When Shelton’s sister and her family moved to Houston after living in Midland with us since I met Shelton, we knew we’d be traveling a whole lot more to make sure our relationship didn’t change just because distance did.
This meant we better figuring out flying with a toddler asap.
Here are my top 5 traveling with toddler tips in no particular order. We started flying with Cason right after his first birthday.
- SNACKS, SNACKS, and more SNACKS!
- You can bring your own snacks, but know that they all have to be checked at security. We have brought our own when he was littler, such as applesauce pouches. Now, we typically get something once we are through security. Some of the snacks we have used are gummy bears, fruit snacks, animal crackers, pretzels (he likes the ones they give you too), and suckers.
- Tablet & headphones for movies or stickers/coloring books.
- Cason likes movies! So we are definitely lucky in this department. We load a favorite and it can keep him relatively entertained. Some planes don’t have the wifi so make sure to have some loaded on to your device. I load one of my phone too just to have as a back up.
- The foam stickers are great for the windows! They peel right off and Cason had fun with these for a solid 10-15 minutes. Cant expect much more than that! If your babe likes coloring more, bring a coloring book or a the no-mess markers/coloring pages are awesome for this!
- Cup/Bottle
- During take off and landing, I try to make sure he is drinking something. You can bring your own cup and then buy something to fill it up with. If he doesn’t want to drink anything, I give him a sucker. This helps with his ears popping during take off and landing.
- Blanket and favorite animal
- Cason has a horse named Henry that he absolutely has to have to sleep with and is just an overall security blanket for him. We make sure we always have Henry but then a blanket too to just get him as comfortable as possible.
- If at all possible, his own seat.
- We have had Cason in our laps and got him his own seat before. Hands down, him having his own seat is the best. We have the southwest card and get points and a companion pass through it, so that helps with getting the extra seat for us!
How far have you traveled with a toddler before on a plane? Our longest has been under 2 hours so we can’t attest to the long trips, but I feel like continuously rotating out your activities to keep their mind busy would help!
Stay tuned when we travel with sister. Extra tip: the Doona carseat/stroller fits in a plane seat so you can use it to travel with them on a plane, too!
Good luck and remember to just have fun wherever you are headed!