Post Travel Rant: Flying with Baby

We recently went to a long flight back home in Asia with my little one. While I love going back home to see family, I admit that the flight was something I dreaded. My little boy is now 18 months old and is a very active baby. People would commend how he seems to have that never-ending energy. At home, he constantly runs, jumps, or climbs at anything to spend this energy. His nannies would bring him at our apartment’s courtyard so he can spend some of his energies while getting a dose of fresh air.

Traveling from Europe to Asia was not easy. It was a long 16-hour flight. While we took the best route we could get (splitting the travel time to 8-hour each), it was still a difficult task for any parent to make sure that the trip will be fuss-free!

If you are one of those families taking a long trip like this with an active little toddler, here are some of the tips that my husband and I did to survive the long flight:

• Make sure to bring small toys to entertain. My son loves the McDonald’s minions and toy cars. We decided to bring a couple of those to make sure that he would stay seated for even just a few minutes/seconds. Be thankful for each moment where your little one is content just being in his/her chair. It could get worse.
• Bring lots of snacks/homemade food. We requested baby food/kid’s meal for my little one for the duration of the flight. But on the first leg of our trip, we discovered that our son was not included in the headcount for the meals. It was really disappointing and while it was something that the airline company should be apprehended for, parents should make sure that little kids will not go hungry on the trip. It was a good thing I packed lots of snacks/homemade meals for my son and brought empty small containers. The reason why I did this is to make sure that when my son goes hungry, he gets fed. Little kids can go cranky if they are hungry and we can’t expect that his mealtimes will go on schedule as the cabin crew’s schedule for meals. If the crew served his meals and he is done eating or he is taking a nap, I pack it away so he can eat later. 
• Pack a couple of extra change of clothes. My son never liked changing nappies in tightly closed spaces like the plane’s toilets. He would cry and scream on the entire nappy change process. This would lead to some spills or sometimes he would end up peeing on himself. So to make sure your kid will not stink on the remaining hours on the flight, make sure to pack a couple of change of clothes.
• Choose flights with reasonable stopover time. My son loved it the moment we step out of the aircraft. Who wouldn’t be? Even I and my husband loved it when it is time to disembark! If you have connecting flights, make sure to allocate enough time for everybody to enjoy the change of surroundings. I would personally recommend to make sure that the flights in between have at least 3-hours stopover.
• Ignore other passengers. When I was a solo traveler, there were times I was really annoyed when little kids would go screaming their heads off on the entire flight. I think it is pretty common reaction for other passengers who wanted to catch some sleep, but can’t due to the noise. Now that I have my son and we experienced the difficulty, I felt sorry for how I felt towards the parents who were struggling to keep up with a screaming baby on the entire flight. I experienced how difficult it was for those equally sleepless parents to try to keep the baby calm while being equally tired and sleepy. I admit, I think I noticed some passengers close to us giving us “the look” when my son screams, kicks, or basically put his “I am pissed” emotion out on display. Believe me, we really tried our best to contain him and make him wear that seat belt or stop him from hitting the tray table but he really thought it was funny. So since it was a lose-lose situation, we decided to ignore those looks. It was not like we were not doing anything anyway.
  
  
  How about you, do you have tips that can help tired and worn out parents traveling with active little toddlers?