Surviving a Flight With a Toddler

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Wyatt has officially been on forty-three flights in his sixteen months of life and he’s now basically a pro. We just took a six hour flight from New York to San Francisco and he was SO good. Our seatmate was very impressed (and thankful).

My husband said that he thought it was way easier to travel with Wyatt when he was an infant…and although I could see where he was coming from, I had to disagree. They are just different experiences, there are different struggles now (Wyatt is more mobile and knows what he wants), but there are also a lot of things that are so much easier now. I felt like when Wyatt was an infant, my entire plane ride was him on and off of my boobs. I didn’t mind breastfeeding, but that’s just annoying for 6 hours. I was a literal human paci, and I embraced it as way to get through the flight, but it wasn’t ideal. Infants are also way less predictable, their diaper situation is trickier, you can’t reason with them, and snacks aren’t really a motivating factor. However…on another note, toddlers on planes have their own issues, like wanting to walk around, trying to bother other people, and knowing how to get what they want (tantrums). Whether your child is a baby or a toddler, traveling by plane could be a wild ride, but if you’re at least prepared, you’ll feel confident and ready to tackle whatever that little monster throws at you! Remember that’s it’s only a few hours out of your life (unless it’s across the globe), don’t let the plane ride deter you from taking the trip, you (and your child) can do it!

You can check out my original post on flying with BABIES- HERE.

Before You Fly

Get TSA Pre-Check or Global Entry. This is just a general tip for everyone (seriously, get it), but it’s especially nice to have once you’re traveling with a little one in tow. Instead of waiting in a long line to take my shoes and sweater off and pull my computer out of my bag, all while dealing with a baby, I get to flash my tix that say TSA Pre Check like a boss and breeze through security with as little disruption to my precise (over)packing as possible. 

Booking Your Flight

Booking your baby on a flight. For children under 2 years old, you do not need to book them their own seat. You need to book them on your flight itinerary as a “lap infant” when buying your tickets, but there is no charge. You can always add a lap infant to your itinerary after the flight is booked as well.

Best flight times to book. If your schedule allows and you’re booking a flight over four hours- I like to book flights for the evening when my toddler would normally be sleeping. Night flights are often easier for kids to sleep on because they dim the lights and there isn’t as much action to distract them from sleeping, and your baby is used to sleeping in the nighttime hours. For flights under four hours- it’s such a short amount of time that I recommend just booking whatever time works best for your schedule! Also look at booking flight times depending on departure and arrival cities- especially if multiple time zones are a factor. When I fly from the west coast to the east coast, I usually prefer to fly red-eyes with my baby (sounds crazy, I know!) but again, he is used to sleeping at that time and I’m not spending six hours trying to entertain him! One more factor to consider is that the early morning flights are usually more often on-time for departure, less chance of a delay = less time in the airport = happier family.

Choosing seats to book. If you fly on an airline where you can select your seat, I like to select certain seats based on if I’m traveling alone with Wyatt or with my husband as well. When I travel alone, I choose an aisle seat that is close, but not too close to a bathroom or area that you can stand up in (or your toddler can walk around in).  When I’m traveling with Wyatt and my husband, we book an aisle, and a window in the same row (like seats A and C, or D and F if there are 6 seats in a row). We try to look for a row that’s closer to the back of the plane, we’ve found that the seats at the back are usually the last to be booked, if they are at all (people prefer to be at the front of the plane), and middle seats are also last to be booked. So, in many lucky instances, by booking a window and aisle, the middle seat has not been booked and we end up with a whole section of a row, and a place to put baby things or for Wyatt to stretch his legs into if he’s laying on our lap. If someone is booked in the middle seat, we can then offer them the window instead of being between us (we’ve never had anyone who didn’t prefer the window over the middle.)

What to Pack

Pack a smart carry-on or diaper bag. What is normally in your diaper bag might not necessarily be what you need to be bringing on the plane. I like to pack even MORE diapers and wipes. Blowouts aren’t an issue in toddlerhood anymore, so one backup change of clothes is all I pack, but Wyatt crushes milk on flights so he ends up going to the bathroom A LOT.  (The bathrooms on board have a drop down changing table above the toilet, obviously don’t change your kid in the seat, that’s gross.)

Toys or Entertainment. The past few flights I’ve been on I didn’t bring Wyatt any toys at all. (WHAT?!) All he wants to do right now is be mobile, and basically all of his plane appropriate toys (small, not noisy, not many pieces) provide 2 seconds of entertainment before they’re thrown on the ground. (One of my girlfriends recommended bringing a bunch of shoelaces and tying toys to the chair so they don’t end up on the ground- this is a great trick for younger ages when toys pay off more!) I’d say on our flights around 14 months I just stopped bringing toys. (Check out my flying with babies post about good toys for infants on a plane). This will change again when he gets a little older and can color, play with toys on the tray table without throwing them, etc. (If you do have a little one who might want to start coloring, try this Color Wonder set, the markers only make marks on the special paper so your furniture, walls, and baby stay clean!)

