Have you booked a trip for you and your family and you have never flown with a little one, but you are wondering how to prepare for the flight?
Well here are 10 tips that have been extremely helpful to me for traveling with my two year old. I also filmed a video on my Youtube channel about this as well if you would like to check that out. It’s down below.
Tip # 1: Bring Toys. I always try to bring toys that don’t make a lot of noise, so I always take a few small stuff animals.
#2: Bring a sippy cup or a bottle if you are not nursing. Babies and children don’t know how to stop their ears from hurting during takeoff and landing. Drinking during takeoff and landing helps unclog the pressure in their ears. I’m still breastfeeding so whenever I saw that my daughter’s ears were bothering her, I let her nurse and it really helped.
#3: If you can try to book early morning flights, that way your little one will sleep through the flight. Back in March I flew to Florida with the kids and we were up at 4:30 am for a 7 am flight. Within like 20 minutes of the flight they all fell asleep and they all literally woke up right before landing.
It was great because it gave me time to myself to catch up on reading and watch my ipad.
#4: Dress your child in layers. No one can predict what the temperature on the plane will be. So I always dress my little one in layers and bring a jacket for her. If it is too cold she can put that on or if it is too cold she can take it off.
#5: Bring a coloring book and ipad or tablet. This is so helpful because when your child is awake they can be occupied with something to do. This made my child want to stay seated when the seat belt sign was on.
#6: Bring Snacks
Yo! This! Bringing snacks is so helpful, not to mention a $$ saver! I always bring chips, something a little sweet, and lollipops. The snacks and food on the plane are not cheap. Heck I’m cheap! LOL So any way I can save money I will do it.
#7: Bring Extra Bags
Now when I say that I don’t mean big bags. I’m talking about the little ziploc bags. You can put trash or pampers or you can even use them in case your little one gets sick. I didn’t need to use them on any of my flights but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
#8: Bring a Good Bag
I got a really nice diaper bag off Amazon.com. It has many pockets for storage and it even had a waterproof compartment as well. I got it because I wanted something with a lot of space for traveling.
#9: Bring Sanitizer
Nobody likes germs. I’m pretty sure those planes are full of them. So I always bring hand sanitizer and sanitizer wipes. I’m not sure how often they clean the planes or disinfect them, but if you notice when you land, there are many people waiting to board that same plane for a different flight. Now how and when do they clean in that short amount of time?
#10: Last but not least a blanket and a pillow comes in handy when your child takes a nap. Once I forgot to bring a pillow so I balled up my jacket so my little one could lay on that. It wasn’t the same but it was very useful.
Are you taking a trip soon? Let me know if these tips were helpful to you or if I left something out.
Good tips. Being in the military, I flew with our twins from the time they were 6 months old…. about 3-4 times a year to see family back home. I can’t emphasize the need from bringing lots of snacks, water, water bottles that can be filled up at the airport, and I’ve even brought Pedialyte packets because my little ones always got a little dehydrated during long days of flying.
What great tips!!! I think bringing your own snacks does save money and the layering tip is a good one too.
Hey Pauline! Thanks for taking the time to read. =D
It’s definitely challenging traveling with a little one. My son is a year old and has flown across the country 10 times. However, he is changing and developing so quickly at this age that each flight seems to bring a new set of challenges we didn’t have before.
We are flying to Germany for Christmas this year and a part of me is dreading the long flight with our 18 month old. Coloring books will for sure be on our packing checklist!
I hope you have a safe trip! Thanks for stopping by. =D
Thank you for posting this. I am going to flying to Portugal to visit family in June with my little one who will be 11 months by then. I am dreading the flight but instead of an early morning I am looking for a late night due to the time change and she usually sleeps 8hrs a night so anything to continue with her routine and schedule. Due to nursing I was wondering about the ear popping and if I could nurse. All good tips thank you!