Flying with toddler on lap

[Ross J 82]

We are flying with our 16 month old on Saturday who will be on our laps.

We are organised for the flight, we have lots of snacks and new toys for him to open. The bit we are worried about is take off. How do you get a toddler to sit still while waiting for takeoff. I can see him wanting to get up straight away but seem to remember from final seatbelt check to seatbelt sign off can be around 30 minutes.

One of us will wait off with him until the last possible moment before boarding.

All helpful tips greatly appreciated.

 

[Spunky946]

Snacks and electronics. Also just as a warning I've been on flights that were bumpy and the fasten seat belt sign stayed on either the whole flight or most of the flight.

 

[DopeyDame]

If you are choosing to fly with a lap baby (lap toddler) you need to be prepared to have him seated and in your lap for the entire flight - including taxiing on the ground in both directions. I was on a flight once where the family behind me almost got kicked off because the mom couldn't get her toddler to sit on her lap - he kept going all stiff and sliding onto the ground. It was a fiasco (and honestly, the mom didn't appear to even be really trying and kept wanting the flight attendant to "tell him to behave")
Obviously I'm sure you're not that kind of parent, but as a PP said, you really do need to mentally prepare yourself and your son to have him sitting still on your lap for very long periods of time.
As for how to do that.... ugh. I think Spunky is right that snacks and electronics is your best bet, but my kids weren't really into electronics yet at that age. Snacks that you can dole out one at a time that he doesn't usually get, like M&Ms, work well. You know your child best - what helps keep him entertained at restaurants or church or places like that?
(I know it's too late now, but this is one of the many reasons we always bought a seat and used the carseat - the kid is strapped in and not going anywhere.)

 

[DizneyLizzy]

Snacks!! My 2 1/2 year old will still eat those Gerber puff things, and we save them for travel as a treat. They are great for take off and landing bc they get him chewing and keep him distracted. I used these when he was a lap child as well.

 

[kamik86]

If not electronics other toys that don't make alot of noise are good too. Just anything new they can play with in their seat. Just be sure you have a way to strapping it to a bag or strap so that when they drop it you can get it back without having to unbuckle so they don't scream because you won't let them get their toy back.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Knowing that your child would rather get up and move you really should have purchased him a ticket and brought his car seat.

I would not wait to board.
Get on asap so that you can get settled.

If you can bring a tablet with a kids show that he likes for during take off.

Other than that you're just going to have to force him to stay on your lap.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

We are flying with our 16 month old on Saturday who will be on our laps.

We are organised for the flight, we have lots of snacks and new toys for him to open. The bit we are worried about is take off. How do you get a toddler to sit still while waiting for takeoff. I can see him wanting to get up straight away but seem to remember from final seatbelt check to seatbelt sign off can be around 30 minutes.

One of us will wait off with him until the last possible moment before boarding.

All helpful tips greatly appreciated.

waiting may or not help you as you can be rushed to get seated plus having to crawl over someone if one is in the window seat as someone will be in isle seat. plus child will have to sit sideways in you lap legs can not be in isle. person in seat if front of you can have seat reclined giving you less room and tray table will not be able to be used. noise making toy will need headphones or on silent. and as others have said plan on seat belt sign to be on most of flight

 

[brockash]

Knowing that your child would rather get up and move you really should have purchased him a ticket and brought his car seat.

I would not wait to board.
Get on asap so that you can get settled.

If you can bring a tablet with a kids show that he likes for during take off.

Other than that you're just going to have to force him to stay on your lap.

