Hellobee Boards

Stickers & the Melissa and Doug water wow saved us on a long flight with a 22 month old. I also packed plenty of snacks. It was an 8 hour flight so I put him in an overnight diaper. I'm sure others that travel regularly have better advice, but our trip went so much smoother than I expected!

We flew with my older one when she was about 20 months and it went a lot better than I expected. We downloaded a bunch of Daniel tiger episodes on an old iPhone and got a new case for it and she was obsessed. Refused to wear headphones but was fine with it on such low volume I couldn't hear it. Of course she pooped in flight got both ways and we had to change in a teeny airplane bathroom- keep a separate ziplock with minimal changing supplies (changing pad, couple diapers, wipes) so you don't have to bring the entire diaper bag to the bathroom.

And all the snacks. All of them. In individual packets so there is an end to one- my kids would both keep eating to the botrom of a family size bag I think.

My best tip for the flight is to bring a carryon packed with a diaper clutch that you remove from it and pop into your seatback pocket (this can even be just a gallon ziplock bag). Make sure you bring something to put the dirty diapers in before you put them in the trash. Then take a bottle of water and put it in the puke bag and into the seatback pocket as well. In your carryon, pack a reusable tote bag that you can fold flat. Use this to throw all the stuff that might have come out during the flight so you can get off the plane without having to puzzle it all back into your carryon. Also bring a small grocery bag that you can use for trash. You'll need it!

I would also think about bringing a small crossbody purse for yourself that you wear the entire flight to contain your valuables so you're not leaving them behind in your carryon when you go to do a diaper change. In that cross body, keep a travel pack of wipes and a burp cloth in case you need to say, dry hands and the bins in the bathroom are empty.

For your suitcase, I assume you're checking one...I use packing cubes to keep myself organized. I typically get two and my son gets one. I got the basic 4 pack from amazon. I bring very few toiletries, unless I need something specific. I buy all of that at my destination except if I am going to a resort. But I make sure what I do bring does double duty. My son and I will share a bottle of unscented body wash/shampoo, I'll pack a small bottle of conditioner, I'll bring unscented lotion that we can both use.

I also bring whatever I think I will need to help my son sleep, so that might mean a nightlight and a white noise machine. I also typically bring him some toys that he doesn't get during the flight, to entertain him at our destination. Some parents don't need to bother with this, but my son is not the type to play with tissue boxes, so I bring some new things for our destination. He loves this part of the trip and looks forward to it.

Trader Joe's freeze dried fruit (esp the mango) for snacks on the plane! Healthy and not messy

If O is pretty active, board last! We only started using pre-boarding the past 6 month with our 3 year old because boarding first can easily add 30+ minutes to trying to keep a little one happy and entertained.

My LO loved the balloon pop app and we downloaded a few of his favorite shows to watch. I buy the puffy stickers at the dollar store and let him "decorate" the tray table. The puffy stickers peel right back off and can be used a few times.

We use a large backpack as a diaper bag when traveling. The separate compartments make it easy to keep things organized!

I've also embraced the "people can suck it up" mentality to air travel since having a kid - it's a period of time where we are all trapped in a metal tube together, so don't be an ass about a kid being a kid. But I'm happy to say that 99% of the time I get people around me who are more than happy to interact with a cute kid.

@Mrs. Turtle: take the cheapo light seat. Bungee it to the suitcase and check at the counter. Or curbside...even easier!

Also it wasn't mentioned...but did you get her a seat? That would be my #1 recc if you can swing it. Honestly I had the best luck installing her car seat on the plane. It made my life a lot easier. She was really content for a lot of the flight in her seat. I've done a lot of solo flights with LO.
Snacks, iPad stuff if you go that route, extra change of clothes for both of you just in case.
Do you need a stroller? I found a stroller really helpful. I could hang my stuff from it, bungee the car seat to it, and also be able to strap LO down if I needed to.

@Mrs. Turtle: we've been on 15+ flights with my 18mo old. I check in a big luggage., carry on backpack. bungee my car seat (cosco scenara) to my stroller (MB nano). I have my baby carrier on and wear her through the security- that way i have hands free to put all my carry ons through the screener. She will then sit in the car car seat on top of the stroller through the airport. I always take my carseat/stroller combo to the gate. Out of the 15+ flights we've been on, they have had an extra (free!) seat for her except 2 of them. If there is not an extra seat, I gate check the stroller/carseat.

@nwm: you can take any liquids if you have baby with you. I always take a thermos of milk and a few pouches. I also take a couple bottles of water for myself. They will just make you go through a couple extra security steps.

@Mrs. Turtle: curbside check if at all possible! too bad you aren't getting dropped off... that's going to be really tough from long term parking! But I think it is hard to push the stroller and suitcase if there is any chance kid won't be in stroller.

I've traveled alone quite a bit with DD, who is a bit younger at 15 months. I check everything possible, suitcase, carseat, stroller, and wear the baby until we get to our gate (and during boarding). For me, it was a game changer getting a backpack to carry on instead of a shoulder strap diaper bag - so much easier to manage the rest of the stuff before I'm able to check it, and allows me to hold her hand and run around with her in the airport so she can burn off energy before the flight without an awkward shoulder bag that keeps falling down when I bend over to grab her.

I definitely wouldn't drag the carseat through the airport on the off chance they'll give you an open seat for it. Not worth the hassle IMO, especially with connecting flights, since there may not be free seats all the way through. I'd bring the lightest seat possible, bungee it to your rollerbag, pop her in a carrier, and check the stuff as soon as you can.

I didn't read through all the comments but we just flew with an 13 month old.

BRING A COPY of your daughter's Birth Certificate with you. If you can't prove that she's under 24 months they can deny boarding if you don't have a seat for her. Typically this doesn't happen but if you got somebody who wants to make your day crappy they are with their rights to do so.

Things I found really helpful - keeping all the toys/games/ activities in their own ziplock bags. It was a lot of little bags but was so easy to pull out the bag and get everything with them. (IE crayons in a bag with the coloring book) I also had 'diaper bags' to go ziplock bags with a diaper, disposable changing pad & wipes ready to go so I could just grab that bag and toss it all away if I needed in a hurry or space issues. (and it was a big enough bag to stuff the dirty diaper in too) We had a bunch of different types of snacks to go for him and for us to keep him occupied too. I also had lollipops for helping if his ears got plugged.

I kept everything in a large bag I put in the over head bin and kept my purse down below empty of everything but a toy or two so it was easy to grab some things to entertain him with but we still had some floor room.

Things that I regretted bringing with? Fruit pouches I got grief from a TSA agent because it was 4.1 ounces or something so it was to big and I had to open all the ones that were too large. And my son never ate them - but he isn't a big fruit pouch fan but I wanted something easy in case he got hungry. I also brought some coloring books but they weren't things he'd play with in the past so they were just a waste of space and caused more trouble then they were worth.

We checked our suitcase and our car seat - I thought about bringing the car seat in case of an open spot but out of our four flights only one had an open seat. There was not way the hassle of lugging it through everything would have been worth it for that one flight. We did bring a umbrella stroller to the gate with us. we used it for going in between gates and I had my parents with us so they would take him around in the stroller. And it was nice to have the stroller at our destination. Plus I could but bags in or on the stroller and carry my kiddo.

And if you carry your kiddo you can carry them through the security checkpoints. My lillebaby was worth bring along just for this! It really was the only time I used it at the airports. But my son isn't big on being carried.