Air Travel with Young Toddlers

Two weeks ago, Mr Dandelion and I took Bunny and Cub on their first flight, and first international flight at that, to visit Mr Dandelion's family in Hong Kong. We were excited about taking the kids to Mr Dandelion's birth place and introducing them to all the colours, excitement and delicious Cantonese food, but also very nervous about the prospect of two very young toddlers on an eight hour plane ride. We figured Bunny would be fine - at 2.5 years old she is readily entertained by colouring books, Disney Princess movies and stickers. Cub, at 12 months old and in that highly frustrating wanting-to-get-into-everything-and-not-quite-walking-yet phase, was going to be another story.

At 2.5, Bunny had her own seat booked for the flight. However in order to save money, we chose to take Cub on board as a lap-sit baby. If we had money to spare, I'd highly recommend buying an infant seat for anyone else in this position. We did survive, but a spare seat to help us juggle two toddlers and all their needs would certainly have been handy!

Between the four of us, we were entitled to 3 carry-on bags (as an infant, Cub didn't get a bag). We took one 'adult' bag containing electronics like the I Pad, toddler headphones, mobile phones, wallets and so forth. The other two carry on bags we took were two Trunkis. By searching local classifieds such as Gumtree a few months beforehand, I managed to pick up two second-hand Trunkis in fantastic condition for well under half the price of buying new. These were one of the best travel purchases we made and I can't recommend them enough, especially for 18 months +. At 12 months, Cub was still a bit little for his Trunki and fell off it in the middle of Hong Kong International Airport, but Bunny LOVED hers and it kept her happy and stopped her from running off during long check-in and immigration queues.

 

Inside one Trunki, we packed the following:

 

- Nappies, wipes, nappy bags

- Change of clothes for Cub

- Change of clothes for Bunny

- Change of top each for Mr Dandelion and I, we didn't have room to pack a whole change of outfits for us.

- Cloth nappy inserts to use as absorbent rags in case of spills, vomiting etc.

 

The other Trunki was the 'fun' Trunki and it was packed full of snacks and activities.

I majorly over-packed activities for Bunny for the flight, but I don't regret it, as if I had packed less, I am sure I would have run out!

Here are the activities I packed:

And in list form:

• Foam stickers, colouring pencils and a blank exercise book. Good, but not essential.
• Magic Ink colouring book, one marker that looks clear but combines with ink on the book pages to make coloured pictures. Very handy!
• Colour Wonder colouring book. I didn't end up packing this as I was worried about losing the markers. Didn't need it anyway, so I am glad I left it at home.
• Playdough. At the last minutes, I was worried this would be an issue with the restrictions on carry-on liquids and gels, so I threw these in the suitcase instead. Didn't use.
• Portable DVD player and disks of Bunny's favourite movies. Seriously this was overkill, we flew with Cathay Pacific and their on-board flight entertainment system had a wide range of TV shows and movies, even some of Bunny's absolute favourites (Sofia the First, Frozen and The Little Mermaid) for her to watch. Definitely not needed.
• I Pad loaded with toddler friendly apps. Yes. Take one of these! If not for the plane, then it's great for downtime in the hotel room, or while waiting at restaurants and so forth. We borrowed an I Pad from Mr Dandelion's sister, and loaded it with the fantastic free Playschool apps as well as some Disney and Fisher Price apps. Bunny is very fond of Playschool though, so this was a big hit.
• Multiple colouring books and markers. Great, although I packed too many. One 'normal' colouring book would have been enough.
• Magnetic 'paper' doll set. Bunny loved this and it kept for busy for a good 45 minutes. Being magnetic is meant no pieces got lost too.
• Plastic toy animals. Packed these for Cub and then forgot about them. I'm sure they would have been handy though!

Each activity then got wrapped up as a present and placed in a drawstring bag along with the horse puppet, nicknamed 'Gift Horse' by Mr Dandelion and I. Every time I wanted to give Bunny an activity, Gift Horse would reach into the drawstring bag and select one at random, with a lot of ceremony. It added to the excitement for Bunny and it also wasted a bit of extra time!

 

 

 

One other activity that I packed for Bunny was a small packet of Froot Loops (Cheerios or other O-shaped cereal would work too), a blunt plastic needle and some nylon string. This entertained Bunny for about 45 minutes, first threading the Froot Loops onto a bracelet and then slowly but surely eating them one-by-one while watching Frozen. This was definitely a winner of an activity! 

 

 

So all in all, I have to report that Bunny travelled very well on both flights. Cub wiggled and squirmed and refused to eat, but we survived and we even managed to get an hour of him sleeping in the plane bassinette on the return flight! As an average sized 12 month old boy, Cub only JUST fit into the bassinette, there was no room to spare, so we were very lucky as these are generally only recommended for younger babies. Any older and this sadly wouldn't have been an option at all. It was great for our sanity though.

 

 

Massive credit goes to Cathay Pacific for their very helpful and welcoming staff, who went out of their way to make international air travel with two young toddlers as smooth as possible. Mr Dandelion and I, along with all the other passengers, thank you!