Lol...pretty sure all 1/2 year olds and really most ppl. in general would rather get up and move around as opposed to sitting in an airplane seat. I'm guessing you've never flown with a lap child. I would DEF. recommend waiting as long as possible to board...even if you're the last passenger on board, you'll have plenty of time to "get settled". -As I like to say, having a baby or a toddler on a plane is kinda like having a ticking time-bomb, so it's better not to start the time until you absolutely have to. OP, you'll be fine, it won't be fun, but it's completely doable and ppl. do it thousands of times a day. I'd recommend taking special snacks, plenty of drinks, maybe some stickers, tablet if he'll mess with that etc. Don't stress about it, it'll be fine.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Lol...pretty sure all 1/2 year olds and really most ppl. in general would rather get up and move around as opposed to sitting in an airplane seat. I'm guessing you've never flown with a lap child. I would DEF. recommend waiting as long as possible to board...even if you're the last passenger on board, you'll have plenty of time to "get settled". -As I like to say, having a baby or a toddler on a plane is kinda like having a ticking time-bomb, so it's better not to start the time until you absolutely have to. OP, you'll be fine, it won't be fun, but it's completely doable and ppl. do it thousands of times a day. I'd recommend taking special snacks, plenty of drinks, maybe some stickers, tablet if he'll mess with that etc. Don't stress about it, it'll be fine.

Actually I have flown with a lap child.
She was 16 months old and didn't mind sitting.
We knew she would be fine sitting on our lap the whole time so we didn't purchase a ticket but clearly OP knows that the child will not do very well beforehand so a ticket should have been purchased.
We got on the plane as soon as we could to get situated and it worked well.

 

[Docmum]

That age we had a baby bassinet booked via the airline (long distance flight), but nevertheless had to keep the child on our lap until the aircraft reached cruising altitude. To bridge that time, we always had a new cuddle toy with some functions on it like this :
https://www.amazon.de/sigikid-Mädch...d=1476209389&sr=8-1&keywords=sigikid+känguruh

I always had that wrapped in paper as a gift, so that the child (one year it was my daughter, a couple of years later my son) had fun unwrapping the whole stuff and then enjoyed the toy itself. We never had a problem with one of them, always worked great ! For some 3-4 hour flight without a bassinet we were playing finger games, peek-a-boo (just whispering of course, not entertaining the whole plane !), cuddled a lot and finally always had a little snooze.

 

[roseaster]

I've flown with lots of lap babies. No worries. People have given you good suggestions. Snacks are always good. Toys. Electronics and otherwise. Like someone else suggested save new toy or 2 for the flights. That way the baby will be pretty fascinated.

Board late if you have assigned seats. Wait, let him run around the terminal, wear himself out.

My worst experience flying was with a 2.5 year old. She had her own seat and was determined not to sit in it. We had to wrestle her and hold her down to get her buckled in. She screamed the 1st hour of the flight. I'm sure our fellow passengers were thrilled.

 

[JulieODC]

We also had more trouble with our DD having her own seat and refusing the seat belt then we ever did (30+ legs) as a lap infant. We always board last. And she seemed to be most entertained by the magazines and plastic cups - but I've hear others recommend wrapping up little toys to unwrap at various points during the trip to keep things fresh.

Oh, and snacks - and lots of praying to the god of plane naps!

 

[MissMet]

Great plan of getting on the last possible second. I send my husband on during pre-boarding to get our seats all situated but I walk up with him, then tell the ticket agent I'm waiting until final boarding & excuse me & DS from the line and let him run wild. Not necessarily to line up with him but I like to let the agent know I'm on the flight in case God-forbid I miss the "final boarding" call while dealing with DS, I know they'll (hopefully) get my attention. (I don't go far from them)

Snacks & new toys (for each flight) are great but remember to be very slow to pull out each one. Don't panic & pull them all out at once & leave yourself nothing new for the rest of the flight. Let them fuss a bit before you pull out something new. Don't worry about the people around you too much...they were all babies at one time annoying strangers too. As long as you are doing what you can to keep your kid in check, people seem to be understanding. It's more of the people who don't think of others or plan out the flight, like you are doing, that I think really upset people.

I try to fly Jetblue or an airline with TVs, since most people will be wearing headphones, my kids noises aren't near as bothersome.

Don't let it stress you out. Once we were up in the air I let my DS on the floor and just blocked him from going into the aisle with my legs. The flight crew didn't mind at all. I DID NOT have to have him on our lap every moment, only take off & landing...and of course if there was turbulence.

Good luck! Have a great trip!

