Comments on: Flying with the devil. Or – how to fly on a plane with your children and not arrive with vomit on your top.

By: Things I have learnt about travelling with kids – part one, the airplane ride. AKA Dante’s vision of Hell. |

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:53:48 +0000

[...] your own advice. Carry an extra change of clothes for yourself. Again, one word – [...]

By: Em

Em — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:18:45 +0000

back on a 24 hour trip tomorrow. Things I learned on the way over..

1) Qantas give away kids pack to over 3′s. It contains an “etch a Sketch” in the shape of a turtle with toddler-sized handle (comes with pen and star shape attached with string. Also comes with pencil, colouring book and backpack made of that material from reusable shopping bags. The turtle was a winner. Unfortunately Bindi Irwin brand!
HOT TIP – they do not give out, you have to ask!
2) Despite ordering baby food for the baby, they do not offer unless you ask. You can never have enough and great to have variety. My baby only ate fruit and drank milk for the first trip. HOT TIP – take your own feeding spoons for babies.
3) Ask for extra pillows. even though you get the bulkhead with extra storage, you cannot put up the arms so toddler finds lying down to watch TV or sleep (if you’re lucky) difficult. Wedged him in seat with 5 pillows. Also good to use to prop baby up in bassinet.
4) Have one big packet of baby wipes to hand at ALL times
5) Double buggy for both was the best thing we bought. Have used everyday.
6)sticker books for 2 year old
7) boxes of raisins – great for queues, waiting for take off

there’ll be more by the end of the week…stay tuned!

By: SB

SB — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:57:06 +0000

Just travelled to LA from Melb and back (14hrs on plane) with 3,5 and 7 year old boys. Agree with surprises, small toys etc. Nintendo ds great for the older kids and with the onboard tv they are relatively easy apart from a few mid flight punch ons which is part of their normal awake routine. The 3y/o was tough. However the surprise ace in the pack was an ipod shuffle that i had loaded up only with kids music, cat in the hat stories etc. Put that on him he became mesmerised and it worked sending him to sleep. Great because small and light (make sure you get headphones that fit) and was like a new toy. He proceeded to lose it in LA as he insisted on having it with him everywhere and they are small so easy to lose!

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:56:28 +0000

The Klutz/chicken sox activity books are fantastic for 2 years plus. They take up v little space and are self contained no mess toys. Highly recommend the Totally Tape one which comes with four coloured rolls of masking type tape for sticking on various pictures and patterns – kept my 2 year old happy for hours on a long haul flight recently. Also, worth checking the inflight entertainment in advance – on our last big trip I was horrified to find that the antique plane we were flying on with Air Canada did not even have seat back TV in economy. This resulted in a late night panic trip to Currys to buy a portable DVD with 7 hour battery life (some only have a few hours) which we couldn’t have coped without.

By: ooeee

ooeee — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:24:53 +0000

Good luck! Are you going BA? Make sure you get a bassinet and not one of those dodgy seat/beds where baby can see everything that’s going on and won’t want to sleep. Best thing I ever bought for flying was a tiny suitcase that opens up as a pop-up building yard (fits on tray table) with a crane and ramps etc for a couple of cars. And a Transformer with moving parts – I got three hours of uninterrupted peace with one of those babies!
Very good tip re headphones – the usual style don’t fit into little ears.
When I’ve had to travel on my own, it’s amazing how many nice people there are out there who are most willing to help!
PS you forgot to mention alcohol to anaesthetise the parents, and perhaps get extra for your neighbours.
PPS be prepared for anyone that makes you remove sling with sleeping baby while passing through security checkpoints – pepper spray perhaps?

By: Elly

Elly — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:47:03 +0000

Eek – not looking forward to our trip to Europe later this year after reading this! A couple of other good tips recently got from my brother-in-law: fill up a small water bottle as soon as you get on the plane as kids are always thirsty when the hostess is not around, and make sure you can carry them and your hand luggage (at the same time!) for middle of the night stopovers.