As Lucy gets older, we keep realizing how different it is to fly with her! It is so different flying with her now that it was when she was 3 months old (or 9 or even 12 months old!) With that being said, I feel like it has only gotten harder to fly with her. This 12-18 month age range has been the hardest yet! But, after 10 flights in the last three months with Miss Lucy, we have definitely learned a few tips and tricks to make it a tiny bit easier.
1. Screen Time
At home, we do not usually let Lucy watch shows or movies or play on our phones. She has plenty of toys and books and other things to keep her occupied. But when we are on an airplane, especially for a long flight (hello Hawaii!) our screen rules go out the window. I make sure to load up our iPad mini with some shows for her to watch. Her favorite is from my childhood, Zaboomafoo (found on Amazon Prime). She also likes to watch the screens on the back of the headrests and we can usually find a movie that she will be interested in for a few minutes. And just a note, she watches all these shows and movies without sound. For our trip to Hawaii I did purchase a pair of headphones for her, but she wasn’t interested in wearing them. She was fine to just watch the shows in silence.
2. Activities
Plan on needing a lot of different activities. But don’t worry about bringing too many things. Lucy would cycle through all the activities in her backpack a few times during a flight. Some of her favorites were stickers (we just got packs of stickers from the dollar store and brought a small notebook to put them in), books and magazines, Water WOW book, Magnadoodle, lacing cards and finger puppets. We also brought her stuffed animal she likes to sleep with and a small blanket she likes to snuggle for when she was ready for a nap. I kept all her activities in her backpack and kept that under my seat so it was easy to grab.
3. Snacks and Drinks
We brought plenty of snacks for Lucy to have while she was on the plane, but she really loved getting snacks from the flight attendants when they came through. She also looked forward to getting drinks from them too. Lucy usually only drinks water and milk at home so getting juice on the airplane is really fun! We make sure to bring her water bottle to fill up with water at the airport and we also bring a cup for her to drink juice from. We just ask the flight attendant to pour the juice right into her cup and it worked out great.
4. Get an Extra Seat If You Can
We were only able to get an extra seat for Lucy on ONE of our last 10 flights with her! I feel like when she was smaller we were able to get extra seats more easily. Maybe it was just the time of year and destinations that were the cause for super busy flights? But if you can, ask the gate agent before you board if there are any open seats on the flight and ask to get assigned next to the open seat so your little on can have their own seat. Lucy didn’t like sitting with her seatbelt so I ended up still holding her for take off and landing, but other than that it was so nice for her to have her own chair to sit in and climb on instead of climbing all over me.
5. Take Walks
On our flight to Hawaii, Ben and I were flying with my brothers and their wives and Ben and I ended up sitting in front of/behind each other instead of next to each other. But this actually was kind of nice. Because when Lucy was getting really fussy, we were able to let her walk a couple feet from one row to the next to get some wiggles out. We also made sure on all our flights to walk with her up and down the aisle of the plane when she was getting antsy.
6. Gate Checking
If you’re like us and always travel with carry-on luggage instead of checking bags, we highly suggest asking the gate agent if they are offering complimentary checking of carry-on items. Most of the time they do so that it frees up space for other luggage. And we have found that since we are usually checking a car seat anyways (that we do before we go through security) and have to pick it up at baggage claim, it doesn’t add that much time to pick up our suitcases too from the baggage claim. And it makes going through the airport (especially if you have connections!) so much easier if you only have to carry personal items instead of trying to haul luggage along with backpacks, diaper bags, strollers and a busy toddler!
Do you have any tips for flying with a 12-18 month old? Share them in the comments below!
