Suggestions for Helping 15M/o on First Flight

You are doing anything you can do. Bring toys and her special things. The one thing you can do when you get on the plane is let the flight attentant know that this is her first flight and ask if they have a special presentation for being the first airplane trip. When my son was 4months old he had his first trip on an airplane and the flight attentant gave him a set of wings. This was over 25 years ago so I don't know if they still do this.

I haven't traveled yet but are in the same situation and I was told to bring the car seat because it's familiar to my child and will keep her active self in a seat her size.

Hey, enjoy your trip! When you get checked in at the airport, tell the person at the front desk that you would like to be in front row. This will allievate any crying in someones ears, or kicking abd bumping the seat in front of you as she moves around. Also once in the air and the seat belt sign is turned off, she will have room to play on the floor at your feet. When it's not beverage time walk the rows with her alittle. This all worked for us, and it was really no big deal. The front seat is very important so fight for it!!
Have a good trip.

Hi - We took out little one on her first flight at 11 months. My suggestion is to have all your snacks and food handy. I also brought along new toys for her so that they kept her entertained longer. I do agree that children to tend to people watch the majority of the time. The other passangers also seewmed to enjoy intweracting with her. Our little one handled her first flight amazing well.

Hi,
My husband and I recently traveled with our 14 month old and were nervous, too. With all the plane changes and layovers it actually tuckered our child out so he was more tired for some flights. One flight, though, he was overtired and crabby so we were so glad that we brought everything you're planning on bringing! I would encourage you to bring NEW little toys that your child has never seen. My sister-in-law calls them her "backups" when nothing else works (she flys with her child a lot, too). You don't have to spend a lot either- just check out a dollar store. Bring your video camera and just enjoy this unique time with your family. Hope this helps!

Check out this link for some wonderful suggestions in the "comments" section. Safe travels!!

http://www.askmoxie.org/2007/07/qa-the-annual-s.html#comm

We've flown a number of times with our kids, from 3 months on up, and they've always been great travelers. One thing I learned from a family of five while we were still childless: plan to not do anything for yourself. They had all of their carryons packed for their kids, snacks for kids, and so forth, and they didn't at all sit and read or snooze; they interacted with their kids constantly. My kids (my 4 yo in particular) just loves watching out the window. He likes to watch them load luggage, watch the takeoff, look at clouds, and talk to various people on the plane. For a baby, a periodic walk up and down the aisle is nice as a preventive measure. When we were routinely flying Seattle/Mps, we would make the east bound flight a redeye to get our kids to sleep all night. We were tired, but we had family here (we were living in Seattle) who would take the kids while we caught up on sleep a little. My kids were also good at staying awake for the time in the terminal in order to fall asleep on the plane, and that was nice, too--they loved the stimulation and excitement of all that was going on. Good luck--it's crazy, but we actually really like traveling as a family!

We have taken many LOOOONG flights with our kids. We always scheduled ours too around a time that they would sleep (red eye) or we scheduled it where half way through the flight it was nap time. Even early morning ones can worked out. The ones we FOR SURE avoided were the flights that started near nap time. We tend to think the kids get a little cranky around nap time and if we have not had time to settle into the flight before the cranky time sets in, it starts the flight off bad. So we always gave ourselves a settle in time prior to nap time. We also brought "new" suprise toys. Something they would like but had never seen before. This holds attention for some time. We packed food and snacks. We did fruit snacks (even though not a fan of the "teeth stickies") but they work great for take off and landing as they encourage chewing and swallowing. Suckers too take up a lot of time as someone else mentioned. Depending on your flight duration, we packed our kids lunches as well. That took up some time. Now we also purchased seats for our kids at that age. That was before the prices are as high as now; but this was awesome as we bought their car seats. By that age both of mine could fit in high back boosters. This gave them more stability and was also familar to them. When on international flights, we tried not to start the walking around thing on the plane as we knew if we did, we were starting a desired act and they would want to keep getting up and down. We also were in pull-ups over diapers, which actually helped if needing to get rid of wet ones over laying down for a diaper change. Now with domestic flights as they reached 2/3 years we did cheat a little and brought portable DVDs. (AHHHH)..... It did work though. Lunch, a new toy and one episode of Little Mermaid would place us in California. Now we had to combine a lot of the above with the International flights. Guess what though, it all works out great with a little preparation and I think the parents stress more than the kids. Just do not schedule take off right after or right at the start of nap time and you will be fine. My kids are school aged now and we look back at all of the flights we have taken and we all survived without any horrible memories.... (((HUGS))))

Singing quiet songs (the same ones we use at bedtime and naptime), counting in a sing-song voice. Breast-feeding or bottle-feeding at lift-off. Waiting until the absolute last minute to board the plane (they often let families with babies and children board FIRST- but that is just MORE time stuck inside the plane w/o the distractions of the airport). If you baby/toddler has a favorite music tape or CD of kids songs and will keep a headset on, bring a portable walkman or diskman with her favorite songs. Also, a few NEW toys are good for some distraction, plus the favorite old ones and favorite books. What I did too was to talk about all the new things we were seeing on the plane, and out the window. If you're anticipating A LOT of screaming, you can always bring extra earplugs for the passengers sitting immediately around you :) and if it is not a full flight, sometimes the flight attendants are willing to re-seat either you and your child or the passengers right by you to another section of the plane. Oh, and if you can get a seat right by the wing, I found the humming and vibrations in that area calmed my baby immensely every time we flew. (Plus is dulled the sounds of his crying for those near us too).

