what do you ON the flight

[JordanKX]

Another flying thread, I know... but I can't find one that covered what to do ON THE FLIGHT. I am packing for a 5hour flight with my 8.5 month old. And I'm prepared for the airport, to feed him during takeoff & landing, all the other wonderful topics that we've covered... but I realized, What are we going to do for 5 hrs? Of course hopefully he'll sleep for a bit of that time. But the rest? He's a crawling, cruising mobile doesn't stay in one place kind'a kiddo. And all the toys that do preoccupy him are crazy big and make lots of sounds. Obviously we won't be taking any of those. He will read books, sure. But that'll be, 20 minutes. He'll poke and claw at my face and snuggle and kisses and patty cake. Another 20 minutes.

um... what else? :-)

I'm having fears that we'll be playing in the bathroom, taking lots of walks up and down the aisle, bugging the flight-attendants for any inch of space where he can stand up for a second, etc.

[thea77]

I don't have any answers, but I'll also be in this situation soon. We leave in a couple of days to go see family--it's a 5 1/2 hour flight. My DD is just about 11 months old. I'm also worried about how to fill all that time. I know she won't sleep much, if at all. I'm bringing the Ergo, so I figure I'll be walking the aisles A LOT. I didn't buy her a seat, so she'll be on my lap when we are sitting down.
I'm bringing snacks, a cloth book, a handheld mirror for her to look into, some toys that she likes to chew on, a small photo album filled with pictures of babies/kids--trying to come up with things to keep her busy/occupied.
I'll be interested in any other suggestions too...

[Beauchamp]

Mine loves to stand on the seat and smile at the people behind us. She also eats the safety cards. And loves to take them out of the seat pocket.

I suggest little foods. Os or rice puffs. A sippy of water. (It's a treat for mine to hold her own sippy, since we don't let her have one all the time.) Have a few toys and things your baby hasn't seen before. Mine doesn't care one bit about anything she recognizes from home. She wants all the new, exciting things...to look out the window, to play with the seat belt.

Bring patience.

[Super~Single~Mama]

You'll be fine. Don't worry!

First, you'll have to let him crawl around a bit - up and down the aisle is fine as long as you watch out for the food and drink carts. People will LOVE to see him and say hi, and talk to him - if he's social he'll totally love the attention. The flight attendants will likely love on him too.

And, do you have a mini diaper bag? If not make one!!! It made dipe changes in the air SO much easier! I put a few dipes, some wipes, and a clean onsie (just in case!) in a gallon sized ziplock and then that was the only thing I had to take with me to the mini bathroom. It was tons easier than going through an entire bag while in that tiny bathroom.

[lovepiggie]

We just got back from a trip... Our flight was much shorter! But here's what we did..

I brought a bunch of toys. One of them had suction cups, so I just stuck it on the tray, and let him play for a while.

On the flight there, the flight attendants loved DS! They took him up to the front of the plane for a while and let him play while we rested (hah). Normally I wouldn't let strangers take my son anywhere, but they sat with us for a while first, DS was comfortable with them, and I knew they couldn't go anywhere! They also made us a rattle out of two plastic cups and bits and bites

On the flight back, DS befriended some ladies behind us and spent most of the flight smiling back at them...

Also, we normally don't do TV, but I turned on the flight TV to the kids channel (without sound). DS liked watching the cartoons...

If it had been any longer, we probably would have let him crawl the aisles too.

[Plarka]

taking lots of walks up and down the aisle, bugging the flight-attendants for any inch of space where he can stand up for a second, etc.

We did lots of this, it takes up good amounts of time!

[jess5377]

Borrow some toys from a friend so they're all new and different to your LO.

[odoole]

Wow, 5.5 hours! I've done a lot of flights with my 10 mo DS, but none over 2.5 hours. And those are exhausting enough!

It'll basically be a lot of activities that'll keep him entertained for 5-10 minutes at a time.

Skymall magazine will buy you 10 minutes, letting him rip it to shreds.

Food will buy you another 10-15 minutes, letting him play with the ice chips, etc. A teething biscuit may buy you another 5 minutes.

Songs will buy you maybe 10-20 minutes during the fussy times.

Hopefully you can get at least 30 minutes of napping in there.

We read the board books I brought at least 7 or 8 times each. That'll buy you about an hour total.

Flirting with the other passengers will buy you a half hour. Hopefully you'll end up with someone who likes to make faces at your LO.

