“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.” – Peter Pan
I may love travelling with my toddlers, but I absolutely hate flying with them. It is chaotic, exhausting and downright awful. I’m sure the SAS use it as their most effective torture method.
From my experience, the younger they are, the easier it is to fly with them.
Before they are mobile, they are quite content with long Mummy (or Daddy) cuddles and feeding.
My absolute limit flying with a 2-year-old or older is 9 hours, I do think with a newborn I would fly a lot further.
If I do want to fly further, I now tend to break the flights up with a stopover, make the most of seeing somewhere new, and spending a couple of days not travelling if time allows. This also helps with jet lag!
Remember infant flight tickets are also much cheaper before they turn two.
Bassinets for infants on flights
For long haul flights, most airlines offer bassinet seats for infants. Some websites state this is for 6-8 months old but we were able to put our son in one at 11 months old on British Airways.
They are located on the front row seats in each section of the plane. It is essentially a huge tray table and the flight attendant will secure the bassinet to it after take-off and remove it before landing.
It was a dream to have somewhere to put a sleeping infant rather than have them in your arms the whole flight.
If I didn’t also have a 2-year-old to entertain, I could’ve actually fit in some down time – remind me what that is again?
The extra room from being in the front row was also a huge benefit.
Be sure to select your seats early and grab those first row seats because they are popular even with passengers without infants.
Best time of day to fly with toddlers
Night flights are a blessing and a curse. I love flying at night after my kid’s normal bedtime as they will always sleep on a plane: heaven.
Heaven soon turns to hell when you need to wake a sleeping toddler to get off a flight and walk the length of the Great Wall of China to baggage claim.
For long haul, a night flight is probably the lesser of two evils as I just can’t imagine occupying a toddler in such a small space for more than five hours if they do not sleep.
You should also consider jet lag and if sleeping during a flight will help or hinder this.
For short haul, I don’t think it really matters as much but we find the really early morning flights the hardest.
Depending on how far you are from the airport, this usually means leaving at a ridiculously early hour and your little ones being groggy for the rest of the day.
If we do have an early flight, we tend to dress the children in what they will be wearing on the plane so we can just lift them in the car, and they can sleep a little longer.
Checking in with toddlers
Before getting in the air, we have the minefield of the airport… aka hell.
In my packing advice, I advise how to minimise the amount of luggage you need to lug to the check in desk.
We also like to check in our cabin bags so there is less to carry around the airport after security.
I like to assign me and my husband ‘jobs’ like which luggage/children we oversee. I am usually in charge of kids, pram, hand luggage and he takes care of the larger suitcases and equipment. This may sound obvious, but it helps when getting on and off transport rather than both of us trying to do everything (or nothing!)
On our recent Jet2Holiday, the customer service agent gave our children these little teddy passports which kept them occupied whilst we sorted check in. Though I have not had anything like this before on other airlines, apart from the odd sticker, this could be a nice thing you could make at home before you leave and give to them at the airport – anything for a smoother check in!
Airport Security with toddlers
“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here” – Dante Alighieri
With or without kids, airport security is an ordeal. I am still discussing it in my therapy sessions.
Most airports have a dedicated family line which is usually shorter and I feel under less pressure to speed through as everyone is in the same boat with young children.
We again have set jobs for this. One does the pram and one sorts kids.
You can take your pram through security but must empty everything out so try and plan for this to save you some time. We often pack everything into a big bag for life rather than emptying out each item one by one.
Talking of prams, you can either check them in with your luggage and take them to oversized baggage or you can take it to the gate.
We have done both but usually opt to take it to the gate rather than expecting a toddler to hike the length of 29 football pitches to the gate.
Annoyingly, with both options, prams usually come out at baggage claim which is a long walk for tired toddlers so we make sure to have a baby carrier.
For more tips on packing for toddlers, check my advice section here.
Liquids
Most airports, and hopefully soon all, have changed the liquids policy to 2 litres and there is no need to get the liquids out of your bag or put them in a separate clear bag.
Do check this with your destination airport as I relaxed on a recent trip to discover they still required liquids in a clear bag on our return flight.
For airports that still have the 100ml rule, this excludes baby milk.
I still take a 1 litre long life milk bottle for my two and four-year-old with no problems. Though this was questioned once but he checked with his boss and we were able to take it on board.
Still, I have had strawberry milk confiscated before as this is not seen as necessary.
You can get milk on board of course, but on a couple of occasions we have struggled. Milk is such a comfort to my children that I like having that plan B in case we can’t get it on board.
Another thing to note with liquids is check your medicine is under 100ml (if you are at an old school airport). We had an allergy medicine taken from us before.
