Hellobee Boards

We're traveling with LO, who is the same age, on the same length flight in a few weeks. We already flew 14 hours with him so I'm honestly not worried.

But we're definitely bringing a tablet with a few movies downloaded. You have to actually purchase and download a movie from iTunes, not rent because the plane won't have wifi. He likes the Peekaboo apps and Sesame Street ones but I need to find more before we leave. He has his own little skip hop backpack which will have his toys. And I'm hoping he'll snooze a bit out of tiredness/boredom. And we'll obviously walk up and down the aisles. He's a pretty chill kid in general and we've ridden Amtrak for three hours with just his cars to play with.

We flew San Diego-Chicago (4 hrs) earlier this year with DS and DD. DD was barely 3 months old and was in the Moby pretty much the whole trip. DS was almost 2 yo and did alright on the flight. He's been on a plane before, but my mistake in booking the red-eye was that I did not account for the spring forward that week. That somewhat messed-up my projection that he would sleep on the plane. Thank goodness for our tablet and a somewhat empty plane. He was able to tire himself out by climbing up and down between the seat and floor. When he started to get tired, he watched some shows that we had downloaded for him on the tablet. He eventually fell asleep for the rest of the flight. I say bring the iPad if you have one, it can only help you when things get bad.

@hotchildinthecity: @DillonLion: You can rent movies from iTunes, you just have to download them while you have wifi. And then you have a certain amount of time to watch them based on what the rental period is.

My son mostly just sits in his seat, with his stuff that he packs. I try not to make the flight itself too big of an event because then it sets me up for not being able to replicate the experience every time, if that makes sense...so no things like packing up small things to unwrap, not a lot of snacks, etc.

I guess I kind of go against the grain in pulling out all the stops and doing whatever it takes to keep my son happy on the plane.

All good suggestions above. I would definitely bring the iPad though!

I'm firmly in the gadget/tech camp for travel, not our first resort, but worth it! We got the Kidz Gear headphones (http://www.amazon.com/Kidz-Gear-Wired-Headphones-Kids/dp/B0007NWL70). Besides purchasing a few movies or episodes of a favorite kids' shows we have had success with the Endless ABC/123 apps, and Duplo apps (free!). If your child likes books and knows about the interactive nature of the iPad you might consider ebooks; Sandra Boynton and the Beatrix Potter books are a few high-quality ones that have a bit of interaction on each page - and the Beatrix Potter ones are read by a women with a wonderful British accent!!

* I have found that if an app is unfamiliar it works best to introduce it before travel to let your LO work out "how to play", that way they know what to anticipate when you turn on the tech.

** Put all of the toddler apps in their own folder for easy access