Long flight with a toddler

Hubby and I are planning a trip to San Francisco and Yosemite in late August, early sept. DS will be just shy of 2 years old. Are we crazy for attempting a 5+ hour flight, 3 hour time difference with a toddler?

Has anyone else taken a fairly big trip with your little one and lived to tell the tale? Advice?

Long flight with a toddler

We went to Hong Kong with DS when he was 20 months which is a 15hr direct flight. He slept for half of it. If you can swing it get her a seat. So much easier. Pack tons of snacks, toys, lollipops and ipad.

Re: Long flight with a toddler

We flew to Italy with our 2 year old. He did not sleep AT ALL. The jet lag/time difference was the worst part, but once he adjusted (2 days), the trip was awesome!

My advice would be...prepare for the worst (like a poop explosion), and hope for the best (like sleeping most of the flight).

Friends of ours swear by Benadryl.

Re: Long flight with a toddler

i would definitely suggest buying him a seat and using a car seat. If he's fairly good in the car, then he won't really know the difference being on a plane in his car seat. Bring new toys he hasn't seen before and things that won't be horribly annoying to other passengers - like balls he could throw or things that make noise. reusable sticker books are good. download some favorite shows to an ipad, and on a x country flight you'll probably have some form of in-flight entertainment for kids. pack lots of snacks. abandon rules about screen time and eating schedules and just do what you need to to get through the flight.

the time change will be rough for a couple days but try to keep him on his normal schedule time-wise, based on your new time zone, maybe dial it back an hour to ease the adjustment. like if he normally eats lunch at 12 and naps at 1 on the east coast, let him eat lunch at 11 and nap at 12 local time on the west coast and i'm sure it will work itself out in a couple days. keeping the hotel room really dark until a reasonable wake-up time will hopefully help prevent him waking up at 3 or 4am

Long flight with a toddler

I took DD to California by myself when she was 13 months old, so not yet a toddler, but was definitely at an age where she wanted to move around and not just sit in my lap.

As others suggested, I always bring new toys, books, stickers, etc. for plane rides. Lots and lots and lots of snacks!!! If I were to bring her on a long flight now at 21 months I think I would get her a seat. We just flew to Toronto, which is only an hour flight and she was a nightmare on our laps.

She adjusted really well to the time difference because I kept her on the same schedule. I think the first 2 days she woke up at like 5:30 (usually woke up around 8:00 at that age), but within days she was at her normal sleep schedule and we never had any problems with the reverse trip home.

Re: Long flight with a toddler

DH and I were planning a trip to Hawaii but I was really getting ajada thinking about flying 11 hours with my DD. She has never been on a plane before. We decided to plan a trip to Disney instead. It's a lot shorter of a flight. If she does great, at that point we will consider going other places further away.

Long flight with a toddler

We flew to Phoenix when DS was 13 mos old. The outbound flight was pretty bad, he had a lactose sensitivity and was given yogurt the day before at school so he was miserable (and people weren't nice about it). But, otherwise, he was great. We brought new toys but, he had fun playing with the arm rest and the window shade.

Re: Long flight with a toddler

This exactly.