It was only an over-the-counter Piriton type medicine; I am sure if it was essential medication or prescribed, they would have waivered the limit. Luckily my daughter didn’t get hay fever or a bee sting in the sky!
Surviving the airport with toddlers
As anything can, and usually does with toddlers, go wrong we always leave plenty of time to get to the airport and check in, etc.
The downfall of this is that we are then sitting in a boring airport with two energetic toddlers.
I tend to research the airports before we go (at home and abroad) to see what facilities it has.
Some airports have soft play areas and my goodness that is a god send!
I try not to sit around with my toddlers as they will be sitting on the plane for a long time. Some airports might also have fun shops like Lego or Hamleys to keep them entertained.
I sometimes cave and give the kids an item from their plane activity bag in the airport but always try my best to save it for the flight.
Activity bags for flying with toddlers
My absolute number one tip for flying with toddlers is: activity bags.
Each child has their own named bag with items to keep them occupied on the plane.
This will depend on the age and interest of your children but I go into more detail of specific items I put in their plane bags here.
For long haul flights, I will wrap up each item, and they chose one to open each hour (if they manage to wait this long).
On short haul flights it is just a free for all and they get everything out in 0.2 seconds.
I have never left a flight with everything I packed in these bags so don’t put anything valuable in them.
Food and milk on board with toddlers
I practically pack a whole Tesco aisle of snacks. Never try new snacks on a flight. Pack the junk food staples that you know your kids love.
Like adult meals, the children’s plane food isn’t the greatest. Do be sure to order these online, before you fly, as they are not automatically given.
I’ve never had a problem breast feeding on a flight and this is a good way to comfort them during take-off and landing.
On most long-haul flights, attendants have filled up our milk bottles with whole milk for free with no problem. Once a flight attendant said they had to check they had enough after serving teas and coffees, but we ended up getting it anyway.
Our kids have never been fussy with temperature, but they will heat the milk for you and offer boiling water for formula.
If you are using formula, you do not want to run out midway through a long-haul flight.
When travelling with a baby, I tend to make up 6 bottles but also take extra formula in pots.
This is total over kill, but I would much prefer that than to not have enough.
For older children, I take a bottle of long-life whole milk; with the screw top to avoid leaks.
A handy tip if you are struggling to fit formular or nappies in your luggage is to do a click and collect order for boots at the airport. This way you can collect it after security, it doesn’t count towards your luggage allowance and you can just carry it on board.
One thing to remember is to take a big enough bag to put it in as they gave it to us in a box which was really annoying to carry around the airport.
Hand luggage for toddlers
Other essentials to remember in your hand luggage in addition to toys, milk and food are the obvious essentials like nappies, wipes and extra clothes.
There may be specific items that your child needs such as a dummy, medicine or a blanket but you know them best.
What I always suggest is to pack a bag like you would for going out for the day and then just add extras.
If you usually pack one spare set of clothes, take two. If you only pack one dummy, take a spare.
I am sure a helpful Mum is willing to give you a spare nappy or wipe on board but when it comes to clothes and dummies I would be reluctant to share those.
I see a lot of families packing portable potties, and we did when our daughter was potty training.
They are useful to have, especially if you intend to use them at your accommodation, but they are just another thing to carry.
We now carry a folding toilet seat with us which is much more convenient.
You do still need to find a toilet to use it, but actually I don’t think I would feel that comfortable whipping a portable potty out in the middle of an airport either.
For more tips on packing for a toddler check out my packing tips here.
Queuing with toddlers
Another ordeal of flying with toddlers is the queuing. Everything involves a queue: security, getting on the plane, the gate, even the bloody loos!
As an adult I hate queuing so imagine how boring it is for a toddler.
I have a few hacks that I use at theme parks to help keep toddlers occupied whilst queueing.
It’s hard to juggle additional items as well as 27 pieces of luggage but it is helpful to have a couple of snacks and fidget toys on hand to occupy toddlers in queues.
We also have queuing games like: I-spy (but with colours) or playing hide and seek with one of their toys (we hide it on each other); I also chose about 5 items (can do more for older kids), show the children them, then take one away and they have to remember what is missing.
At the gate, we always wait until the last minute to board because we don’t want to be sitting on the plane longer than we need to and it gives the children an opportunity to run around a little more.
“Oh, the places you’ll go!” – Dr Seuss
I won’t sugar coat it. Flying with toddlers is hard. Remember to give yourself a break, be kind to yourself and look forward to the destination.
It is like childbirth, absolutely horrific, but totally worth it.