I have been wanting to write this post as soon as we finished our 21 hours international flight.It’s been couple of months now and I still look back and think about the flight experience with our 18 month old. It was great!!
The first time we took such a long flight was when she was 2 months and a few days old and we didn’t have any problems during our flight back then.It’s actually easier to travel with breastfed infants who sleep for longer periods and all you have to do is breastfeed them when they are hungry and change them when you have a wet/dirty diaper. It was easy, really easy back then.
But now with a restless,demanding and almost an exploring toddler it could be anything.Before our travel, I was having nightmares on handling the meltdowns,difficulty putting the baby to sleep and other things like that.But it turns out that our lil girl loves traveling and enjoyed her flight.The only meltdowns occurred when it was time to put on the seat belts.Argh!! We just hated those bulky belts around her.
Its always nice to get a seat for your littles over 15 months since they are already at the age where they want to be more independent and copy what their parents/siblings would do.It was the same with our little girl.She enjoyed having her very own seat just like mommy and daddy. But the seat alone does not help and they have to be kept busy with something that interests them.Here are a few things that I had packed in our carry on to keep our little one entertained.
Books and ABC puzzle board
Getting books with lots of pictures is highly recommended. So, we had books with ABCs and 123s,nursery rhymes, books with fruits,veggies,animals,etc.
I also bought a fun with stickers book which was a hit,she loved peeling off and sticking those cute animal faces.
I had purchased a wooden ABC puzzle at a local supermarket day before our travel.Though it was not much liked,we spent a good 15 to 20 mins trying it. I guess she a was too young for this one as she was finding it hard to put the letters back to its place. We had to be careful with this one, there are chances that the letters may get lost by falling off or your baby may just throw it away somewhere hard to reach.
Toy animals
I would highly recommend getting these tiny creatures.They look so cute and appealing to the baby, played with it several times during the flight.I used it as props for story telling too.They are great to keep kids entertained on a flight.
Magic writing board
This was another random pick at the super market.I had to have a lot of options to keep her busy so having this was an addition to the list but the baby didn’t seem to like it much.May be it was that particular one was not good enough,there might be better ones like this in the market.
Coloring book and crayons
These were must-haves for me because baby S loves coloring. How much? You would know it if you visited our house back in India:-) . Her art work with crayons was all over the walls in the living room. Initially we stopped her from colouring on the walls but later thought of letting her enjoy childhood to the fullest. Anyway,colouring could be a great way to kill time on a long distance flight.On the other hand, it’s good if you can find the washable/erasable kind of crayons because they tend to go beyond the books onto the plane windows a the tray table.
Toy cars & airplane
This sounds like a boys thing but baby S enjoys playing with them.Toy airplane was on my list but I couldn’t get one,so we just had the toy cars.
A little tea-set
This is totally a girly things.Little girls love their tea set.Especially, when they see the flight attendants serving tea and coffee,they would want to do the same.I had one for my little girl too.She had a great time playing tea time with Daddy.
Her favourite soft toy
A cuddling toy is a must have.It kind of helped her feel secured and accompanied by someone she has known before (well known toy).She looked happy playing with it all by herself.
iPad
This was like my last weapon 🙂 I thought if nothing else works out I would use it and I am glad to say that we didn’t use it at all.But I had it on hand loaded with new never seen before apps and a few nursery rhymes videos.
I would love to hear what you do to keep your child entertained on a long flight.HAPPY FLIGHT !!