 

[aebeauregard]

We just got back from a September trip with my daughter (almost 2) flying as a lap infant. Everything worked great for us actually. I loaded up our iPad with shows she likes and got child sized headphones. I usually try to limit screen time but on the plane I just let her veg out as long as she was content and quite. Also with the iPad it is considered small enough that we didn't have to store it away for take off or landing. I don't even think she knew we did either. I also gave her a pacifier to help her ears even though we don't really use them anymore.

 

[Mousemommy1]

If you know that your toddler isn't going to want to sit still, you should buy him a seat. It's not safe to have a toddler moving all over the place on an airplane. I know for sure our toddler would want to be up and about, so we always buy him a seat. Plus, having him on my lap for 3 hours doesn't lend to an enjoyable flight.

 

[kamik86]

Great plan of getting on the last possible second. I send my husband on during pre-boarding to get our seats all situated but I walk up with him, then tell the ticket agent I'm waiting until final boarding & excuse me & DS from the line and let him run wild. Not necessarily to line up with him but I like to let the agent know I'm on the flight in case God-forbid I miss the "final boarding" call while dealing with DS, I know they'll (hopefully) get my attention. (I don't go far from them)

Snacks & new toys (for each flight) are great but remember to be very slow to pull out each one. Don't panic & pull them all out at once & leave yourself nothing new for the rest of the flight. Let them fuss a bit before you pull out something new. Don't worry about the people around you too much...they were all babies at one time annoying strangers too. As long as you are doing what you can to keep your kid in check, people seem to be understanding. It's more of the people who don't think of others or plan out the flight, like you are doing, that I think really upset people.

I try to fly Jetblue or an airline with TVs, since most people will be wearing headphones, my kids noises aren't near as bothersome.

Don't let it stress you out. Once we were up in the air I let my DS on the floor and just blocked him from going into the aisle with my legs. The flight crew didn't mind at all. I DID NOT have to have him on our lap every moment, only take off & landing...and of course if there was turbulence.

Good luck! Have a great trip!

The reason everyone is saying to plan to have to have him on your lap all flight isn't that the crew would mind. Occasionally there are flights that are turbulent the entire trip and the seat belt sign never goes off. I have had flights 2-3 hour flights that didn't even have a beverage service because the pilot wanted the flight attendents in the seats for most of the flight and they never had time to do it.

 

[Bob Dolewhip]

I flew with both my kids as lap babies at this age and it went very well. They are both snugglers and were unhappy in car seats so this was the way to go for us. They were so excited to be on a plane that they didn't even want the toys I packed.
Then after we were all settled and took off... fell right to sleep. I was amazed because my kids are not really good sleepers.

We prepared for the trip by reading books about planes and airports so they would know what to expect.

If things go downhill I would recommend iPhone and headphones.

 

[Meeko5]

My 22 month old lap child did awesome and shocked us all- he hates his car seat and we knew that would be a miserable flight for everyone if he were contained in that. I brought:

-Stickers and a small notepad
-iPad with new games and a favorite movie
- cheap windows clings - the gel kind - he spent probably 30 minutes playubg with these and sticking them on the tray table. Also squishing them haha
- small putty container (not play dough - gel like putty that stays together and doesn't make a mess like silly putty)
- snacks.
- more snacks
- suckers

Good luck!

 

[Spunky946]

The reason everyone is saying to plan to have to have him on your lap all flight isn't that the crew would mind. Occasionally there are flights that are turbulent the entire trip and the seat belt sign never goes off. I have had flights 2-3 hour flights that didn't even have a beverage service because the pilot wanted the flight attendents in the seats for most of the flight and they never had time to do it.

We've been on several of those and they suck. Not only can you not get up, I have my now 8 year old squeezing my hand and screaming every time we hit a bump and then one of the kids have to go to the bathroom.

 

[Ross J 82]

Thanks for all your help. We booked the flights 12 months ago with reserved seats. We had no idea how much the child would like walking. He's only been doing it for two months and now wants to be walking everywhere. We will leave it to the last minute to board and have now packed cheerios which he likes that he can eat one by one. The silly putty is a good idea as he loves playdoh and this wasn't one of our wrapped presents. We are hoping he might sleep as we need to be up at 4.30am. The car seat would have been even worse, he cries after about 25 minutes in it if he isn't asleep.