DS's latest thing is taking stuff OUT of stuff -- he really loves taking my credit cards out of my wallet and all my belongings out of my purse. So on our next flight I will be sure to provide him with plenty of wallets, purses, boxes and bags and things for him to explore and empty out one by one. (And the more it seems like he's NOT supposed to do it, the more he'll want to do it, and the longer he'll be entertained by it. Reverse psychology: "no no, honey, don't do that ..." That's going to be my strategy!)

And then, if there's still time left on the flight, start all over with all your activities!

[Louisep]

Pack a box (or some kind of container, like tuperware) with completely random objects he has never seen before. He should get 10 minutes of play out of each one (if it's unusual enough). Take food - again, variety is key to keeping interest. Have you seen those smoothies that come in a packet with a spout? DS loves to try and put the lid on (supervised at 8.5 months of course).

Yes, playing in the bathroom, yes walking up and down the aisle. Playing with ice in cups. Looking at people behind you. Find other kids on the plane. Playing with the tray table.

I have flown over 15 times since my DS was 5 months old. He crawled at 5 months and walked at 8.5 months and never stops moving, ever. I thought flying would be an absolute nightmare, but it never is and we took a 9 hour flight to Europe when he was 11 months. That was hard but it was also not that bad.

My biggest tip to anyone flying is to get the bulkhead seat. In the U.S. on domestic flights you ask at the gate as they only release these seats on the day of the flight and at the gate. I have always got one this way. A bulkhead gives you more room on the floor and means no one is in front of you for your LO to annoy.

My second biggest tip is to board the plane LAST - especially if you've got an active kid. If you're at the bulkhead, have something to entertain your LO with in your hand when you board since you'll have to stow your bag during take off and landing.

Good luck, you'll be fine!

[JordanKX]

You guys are Great, THANK YOU!!! The "random", the never seen before... I hadn't even considered that and agree, that this will definitely take up some good time.
Should be exciting!! I don't know how you do this over and over again! I've got 4 more days to prepare and am still feeling quite panicky. DS is awesome, not high needs and rarely cries. So I'm not that concerned, except for his boredom. We are loud - sing songs, noisy toys, etc. So being confined and quiet will be really different.
Thanks again!

[jess152]

The drone of the engines put DS to sleep, and kept him sleeping! Hopefully it will work for you too!

We've flown with him...6 or 7 times under the age of 2 and he's been great. I think the travel to the airport, combined, maybe with getting up earlier that day, adds to the hustle and bustle and boils down to him being ready to zonk right out. He's slept for entire flights (San Fran to Vancouver) including take off and landing, so don't expect it to automatically be a nightmare, it could be okay!!

Good luck with it!

[JordanKX]

Originally Posted by thea77

I'm bringing the Ergo, so I figure I'll be walking the aisles A LOT.

I read in an earlier thread, oh months ago, where they said carriers couldn't be worn on the plane. Maybe that was just while In the seat?
Does anyone know?

I'm not bringing a stroller - despite our two stops... yeesh - and opting for carriers while moving through the airports. I hadn't considered using them on the plane?!?

[illumini]

Thanks everyone for this thread. I'm flying with my 6 month old in 3 weeks. I think its a 10 hour flight. Which since I've only flown once in my entire life (and that was a 1 hour flight) I thought a 10 hour flight was going to be easy. Reading this is making me nervous now.

[odoole]

Originally Posted by JordanKX

I read in an earlier thread, oh months ago, where they said carriers couldn't be worn on the plane. Maybe that was just while In the seat?
Does anyone know?

I'm not bringing a stroller - despite our two stops... yeesh - and opting for carriers while moving through the airports. I hadn't considered using them on the plane?!?

There is a rule that you can't be wearing them during take-off and landing, but I've flown with DS probably 25 times and I'd say I've been called on it 30% of the time.

My moby, and later my Ergo, has been the number 1 most essential item for us for the plane. He doesn't sleep as well as he used to, but I can still get a quick nap out of him at least. The Ergo is easier to snap off without disturbing the babe if they do tell you to undo the sling. You don't actually have to take it off; the baby just isn't technically supposed to be strapped on to you.

[lach]

Lots of food! Is she on finger foods yet? Those junky little gerber puffs are GREAT for this. Do you have any idea how long it takes an 8mo to eat them, one at a time? Ages and ages and ages. And they love it.

New toys. Very small, light things. (Not, like, choking hazard small, obviously. I just mean easy to carry). If they make some sounds, that's fine: there's a lot of white noise on planes and you really can't hear it from even one aisle away. Make sure it's not too noisy, obviously, but I used to obsess about all the toys being totally silent and I realized that's not really necessary.

