Enteraining toddlers?

[jowan]

Any ideas for entertaining a toddler whilst travelling?

 

[candicenicole19]

Are your flying? We were given great anwsers when we asked the same question about our kids on the plane:

1. Take a new toy (From the $1 store) and wrap it up. Let the child open it and lay with it (more often then not they will play with the paper and then the toy)

2. Take lots of snacks. Self feed items.

3. pack a change of clothing for yourself and the child. Incase of accidents. Most of the time they are on Mom as well.

4. A magizine for you to read on the off chance your child falls asleep. If not they will have fun tearing it up!

5. Take a bottle or sippy cup with you so they can enjoy the one board drinks since you are not allowed to take them on the plane with you.

Hope that helps. Just a few pointers Airtran gave me!

 

[jockey]

I have just returned from Orlando and travelled with DS who was 15 months. I bought him a Thomas the tank back pack and filled it full or goodies such as

Colouring book and those markers that only write on paper (can't remember the name!

Picture books

roll of sellotape - this was suggested on another boards and it worked a treat!

A few little cars

A baby mobile phone!

All of the above amused him for hours!

VA were also showing Disney cars so he watched that for a bit too!

 

[buzz182]

Hi

Who are you flying with?

We flew with Virgin in Nov and Joshua was 13 months at the time and had been walking for the past month, so he always wanted to get out his chair and walk around. Well as you can imagine you can only put up with so much of that, so every so often I would strap him in his Infant care chair that Virgin provide for you and would get him to watch Cars or anything off the kids channel which he would do for so long but wouldn't wear the headphones. Or I would get out one of a few new toys I had bought along for him out his hand luggage. Just little things like a plastic truck I got from Tescos or a "My first Thomas". Just small and cheap things. I also took a beaker with a straw in it with a lid that closes over the straw when not in use so it won't spill. Also little snacks for him like raisins and crackers. Now I did take onboard baby juice in that, toddler milk in 100ml bottles, Fruitapura desserts and baby food in case Joshua didn't eat the childs meal (which he ate the spag bol but nothing else).
We were lucky that the flight we were on was not full so we asked a stewardess if we could use the seats in front of us to lay Joshua down to sleep, which she said was no problem. So he did also sleep for about 3 hours on the way there and he fell asleep in his chair about 20 mins before we landed. Other than that we just played with him and walked him around the plane.

How old is your little one?

The flight home was a different story as we had a nightmare as Joshua took ill on our last day as was classed unfit to fly for 48 hours, but the flight home was only 7 hours and again he slept through most of that anyway.

Sorry so long, but hope that helps.

Karina

 

[jowan]

Thanks for the ideas. He is 21 months and hates being restricted, we are flying with virgin. I've got some things together but he's hard to keep entertained so just wanted to see if I'd missed anything.

The things I have ready are:
Books, small cars, keys (as he is obsessed), crayons with paper/pictures, small bob the builder figures, stickers, baby telephone (I'm sure our in flight neighbours will love this, thankfully you can turn it off), snacks

 

[NicholaJP]

When we went with my little girl (was 23 months at time) we took an ELC walkman with nursery rhymes and stories for her to listen to, which she loved. She also snacked for most of the journey and enjoyed lots of milk.

 

[THE COLONEL]

Thanks for all the tips on here. We are going in November and how to amuse our just turned 3 year old son has been the subject of much discussion.

Our 10 year old daughter is appalled at the thought of sitting next to him for such a long time and her contribution to the debate has been to put in the cargo hold in a specially constructed crate. She did have some trace of humanity in suggesting that he also be given a couple of cartons of juice and a bag of rice cakes.