Flying tomorrow with a toddler

[sonrisa]

It is going to suuuuck. I feel bad for the people around us already (and bad for me too, lol). If your barely verbal child is not a complete disaster on plane flights, what are your secrets? If they are, what do you do about it that works?

[Deleted]

How longs the flight? I let my nephew you act like an asshole in the airport.. Let's run.. Do jumping jacks.. Show me a sports team chant.. Idk burn that energy. Then snacks.. Coloring book. A book.. DVD player. Good luck. It suuuucks

[ECB]

Just take lots of stuff to do on the plane! The more you can distract, the less noise. And yeah- tire him out as much as possible before hand - maybe he'll sleep a little.

[Deleted]

Portable dvd player/movies.

[laptopvixen]

Put her in the overhead, lol.

[peachykate]

Benadryl

We wore Jax out beforehand, didn't let him take his nap and then he slept on the plane both ways.

[sonrisa]

Sept 26, 2012 11:01:36 GMT -5 laptopvixen said:

Put her in the overhead, lol.

OMG, that would be fantastic. At first they seated each of us in a different row. I was soooo tempted to just leave it that way ;-)

I have a huge carryon of distractions, new toys, games, books, crayons, snacks, blanket, IPhone apps, little videos. God help us all.

We tried bendadryl when we flew in June. It just amped her up. I'll run her ragged around the airport and beg for forgiveness.

[laptopvixen]

You'll be fine.

The only issue I had with namaste's toddler was the kicking of the seat.

Kids cry, you're not the only one annoyed, get over it.

Are you coming east?

[ering1115]

I am lucky that my DS is infatuated with planes. Being on one is enough entertainment for a good 20-30 mins.
I try to fly at nap time or in the evening so he will sleep.
We do looooooots of books and a ton of snacks. If DS has snacks he is usually good for a long time.
Sometimes we go for a walk to the back of the plane and wash our hands in the bathroom sink- yeah, dumb for me but he likes it and I can make it last for at least 10 mins.

[emsumm]

We just flew with our twins a week and a half ago. They did really, really well. Here's what we packed for each girl:
Food: apple, goldfish pouch, fruit leather, gummies, raisins, milk. Yes, this is excessive, but they are easy to bribe with food, so we could alternate - food, toy, activity - when they lost interest.
Toys: We bought these little $5 zhu zhu thingies that had 3 or 4 small parts with a little doll thing. These got pulled out in the last 10-20 minutes when nothing electronic could be used, and they had to stow their tray tables. We also got each kid a matchbox car.
Activities: My husband found these awesome Crayola headphones that you decorate. They LOVED them. Decorated them in the airport, and then wore them to watch cartoons on the laptops. Perfect.
Sesame Street sticker books and crayons, marker, and paper pads used up the bulk of the times for one, cartoons for the other.
Anyway, it worked well. We just had all of their favorite things ready to go. They thought the whole thing was awesome

[Redpoppy]

The last time we flew it was a red eye on JetBlue. DS is used to being able to watch cartoons on the seat TVs. It was 11:30 pm and the only cartoons were Adult Swim. He wanted nothing else. So he watched them til he passed out 15 minutes later.

He just watches tv or plays on the iPad. We ration out snacks through out the flight.

[sprky79]

Bring earplugs - for your rowmates.
Bribe the neighbors with a free in-flight cocktail.
And all those other games things you had mentioned.
Walk her around as much as you can.

[Deleted]

Your husband is a doctor. Can't he drug her? If the answer is no I will be very depressed as I am counting on drugging my future child through much of childhood.

[HiC]

I would bring a bag full of new toys, books and play elmo videos on the dvd player. SNACKS!!

[gretchenindisguise]

Second wearing her out in the airport. We let L run around so she gets it out of her system.

Then coloring books, stickers, food, and shows on the nook/phone. We got her these headphones and they seemed to work pretty well for her store.griffintechnology.com/crayola-myphones-headphones Bonus points that she also got to spend time decorating the headphone stickers.

[imoan]

Cargo!