups, new toys introduced on the plane, snacks, and it sounds weird but if you have a calculator that bought us a ton of time at that age (buttons, looks like a phone, seems like something they shouldn’t have, etc)

[y4m]

Saving down some Sesame Street from Netflix on the iPad was our saving grace.

[steamboat185]

Stickers. Honestly we’ve had pretty easy flights with kids under one there is so much to watch on the plane.

[clseale]

We did this at almost the exact same age. We got her a seat, but mainly just not having to share a row with a stranger was the key part. If you guys have 5 other people, it sounds like you’ll at least have only family in your row? That helps, because for dd, she just wanted to climb all over everything and everyone. We just brought lots of toys and snack. The flight attendant gave her two plastic cups and that was a good distraction for a bit. Luckily on both flights (one was an hour, the other was 4.5 hrs) the people behind us were delighted with the interest she took in them and played peek-a-boo a lot. DH also got up a few times and walked her around the plane while she practiced her beauty queen wave. I found the cartoon station on the in flight entertainment & watching that also kept her interest for a bit.

ETA: I am laughing at the “strap in car seat, easy, done” bit. LOL SO KID DEPENDENT. Great in theory, but newp, not for us. We used the car seat for one leg. After that it went into the overhead. We used our extra seat so she could move around more, because for us, it would have been “strap in car seat, meltdown”.

[minionkevin]

Mar 4, 2018 9:37:11 GMT -5 clseale said:

We did this at almost the exact same age. We got her a seat, but mainly just not having to share a row with a stranger was the key part. If you guys have 5 other people, it sounds like you’ll at least have only family in your row? That helps, because for dd, she just wanted to climb all over everything and everyone. We just brought lots of toys and snack. The flight attendant gave her two plastic cups and that was a good distraction for a bit. Luckily on both flights (one was an hour, the other was 4.5 hrs) the people behind us were delighted with the interest she took in them and played peek-a-boo a lot. DH also got up a few times and walked her around the plane while she practiced her beauty queen wave. I found the cartoon station on the in flight entertainment & watching that also kept her interest for a bit.

ETA: I am laughing at the “strap in car seat, easy, done” bit. LOL SO KID DEPENDENT. Great in theory, but newp, not for us. We used the car seat for one leg. After that it went into the overhead. We used our extra seat so she could move around more, because for us, it would have been “strap in car seat, meltdown”.

That was me and you just... I don’t know get them used to the fact that it’s a vehicle, same as a car and you sit in the car seat. There is no other option. I’m proudly a “mean mom” though and really give no fucks if my kids scream for a bit. Both of my kids first rode on a plane at 16-17 months so they were far more mobile than even the most advanced 9 month old, heavier (my Kid2 was 30lb), and harder to wrangle. To me, the “newp” is my toddler being a projectile in the event of turbulence.

[clseale]

Mar 4, 2018 17:48:33 GMT -5 minionkevin said:

Mar 4, 2018 9:37:11 GMT -5 clseale said:

We did this at almost the exact same age. We got her a seat, but mainly just not having to share a row with a stranger was the key part. If you guys have 5 other people, it sounds like you’ll at least have only family in your row? That helps, because for dd, she just wanted to climb all over everything and everyone. We just brought lots of toys and snack. The flight attendant gave her two plastic cups and that was a good distraction for a bit. Luckily on both flights (one was an hour, the other was 4.5 hrs) the people behind us were delighted with the interest she took in them and played peek-a-boo a lot. DH also got up a few times and walked her around the plane while she practiced her beauty queen wave. I found the cartoon station on the in flight entertainment & watching that also kept her interest for a bit.

ETA: I am laughing at the “strap in car seat, easy, done” bit. LOL SO KID DEPENDENT. Great in theory, but newp, not for us. We used the car seat for one leg. After that it went into the overhead. We used our extra seat so she could move around more, because for us, it would have been “strap in car seat, meltdown”.

That was me and you just... I don’t know get them used to the fact that it’s a vehicle, same as a car and you sit in the car seat. There is no other option. I’m proudly a “mean mom” though and really give no fucks if my kids scream for a bit. Both of my kids first rode on a plane at 16-17 months so they were far more mobile than even the most advanced 9 month old, heavier (my Kid2 was 30lb), and harder to wrangle. To me, the “newp” is my toddler being a projectile in the event of turbulence.

