Travelling with 14 month Baby

A

aprilbaby

Registered User
Can anyone share experiences or useful tips when flying to UK with a 14 month boy. I'm dreading flying next week, as he has just started throwing temper tamtrums and screaming. I am flying without my husband!!

Thanks in advance for advice etc...
 
Travelling with Baby

Hi Aprilbaby

I just travelled to Holland and Belgium with my son (just turned 1). Hubbie with me. But best advice is to bring some new toys for him to play with; also hope that you have friendly "neighbours" onthe plane and that the stewards / stewardesses like babies. Seriously though, aside from the new toys bit, we found that because our son had to wake up early to get to the airport he was really drowsy by the time we actually got onto the plane so that soon after he had his bottle (on takeoff), he fell right asleep. We had almost 2.5hrs of peace and quiet when both of us could sleep too. The stewardess was nice enough to give us a bassinet (to put on the floor in teh bulk head cabin area) so that neither of us had to hold on to him in the rather squishy seats through those few hours. After that, if he's up to walking, the best thing to do is to go walking with him, of course not at meal service times. Our son enjoyed intermingling with other passengers and looking out the window at the back of the plane - that helped to pass the time more quickly and made him tired after awhile. Also good to bring some snacks for him and lots of fluid (water, juices). Airport clearance was OK - so long as the liquids were all in the same baby bag.

Good luck!
 
Take some special treats for him that he really likes but doesn't get often. He's going to go mental at some point during the trip and why not, it's a big ask to demand a child stay quiet for that long so bring them out when he does. We've done a lot of travelling with our son, in three weeks we did Australia, UK, France, US and the treats worked well when he started to get testy. I'd also try to book a night flight so your child will go to sleep. New toys are also good but above all just be prepared for it to be really tough work for you. Make sure you keep your cool and stay patient. Nothing worse than seeing mum and child losing it!
 
I traveled to Toronto with my then 14 month old. We took the afternoon flight so she had a good nap in the morning. Here are some tips:

- DD has a lovey and I have 2 backups so we took all of them on the flight with us. She loved cuddling with her lovey as that gave her some sort of familiarity. Also bring a few new toys to distract her (magna doodle was a hit with her)
- To eliminate the ear pressure during take off and landing, I gave her a lollipop to suck on. If you breastfeed, you can breastfeed during take off and landing too (if they let you hold her during this time)
- Order meals from the airline but I brought some jars of baby food with me in case she didn't like the airline food (it was fried chicken nuggets, so I am glad I took our own food)
- My DD only slept 30 mins during that looong 18 hour flight, there was a sick baby in front of us and everytime she coughed, she woke up my DD. DD was super cranky. Luckily the air hostesses were kind enough to help me hold her sometime.
- I took a hot water thermos and a room temp thermos on board as it always took sometime to get what you want from the air hostess. It made warming the jar food and milk much easier.
- Plenty of snacks for the DD on the flight

Have a fun trip!
 
YMMV but I also used sedatives (for the kids).

When my kids were toddlers, I would go to our pediatrician and ask for
some medicine to help make them drowsy for the trip. I made sure it didn't have a bad reaction by giving it to them a week or two before the trip as a test.

Bring your baby carrier, because you may end up wanting to walk him up and down the aisle.

Small pots of play dough (they sell them at ToysRUs) can be a good thing to keep busy fingers occupied.

I once wrote up a bunch of advice that you can read here:
http://ihome.ust.hk/~lbcaplan/hkbb/hkbb.html

I haven't updated it since the kids got older because now traveling with them is OK, almost a pleasure.
 
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