Flying with Toddlers

We made it back from our very busy and very fun trip to California. I'm sure you've seen from the pictures what a great time we had. In case you have any trips planned in the near future here are my tips for flying with toddlers....

After numerous cross-country trips with up to 3 layovers each way, this 3 hour non-stop flight was a breeze. First off, we flew Jet Blue which I would highly recommend to anyone. Jet Blue has individual TVs for each seat with 40-some channels from Animal Planet to Nickelodeon to News and Mtv. The crew was nice and friendly and offered a selection of 5 different snacks and didn't hesitate to give you seconds if you asked.

As far as entertaining the little ones... I have two very different kids. Cali is well mannered, sits still very nicely and can be easily entertained with quiet activities. I brought along lots of stickers and notebooks for her. She used a few stickers then told me she needed to save the rest for her scrapbooking. So much for that. She was mostly entertained by the TV and her new Princess gum and a few snacks. On the way back I found a makeup brush set at the $1 bin at Target and kept her entertained putting on pretend make-up, face painting, and even painting tiger stripes up and down her arms (with water).

Now Diego is a different story. As a ramubunctious 2-yr-old boy the concept of sitting still is quite foreign to him. Ideally he'd like to climb over and under all the seats like a giant jungle gym or go running like a maniac down the aisle. So we decided to take his carseat along this time and that worked well for the most part. He didn't love it but at least we were able to contain him. He was entertained by a few stretchy rubber creatures, a Color Wonder marker set, stickers, sometimes the TV but mostly lots and lots and lots of snacks. When choosing airplane snacks go for things that aren't too messy, take a while to eat, aren't too filling, and definitely low in sugar! We had granola bars, cereal, nuts, apples, and fruit snacks. I saved the chewy fruit snacks to help their ears on the descent; on the first flight I gave them suckers and that worked OK too. Not sure the suckesr actually helped their ears pop or just distracted them long enough to get through it.

As far as packing your carry-ons take at least twice as many snacks, books/toys, diapers, wipes, changes of clothes as you think you need (don't forget a set for yourself, because you never know!). They'll probably go through all the entertainment and snacks a lot quicker than you'd expect. For just this 3 hour flight I had an entire backpack filled and they went through just about all of it. Plus, you never know when you might have a delay and you really don't want to be stuck in the airport or on the airplane when you run out of essentials.

Also, if your kids have special "lovies" pack them in a carry-on because you certainly don't want their favorite blankies and babies to get lost with the luggage. They'll probably want to snuggle them on the plane anyway.