Do you take home movies of her and your family? If you bring the tapes or disks and let her watch them on the video camara, that will keep her busy for awhile. All kids love watching them selfs on t.v. Does she like music? A cd palyer/mp3 player with headphones works wonders also.
I hope this helps.
M.

I'll admit this was a while ago, but my first flight was from Chicago to San Francisco alone with my 3 1/2 yo and 18 mo/old. I had car seats and purchased seats for each of them and they stayed buckled in the whole way there except for a bathroom trip. They each had a backpack with books to read, coloring stuff, a stuffed animal, and snacks. But the most exiting thing I brought for each was a new tape player (this was before MP3s!) and headphones. They were amazed by the music and it kept them quiet. I would imagine a DVD player would have the same effect if you had headphones for that so it didn't bother other people. The only tears we had were that it was a small plane and the bathroom was very loud and she barely fit on the metal diaper changing shelf and it terrified her. On the return trip, they were so exhausted from our week they fell asleep right after take off and stayed asleep the whole time.

My son was about that age when we took a plane trip. Have something for her to suck or chew on during take off & coming down. This will reduce the pressure in the ears better than the earplugs. My doctor had suggested that. It worked fine on the trip out & back home. He slept on the way home as was a later flight. Have a great trip.

Everyone already gave you great suggestions, but here's a couple more choices...I do suggest bringing a laptop or dvd player, also lots of snacks/sippy cup and binky, if she has one, for take off and landing. One thing that really keeps our son entertained is the travel aqua doodle. It's mess free and fun! We fly several times a year, never over 4 hours, but he normally sleeps at least 1/2 of each flight. It will be easier then you think, just act excited about the flight rather then nervous. We do always get him his own seat and it's way easier this way. Not sure if you did that or not.

Have fun!

We just flew to Switzerland with our 21 month old. He was the overtired one crying on the plane. His favorite thing to do was go to the back of the plane where the stewards were and play with the knobs and get extra treats of some sort from them. They really enjoyed him back there and he gave hugs when we left to go back to our seats. We brought toys for him. One of the things he really liked was... I bought some flower shaped sticky notes that he was able to write on with a pen and hand them out to the other passengers. I also took a roll of blue painters tape and on the ups and downs we stuck it all over his seat. He ended up liking to pick small pieces off the seat and window area that he could reach while buckled in. We had enough to bring in the taxis etc on the whole trip and the way home.

good luck!! All the other passengers seemed to be really nice about my screaming child.
deb

my son was about 2 when he flew for the first time. I asked my doctor what we could do to help keep him calm, and not get airsick, and he suggested that we give him a little benadryl about an hour before take off. It works just like the medicine to help with car sickness, but it's safer for kids to take. you might try that. It helps keep them calm and relaxed. Good luck.

Something about the hum of the engine and the moving in the air usually puts the kiddos to sleep. My son fell asleep as soon as we were in the air on all four of the flights we've taken. (Wether it was naptime or not)

Hi K.,

I just flew 4 1/2 hours w/ my 14 month old. She did pretty good--you will be amazed at their ability to people watch! That actually keeps them pretty entertained. But some suggestions our dr. gave us before our first flight (this was our second) he said that if during take off and landing she could suck her Nuk or drink --anything w/ a swallowing motion is good to help the ears popping. He also recommended a small dose of Tylenol or Motrin to ease some of their tension.

We have found that plenty of snacks help, and we even got up with her a few times to walk the aisles. But on both flights--even when it wasn't nap time, we found her falling asleep and sleeping a good majority of the time. I think it is much like the car--she was lulled to sleep by the noise of the engines and feeling comfy in our arms. We were not fortunate enough to get an empty seat nearby so we could not use her car-seat. If you paid for your baby's own seat then you might have more room but we did not.

Good Luck--and if you find something new that works please share w/ the rest of us! We are planning another trip this winter and would love any new tricks!

Suckers are great...even though it's a bit of a sugar rush, but I believe you can buy sugarfree suckers. But, those are HUGE time consumers and will keep your littleone occupied during a tamtrum, especially when you can't reason with them. Take them to the bathroom and get up and walk around a bit if possible. It makes for a nice distraction and gives your little one a chance to socialize with other people. You'll be amazed at how many smiling faces a young child can bring to bored people on a plane.

We took our daughter from WI to CT when she was about 18 months. We over-packed toys etc to keep her busy. The thing she liked the most was the Magna Doodle. Bring her favorite lovie, a couple of books, snacks and cup/bottle (drinking will help with the pressure change too). We also put her in the seat by the window...she liked looking at the clouds.

Make sure you have your stroller with you and let the airline know when you check in that you have a baby...you usually get seated first. We also waited until the plane cleared out to get off.

Good Luck and don't stress too much...your daughter will sense it and stress herself. :-)

Have a great trip!
G.
Racine