Oh, I was not saying that it isn't the ideal situation. That's why we got the extra seat and brought her car seat on to the plane (and used it for a portion of the trip). For us specifically, she was coming home with an ear infection and 103+ fever, so I took a calculated risk and chose to nurse and comfort her throughout the rest of the flights. I mean...I don't really care how people travel with their kids, it was simply the "easy" part that made me laugh. In a "Oh, if only..." sort of way. I probably would have said, "I strap them in the car seat because it's the safest option and they scream and meltdown for a bit and that fucking sucks, but it is what it is. That's why airplanes sell booze." Different approaches. Different kids.   

[ebeth]

Mar 4, 2018 19:22:50 GMT -5 clseale said:

Mar 4, 2018 17:48:33 GMT -5 minionkevin said:

That was me and you just... I don’t know get them used to the fact that it’s a vehicle, same as a car and you sit in the car seat. There is no other option. I’m proudly a “mean mom” though and really give no fucks if my kids scream for a bit. Both of my kids first rode on a plane at 16-17 months so they were far more mobile than even the most advanced 9 month old, heavier (my Kid2 was 30lb), and harder to wrangle. To me, the “newp” is my toddler being a projectile in the event of turbulence.

Oh, I was not saying that it isn't the ideal situation. That's why we got the extra seat and brought her car seat on to the plane (and used it for a portion of the trip). For us specifically, she was coming home with an ear infection and 103+ fever, so I took a calculated risk and chose to nurse and comfort her throughout the rest of the flights. I mean...I don't really care how people travel with their kids, it was simply the "easy" part that made me laugh. In a "Oh, if only..." sort of way. I probably would have said, "I strap them in the car seat because it's the safest option and they scream and meltdown for a bit and that fucking sucks, but it is what it is. That's why airplanes sell booze." Different approaches. Different kids.   

I think we can all agree that nothing about plane travel with littles is easy. I recall that sinking feeling when we first traveled with a kid. Could we travel with her? Sure. But our days of showing up with a carry on 60 min prior to departure and sauntering up to security were dead and gone.

[minionkevin]

Mar 4, 2018 19:22:50 GMT -5 clseale said:

Mar 4, 2018 17:48:33 GMT -5 minionkevin said:

That was me and you just... I don’t know get them used to the fact that it’s a vehicle, same as a car and you sit in the car seat. There is no other option. I’m proudly a “mean mom” though and really give no fucks if my kids scream for a bit. Both of my kids first rode on a plane at 16-17 months so they were far more mobile than even the most advanced 9 month old, heavier (my Kid2 was 30lb), and harder to wrangle. To me, the “newp” is my toddler being a projectile in the event of turbulence.

Oh, I was not saying that it isn't the ideal situation. That's why we got the extra seat and brought her car seat on to the plane (and used it for a portion of the trip). For us specifically, she was coming home with an ear infection and 103+ fever, so I took a calculated risk and chose to nurse and comfort her throughout the rest of the flights. I mean...I don't really care how people travel with their kids, it was simply the "easy" part that made me laugh. In a "Oh, if only..." sort of way. I probably would have said, "I strap them in the car seat because it's the safest option and they scream and meltdown for a bit and that fucking sucks, but it is what it is. That's why airplanes sell booze." Different approaches. Different kids.   

My original response was more, “here’s a simpler answer than the hand-wringing of ‘how to entertain my older baby on a plane’ you may not have considered”, especially if you have a kid who doesn’t fight the car seat. I have encountered a dozen or so people in my 4 or so years of parenting who literally had NO IDEA you could even buy a seat for a child under 2 on a flight, and not be forced to have them on their laps. On my last flight with my kids - to Orlando no less, so packed with kids - I had 3 sets of parents stop me and ask me what I was doing when I was getting their car seats installed and each of them walked away saying shades of “ugh, so not looking forward to this flight, should have done that...” I had booked priority boarding for me + 1 kid, carried our 2 seats, leaving DH to board with the other kid and the rest of our stuff during family boarding after group A. For my kids it required a call with a decent hold time to Southwest - I could not book it with the rest of us online - but ::shrug:: at that part. A poster who doesn’t follow “baby travel” threads like I do for tips/product recs on here may similarly not have known.

[Raggedeannie]

One more suggestion that hasn’t been offered — If it’s a large flight with multiple bathrooms, the restroom sink can also provide several minutes of entertainment.

[melsbels]

We’re taking a 5 hour flight with 10 month old twins in a few weeks. They have tickets, so we will strap them into car seats. I plan to rotate the iPad between them (Sesame Street and Baby Einstein seems to hold their attention for a few minutes) I’ve bought a few new small toys each, and I’ll bring approximately one million snacks lol. Hoping they’ll sleep a bit too since it’s an early day, but we’ll see.

We are taking them on another flight this summer and they do not have seats on that one. So two seats for adults, and two lap held 14 month olds. I’m already having anxiety over it lol