Some toy suggestions:

• Play cell phone (Target has a simple one)
• A puppet (the puppet eating their tummy keeps them occupied looong after you're dead bored with that game)
• Toy keychain (Again, Target)
• A little doll (even better if there are eyes that open and close)
• Anything sparkly that moves she can fit in her mouth. On one flight where my daughter was about a year, the toy that kept her happy the longest was a pen that had a little gem flower on a spring on the end. It was a novelty pen obviously made for junior high school aged girls, but man was she obsessed with that thing.

If you're lucky, the white noise will put her right to sleep.

Some random advice: make sure you don't start BFing too early before takeoff. I always do that, and it bites me in the butt. It always takes way longer on the runway than I expect, and my kids pulled off right after takeoff and wouldn't eat any more and then their ears hurt. I did this all the friggin time, and it was so annoying! So don't start feeding until you're actually taking off, so the baby will be sure to be sucking for as long as possible as you go up.

[kismetbaby]

Originally Posted by Beauchamp

Mine loves to stand on the seat and smile at the people behind us. She also eats the safety cards. And loves to take them out of the seat pocket.

I suggest little foods. Os or rice puffs. A sippy of water. (It's a treat for mine to hold her own sippy, since we don't let her have one all the time.) Have a few toys and things your baby hasn't seen before. Mine doesn't care one bit about anything she recognizes from home. She wants all the new, exciting things...to look out the window, to play with the seat belt.

This, this, this! We just flew overseas with our 7.5 month old and luckily he isn't crawling yet, but that doesn't stop him from being super active and mobile. He was so interested in all the people and the new space that he didn't sleep much, instead he pulled the safely cards from the seat pocket, played with the seat belt, banged on the tray, peeked at people over the seats, smiled at the stewardesses, etc.

A couple things we did that were helpful: brought Puffs (any non-messy food that takes some concentration to pick-up/eat) and a sippy cup, bought one toy that he had never seen before just for th flight (this was a real life-saver b/c he loves brand new things), brought one book from home that I knew he loved and would look at over and over, let him watch the in-flight satellite TV (normally we don't let him watch TV, but he was pretty mesmerized by the little screen in the seat back and they even had Baby Einstein and Dora).

As others have said, with a cute baby most things are forgiven. I found even the crankiest looking passengers warmed up to my LO and the stewards(esses) loved him.

But it was tiring for me! I felt like I had been beaten up from holding him in that small space for so long--he is always moving, kicking, wiggling. And I couldn't have a drink (buy a water bottle once you are past security) b/c he would have either knocked it over or grabbed it from my hands. But my LO loves ice, so I just asked for a cup of ice and gave him chips of that which entertained him for awhile.

Good luck!

[kismetbaby]

Originally Posted by illumini

Thanks everyone for this thread. I'm flying with my 6 month old in 3 weeks. I think its a 10 hour flight. Which since I've only flown once in my entire life (and that was a 1 hour flight) I thought a 10 hour flight was going to be easy. Reading this is making me nervous now.

Well, maybe you'll be on of the luck ones whose babe sleeps the entire flight! That wasn't me, but I also found that on the long flights (overseas?) its easier to be up and walking around with your babe. The planes are usually bigger and the crew is more tolerant of people being out of their seats. My LO loved walking the plane while we wore him in the Ergo. And it gave us an excuse to stretch our legs!

[Louisep]

Originally Posted by illumini

Thanks everyone for this thread. I'm flying with my 6 month old in 3 weeks. I think its a 10 hour flight. Which since I've only flown once in my entire life (and that was a 1 hour flight) I thought a 10 hour flight was going to be easy. Reading this is making me nervous now.

It won't be that bad. In addition to all the suggestions above, try and find some other families and chat and let the babies interact. On long haul flights everyone is really lenient - they expect babies and they expect them to cry a lot, and they rarely do (only if they have an ear infection in my experience). As long as the parents are trying to attend to a screaming baby, fellow passengers tend to be sympathetic.

Also, on our long haul flight, I took a king size pillow for my LO to sleep on on my knee and it worked a treat. My DS at the time was a terrible sleeper but on the night flight fell asleep on take off and slept for 5 of the 8 hours. A poor family next to us tried repeatedly to get their baby to sleep in the travel crib and he screamed on and off for 2 hours before they let him sleep in their arms.

Also about carriers - never had a problem but only once took off with him in it. You will be prevented on flights to and from Europe wearing your baby on take off and landing as you are required to have your baby strapped to you with a baby seatbelt they provide.