Flight with a child at 1 year old. What to take on the plane? Our experience of flying with a one-year-old child.

I already wrote about how we flew with Sasha when we were 4 months old. Then everything went very easily, since the baby slept a lot, moved a little, ate his mother’s breast and he didn’t care where he was, as long as his mother was there. Now we were faced with a more difficult task - a flight with a child who had just turned 1 year old. This is a very difficult age, when the child still does not understand anything, but is already actively moving, sleeps little and wants everything. It is impossible to explain to him what is possible and what is not. It is impossible to calm him down with the words that we will arrive soon, tell him how to reduce the pressure in the ears and much more .. I was very afraid of this flight, but it turned out that in vain. It's not all that bad.

What to take on a plane with a child?

Nothing special to take. The main thing is:

- hygiene products (diapers, napkins, diaper ..),
- clothes (changeable if it gets dirty with food or doused with water and warm if you fly in summer clothes to a cold country. Warm clothes may be needed even at the airport. For example, at the Abu Dhabi airport, I froze even in a warm sweater.),
- water and food (food is a must, since check-in at the airport, boarding, flight and disembarkation will take a lot of time even with a short flight and the child will get hungry. Instant baby cereals are perfect, which you can simply pour boiling water or canned puree. Carry food and water for the child is allowed on board. You also need to take food for snacks to make it more fun to fly, that is, cookies, bananas, apples),
- toys and books,
- a phone or tablet with cartoons and games (the best flight assistant!),
- changeable clothes for mom (since a child in such conditions can easily stain you with food or pour water on you)

That's probably all. I read about some drops and things that would not block the ears, but it is impossible to drip them into a child at this age without hysterics. Therefore, I do not see any sense in them.

How to keep your child busy on the plane?

It is best to have a tablet or phone with you with games and cartoons. Also, do not forget toys (favorite and new) and books. If your child loves to paint or sculpt, then you're in luck. Our only distraction could be an iPhone or iPad, the rest of the time he either slept, or ran between the rows, or ate his chest, or jumped on his arms. Toys and books distracted him for a minute or two. At this age, the child requires movement. Do not hesitate, while the child is awake and you do not need to fasten your seat belts, walk with him on the plane, especially if you have a long flight.

Our flight Samui-Bangkok

The hardest part was waiting for the plane at the airport, as Samui airport is so unique and unusual that everything is in the fresh air. That is, the waiting room is something like a large gazebo with several fans. And often there is not even a roof. It all looks something like this

We flew from there on May 19 in the afternoon. It was hot and stuffy. Therefore, the natural beauty and exclusivity of this airport was a huge disadvantage for us. Sasha was whining because of the heat, I was hot too. Saved in the toilet - this is the only place that I found at the airport with air conditioning, and there was also an aquarium with fish. There is a playground at the airport, but due to the heat it was not possible to enjoy it:

The flight itself took about an hour. Due to a slight overheating, the baby was capricious, but what saved me was that I was still breastfeeding, which can calm him down at any time and the iPad helped us a lot with games and cartoons. Since the flight was short-lived, everything went quickly and painlessly. Takeoff and landing didn’t bother the kid, the plane didn’t scare me, so the upcoming 10-hour flight was no longer so scary for me ????

Flight Bangkok-Kiev

We flew out late at night, but by that time our regime had shifted a lot and the kid slept in the hotel in the evening right before departure, and then calmly ran around the airport, waiting for registration and causing the affection of those around him. As befits a child at this age, he sometimes was capricious and cried, but nothing unusual happened. The airport in Bangkok is very large, so we had a place to roam. Most of all Sasha liked duty free with toys ???? This is what the airport looks like:

By the time he got on the plane, he was already very tired, so he immediately began to be capricious. But almost immediately fell asleep in his arms and slept for 7 hours, sometimes waking up to refuel (eat). He would have slept until the end of the flight, since he was just having a night's sleep, but the noisy passengers woke him up and it was impossible to put him to bed anymore. But he was in a good mood. We spent the remaining 3 hours of the flight entertaining the child using children's apps and cartoons on the iPad, as well as running with him along the aisle. Another six-month-old girl flew with us on the plane, who also endured the flight very well. Its size allowed her to lie down in a special cradle and sleep there, so her parents were completely resting ???? There were no surprises on the plane. Sasha drank water and ate only my milk, didn't go to the toilet in a big way, so everything went almost idiotic ??? Despite the fact that the flight was already 10 hours long, we managed to get very little sleep. Almost all the time I held the baby asleep in my arms, and my husband entertained me so that I would not be bored. At first we were afraid to shift it, since Sasha sleeps very lightly and could wake up. But when my hands became numb so that I could not move them, they decided to take a risk and my husband neatly took him to him.

Flight Kiev-Kharkov

By this time, we were already very tired and madly wanted to sleep. Sasha was also tortured by all these flights. Since we were transferring to local airlines, we had to leave the transit area, get our luggage and wait for boarding again. The transit zone is more or less warm, comfortable, cozy and comfortable. The common waiting room is cold, noisy and crowded. The already overexcited child could not stand it and made a prolonged hysterics. Nothing could calm him down. So we and everyone around us enjoyed his whims. My husband nervously told us what a psychotic child we have and how bad I am that I can’t do anything with him. So I calmed both of them ???? When they finally announced boarding and we moved to a more comfortable waiting room, Sasha became much calmer. He ran everywhere, rode in a wheelchair, played iPad.

By the time of departure, Sashul was so tired that he fell asleep in his arms on the plane before he took off and slept until his arrival in Kharkov.

Thus, all our flights with a baby at 1 year old turned out to be easy. Worst of all, he behaved in huge and noisy airports, and on the plane he calmed down and fell asleep. I expected it to be much worse ????

Sep 11, 2012 Anna