[Daniel Park]

Hi guys,

One for all you parents out there. Any tips on surviving the long-haul flight (via LA) with a feisty one-year-old (daughter) who won't sit still for a minute? Am considering packing her in the container...

:mrgreen:

Dan

[jo b]

Dan

Chloroform in a hanky does the trick but it isn't recommended. :laugh

You haven't said if you have booked your flights or not and who with.

There are some threads on this topic if you do a search.

If you fly with an airline that has the tv's in the back of seat she can wacth cartoons all the way there as my 2 did (age 3 & 6).

Singapore do this and have excellent in flight entertainment where you can choose your own programmes and pause and rewind etc.

One suggestion is give her a backpack just for her and wrap up little cheap pressies, every couple of hours let her open one if she has behaved.

Jo

[Bubbles]

I was going to suggest brandy in the juice :eek

[Daniel Park]

Hi again, flying Air NZ via LA. Some people have mentioned something called Fenigan (not sure how to spell this ???) which is a mild sedative... Is that allowed? Does it work? Apparently you can get it over the counter for kids' sleep problems. Hmm.

Dan

[Diny]

I'm with you Bubbles .... gin in her drink bottle followed up by a good dose of Phenergan. :eek

Jo's right - in-flight entertainment is good (although she may be a little young to tollerate the headphones etc). Definatley take a back pack filled with all her 'stuff'.

Apart from that - grin and bear it. It's only one day our of your life after all. (Says she who had 2 babies scream all the way from London to Singapore).

Diny

[Soon2baKiwi]

Daniel, my sister gave that to her 1 yr old flying to Spain. Going out was fine but coming back he screamed for THREE hours. I didn't know who to feel more sorry for - him or the other passengers. He was really tired and kept trying to go asleep but then would jerk awake again. It was as if he'd had a reaction to it.

[kiwidebs]

If you're going to try something like Phenergan then I recommend trying before you fly cos it actually has the opposite effect on some kids and hypes them to the max. :eek
I recommend lots of new toys and books and some snacks tucked away in a bag to be dragged out at appropriate intervals. Try and stick with your usual routine and see if you can get her to sleep (we flew via Singapore when Gem was 9 months old and she slept most of the way to NZ - but day flights on the way back so she was awake most of the way back!! Arghhhhhh).
And otherwise resign yourself to doing lots of walking around and around and around and......


Debs :yes

[Daniel Park]

Yeah, she has flown before but it was only to France, and she was a little monkey, patting the heads of the passengers in front and generally being a nuisance. This time, she can walk, and wriggle much more, and scream louder than she used to.

Sooo.... anyone changed a nappy on a plane before? Doesn't seem to be room to swing a cat in those loos. Not looking forward to this, much...

I know it IS a finite journey, but would rather make friends than enemies on the flight!!!

Dan

[leslie]

i am always amazed at how good/ tolerant people are on flights with screaming babes. have also noticed that cheerful toddlers always find at least a few equally cheerful souls to befriend. i say let 'em rip as much as you can - anyone really annoyed will simply ignore everything and frown.

is it just me or in these days of botox are frowns not getting a whole lot more interesting?

anyhooooooooo, my then 2 year old daughter spent an entire flight sitting in someone elses babies bassinet, playing and chatting - the both of them were unbelieveably happy. the mum was some famous mag editor and couldn't believe her luck. you never know...

[veronica]

If you can book a bassinet for her the journey will be easier on you all. even if they don't sleep in it a lot it gives them a space to play. Years ago we tried giving kerry our daughter (11 months at the time) one of those sleep type drugs and she was one of the adverse reaction ones. That was a fun journey, so definately try it before you go. We did the trip with the kids to OZ 5 times (returns) when they were 3 or under and found it easier to just go with the flow, lots of cuddles and books, let them walk/crawl about as much as poss. people are less anti. kids moving about than crying and often one or two of them will talk and amuse the kids a bit as well. Changing nappies on the plane, well it can be done. Because kids ears are often affected on the plane its a good idea to give them a bottle on take off and landing as the swallowing makes the ears adjust quicker and minimises the pain.

[sarahw]

Earplugs?! :laugh Seriously my friend is bringing her 18 month old out in 3 weeks' time & she went to her GP to get something - can't remember the name of it but it'll knock him out (she's considering taking it herself too! :laugh ) She's booked a seat with a cot/basinette so she's not got him wriggling around on her lap all the time.

On the flights we've been on the kids have all been quite young & have all been great - one child had great fun crawling up & down the aisle smiling at everyone as he went past and another was walked up and down the aisle every so often by his dad had great fun exploring the plane! Most of the kids we saw slept a lot but I don't know if that was natural or 'drug' induced.

[Diny]

We had a sky cot for Henry when he was 3 months old. It was fine but he still wanted to be nursed all the way.

Ah that was a fun journey ... Henry aged 3 months, Fergus aged 21 months, PB suffering from his usual bouts of selective deafness and me - rocking back and forth, dribbling like a lunatic and chewing a hankie .... yep - I had post natal drepression BIG TIME. I was very nearly 'locked up' just before the holiday. A few hours into the flight I wished I had of been.

Diny

[sarahw]

Oh you poor thing Diny - that sounds like the flight from Hell! :(