What we do currently bring are books and a screen (GASP!). Wyatt loves reading and even reading a quick book can put him in a different mindset (where he doesn’t want to escape our row or run up and down the aisle). We also bring our ipad and have some pre-downloaded shows or movies for him (he loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). I know screen time is a no-no, but remember this is how to SURVIVE! PRO-TIP: On iphones and ipads you can put the screen on “Guided Access” so even if your child is holding the device, the screen doesn’t react to their touch (they can’t exit out of the show or turn up the volume or anything else) HERE are the directions for turning it on. I just turn the volume down low enough for Wyatt to hear because of proximity, but basically no one else. Once he gets older, I’ll probably get a pair of toddler headphones, but there’s no way he’d keep them on right now and I still worry about the level of volume in his ears.

Also, don’t forget any comfort objects your toddler uses- paci, lovey, etc, and I usually bring a blanket of some sort for snuggling under.

Germs. My husband and I are not germaphobes, and think a little bit of germiness is good, but we all know airplanes are gross. We usually wipe down the tray table if our baby is going to be putting his hands on it, or put a sticky placemat on it (those are also good for messes if your baby is snacking inflight!), other than that we don’t stress about it- think about how gross playgrounds are, there’s only so much you can do!

FOOD. Have a lot of whatever your toddler eats on hand. As a toddler, Wyatt doesn’t nurse anymore, he is on about 18 oz of milk a day and regular human food. According to the TSA guidelines,  you can carry-on liquids if they are for the baby (formula, breastmilk, milk, water, whatever.) As I mentioned earlier, Wyatt seems to crush milk on planes, so I always bring a ton or buy more at the airport. I bring this sippy full and then this stainless steel kids water bottle that will keep milk cold for a long time. Then I just pack a ton of snacks (fruit, cheese, salty snacks) or a sandwich if it’s a long flight. Luckily, we usually fly JetBlue and they have free snacks the whole way so that’s pretty helpful because Wyatt loves a cheez-it (like his mama.) 

At the Airport

RUN. If your baby is walking or even crawling. Do anything you can to get their energy out. Yes, airports are dirty and gross, but like I said, so are playgrounds. A lot of airports have play areas for kids with jungle gyms and slides- see if your terminal has one. Wyatt loves to explore everything new right now so he just logs tons of steps walking everywhere around the airport…I really need to put a FitBit on him one day.

Do you have enough food? Double check your rations and stock up at Newport News or whatever those airport convenient stores are if you need more!

Boarding and De-Boarding

Gate-check your stroller. Get tags at the desk at your gate. There is no charge to gate-check these items and you will want the stroller in the airport up until the minute you board the plane! Some people use the gate-check bags that you can purchase like this, or this, to protect their stroller and carseat from scratches, but I do a lot of traveling alone with Wyatt and these are just one extra thing, not to mention having to put the stroller and carseat into the bags after breaking everything down. (Some friends have this stroller that fits in the overhead bin. If you’re doing a lot of trips that don’t involve checked luggage or a stroller that has big wheels, then that’s an amazing option because you don’t have to gate check…just note my LAST ON BOARD option (next tip), because at the end of the flight they often ask for people to start checking any overhead baggage.)

If your baby still fits in the infant carseat that clicks into your stroller base, absolutely bring that, but if you’re into the convertible seat, check that at the check-in desk if you’re bringing it on your trip (you probably need it at your destination unless you’re renting a carseat or someone there has one you can use. Some cities also have Uber Carseat now!)

Board the plane LAST. This is a personal favorite strategy of mine. There is no way that I want to be on a plane for a longer amount of time than I have to be, especially with a toddler, so I do NOT board when they call boarding for families with small children. I wait until they make the final boarding call and make my way over and try to be one of the last ones in line. This serves two purposes: not having to be stuck on the plane for longer than you have to be, and to also take the stress out of the whole breaking-down of your gate-checked items process.

Don’t rush to get off the plane. You have to wait for your stroller to come up from being gate-checked anyways, and for any checked baggage too, so instead of standing by the gate-check area holding all of your things and your baby, while people de-board, just sit tight on the plane, collect your things and let other people de-board (while your toddler plays in the now empty seat next to you or at your feet), and by the time you get off the flight, your things will be waiting for you! OR if you’re traveling with another adult, I will take my toddler off of the plane right away so he can run around the airport while my husband waits for the gate-checked items.

On The Plane

SURVIVE. Wyatt basically gets spoiled on planes. He gets to sleep being held, takeoff is a great time to try to get your little one to sleep…the extra noise and movement definitely helps. He eats all the snacks, this is not a time we worry about nutrition. We pack some healthy snacks, but those unhealthy ones make him a lot happier if he starts to lose it. AND he gets to watch shows, seriously, not counting screen time minutes during a flight. Now that Wyatt’s a toddler we do have him walk the aisle a few times if it’s a long enough flight, or go visit with the flight attendants (he’s such a flirt). We try to remember that what we allow in a 7 hour flight won’t undo all the parenting we’ve done about healthy eating and healthy play, it’s just survival mode, so we do what we gotta do to keep our family happy!

THE END.

You got this, mama! (And dad) Traveling is hard on everyone, give yourself and your toddler a break! Good luck and bon voyage!

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