Author – Nicola Sayer
The first time I flew with my toddler was a short two-hour flight from CT to Durban. I thought it would never end. By the time we emerged from the plane, we looked like we had been in a violent food fight – that had culminated in excessive bouts of crying (on both sides).
I quickly realised that parenting a toddler on land is very different to doing it strapped to a seat 30 000 feet in the air.
I went into this cruel and unusual situation naively. I trust that by sharing what I learnt, you will not do the same. Here are my mom-proven hacks for flying with a toddler:
Strollers – This is how we roll.
Toddler legs are short, and they tire easily. And you won’t be able to carry them. You will have your hands full with snacks, water bottles, wet wipes, changes of clothes, a bag full of all the heaviest things that didn’t fit into your check-in luggage, and a cup of coffee.
Toddlers are also prone to wandering off. At an airport, there are many fascinating things they’ll want to explore. And a moving forest of people for them to get lost in. Strap them into a stroller and you will know where they are at all times and have the added bonus of being able to store all your baggage in the pram’s under-seat storage.
Pack snacks. Seven times more than usual.
Your child will suddenly become the hungriest human alive. Their capacity for snacks will grow exponentially. If you don’t want to feed them stale croissants or R30 Kit Kat bars I would suggest loading up on healthy (but appealing) snacks that are low on sugar.
Make them special snacks. Spend a little extra in the Woollies aisle – dinosaur-shaped berry bites, mango fruit leather in the shape of a shark, dipping things, pulling things, anything that is novel and potentially distracting as well as nourishing.
Pack something to suck on.
Air pressure can mess with little ears. If they still drink milk from a bottle or have a dummy (no judgement) bring those along – sucking or chewing helps to equalise the pressure in their ears. If you still breastfeed (no judgement), this can also help. Some chewy treats might also work.
Dry-erase board with attached marker.
Toddlers love scrawling, I mean drawing. They also love dropping things. To avoid squeezing your post-childbirth body under the seat in front of you while trying to find a crayon, buy a cheap whiteboard and tie a marker to it with a piece of string. This allows your little Picasso to scrawl away to their heart’s content without you needing to be prised out from beneath the seat tug-of-war style by the entire cabin crew.
Stickers, stickers, stickers.
I read somewhere on a blog that stickers are a good idea for toddlers on a plane. This turned out to be true. My little angel happily decorated the seat back, tray table, and the head of the bald man in front of her. Stickers can be peeled off, so no lasting damage done.
Screen time. A time of screens. House of screens.
Yes, yes, I know, you never allow your toddler near a screen. Believe me, you need a few Cocomelons or bubble-popping apps on standby. By the time the plane takes off you will likely have run out of all the snacks and stickers, and the whiteboard will be lodged somewhere where it will live out eternity.
This is when you bring out your phone (on aeroplane mode, of course) and let your child’s brain be entranced by singing sheep, dancing melons or Tigers teaching them how to go potty.
Wet wipes.
This kind of goes without saying, but you will be surprised how messy things can get. Wet wipes will keep you and your child looking vaguely presentable and can also help if you need to mop yoghurt off the shiny dome of the passenger in front of you.
Things you will absolutely not need:
Your book. You will never read on a plane again. Or at least until they are about 8 years old, and you plug them directly into a phone from take-off.
