entertaining a 1 yr old on a plane

[pbharris4]

Defintely the DVD player or laptop with their favorite shows, books, and maybe a lullaby CD. We drive down from VA over 2 days and when my DD was 13 months she did wonderful (until the last 1hr, but she never naps in the car). Last year at 24 months she did great too. When my older DD was 18 months we flew from Washington/Dulles to San Fransico on a non stop flight but were seperated DD and DH(who held her) a few rows back from me and My Dad who had to sit near the exit door (they wouldn't allow kids under 18 to sit there). DD had a horrible time for the first 1.5 hrs. She was all over my DH. I wish they would have had DVD players back then! She did fine on the way home...but we were all together.

 

[DisneyPhD]

My doctor recommended the decongestants too. We usually do Dimatap (sp?), since it does make my kids tired. We always do the earliest flight possible (7am), and wake the kids up around 4:30 to get them all hyped up about going to WDW, eat breakfast & get moving. Then they usually have some time to walk around the airport. About 1/2 hour before boarding, we give them the Dimatap and then usually within 15 minutes of taking off they take an hour or so nap.

Make sure to take a sippy cup or bottle with you. If your child is awake, they will need to suck to help their ears.

That is just how we do it too. Then we get to WDW and are normally in our room (stopped at the store already too) by 12:00 noon. Works out great. Last year we didn't fly out until 9:00. It wasn't too bad, but it seemed like we were late all day. However not getting up at 4:00 am was good. We are so tried that 1st day, but too excited to nap (all of us) except the kids who sleep on the plane and car ride.

I was thinking about this and how a 2 hour car ride is nothing. I don't worry about it in the least bit. Heck we do 10 hour car rides (with stops) and it is ok. Why is the plane so much harder. Part of it I think is we are sitting next to them paying attention and waiting for them to get restless and in the car we just go. Part of it is we don't care how much noise they make in the car, just turn up the radio. However in the plane we do care so we try harder. Also driving in a car is everyday, planes aren't. Interesting though.