Help! Suggestions for toy to entertain 1 year old on 8 hour flight

[sanity girl]

So, I am taking my almost 1 year old with me on a work trip to the USA next week (I know I know, but no other choice!), and I am faced with the prospect of an 8 hour daytime flight with him on the way there. At the moment all he wants to do is get down on the floor, crawl/shuffle around and open stuff. Any suggestions for really cool and small toys that may keep him entertained? Thanks!

[Hornpipe]

We had a bag of 'tat', otherwise known as the fun bag! We wrapped up each individual thing (i.e a happyland figure, wind up dinosaur, plastic spider etc) and put them all in a bag. Every time our son became a bit fractious, we let him open something. Pound shop and early learning centre were good for all the rubbish we put in there! The unwrapping meant the process was nice and drawn out. Stickers also worked well.

[womanofdulwich]

can you use a kind of sedation at all???

[sanity girl]

I hope that's a joke! :)) Just checked and realised it's a 9 hour flight not 8 hours. Help...

[minder]

Any kind of sets of keys, small books, happyland people figures from ELC hold their attention.

Other than that, hope he sleeps a lot throughout!

Good luck.

[candj]

It's tricky being on a plane when they start moving. As above, I would suggest new small toys that you can introduce every hour or so (so that's 8-9 new toys!) to keep him occupied anything from toy cars, small action figures (that are safe for his age assuming things still go into the mouth), sheets of stickers and fat easy to hold washable ink markers with a spiral bound pad of paper, toy dinosaurs, small story books, etc. Also little pots of dried snacks (dried fruits, gold fish biscuits, etc) that he can hold and help himself. Unfortunately he's a bit young for the video/ipad route but this is by far the best entertainment on a plane!

I presume he's sitting on your lap at that age? See if you can check in early and ask for the bulkhead so you both have a bit of space to move whether he's sitting briefly on the ground or standing and looking out the window. The only thing is that you can't put anything under the seat in front of you because there is none. Also, go for a lot of walks through the plane. Walking to the toilets, the galley, etc, say hello to the air hostesses.

Agree that day time flights are difficult, I remember a couple of 12 hour day flights keeping two under 4s entertained from Shanghai back to the UK!

Best of luck to you and hope it all goes well.

[bluesuperted]

We just travelled to San Francisco with our one year old. Yup, that's 11 hours! On the way there he hardly slept (2 hours out of 11) and this is what we did to keep him occupied:

- walked him up and down and up and down, not sure how this would work with a crawler though.

- utilised the space by the loos - let him walk there, your little one could crawl.

- made a LOT of friends! Anyone willing to be friends with him got many repeat visits! As a result I know a lot about various silicon valley companies, local areas, the difference between the UK and the US work ethic! In other words lots of small talk with friendly Americans passed a lot of time!

- had lots of toys too, some held interest for a bit, books were useful.

- monotous games - surprising hit was pouring a tiny bit of water from his beaker into a plastic cup and letting him drink it himself, this lasted ages for some reason.

- Ergo - with that plus plane noise he slept for a bit and stayed calm.

- watched films - maybe it was his training at the Peckham Plex but we watched almost an entire film together (him in

silence!!) and eventually that lulled him to sleep the first time.

- games on the iPhone were also handy - duck duck moose games (especially the itsy bitsy spider and baa baa black sheep are great as they are really interactive. Looking through photos and videos of himself is always a big hit!

Are you coming back on a night flight? We were lucky enough to blag an extra seat and that combined with the darkness made our son sleep for 5.5 hours coming back which was amazing!!

Good luck with it all, it will be tiring but fine :)

[Claire29]

Just to agree with the above we just took our 11 month old walking little un on a 9 hour flight, also have a 3 year old and 6 year old too. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, he slept for a couple of hours when it took off then when he was awake I let him eat lots of snacks, walked around with him for a bit, stood down near where the stewards stand just for a change of scenery and just tried to keep him happy. It was tiring but hasn't put me off and am already looking at holidays just as far for next year! The stewards are very helpfull too.

[sanity girl]

Thank you all for your advice and suggestions. I will get hold of some little toys and will investigate iphone games too (though not sure he is advanced enough for those yet, bless him!) He currently loves pressing buttons so I'm sure I can find lots of things that involve that. I am taking a manduca baby carrier so will definitely have him in that if he needs calming down at any point, and I have requested a bulkhead seat with bassinet (no idea if he'll fit in it as he's massive and in 18 month clothes already!). Thankfully we are coming back on a night flight so hopefully that won't be so bad.

Finally, there's always the boob to fall back on :))

[Pickle]

Try not to worry to much - I've done the trip to and from NZ many times with my kids at various ages, and we've coped fine every time. Lots of little toys and snacks are the key. My two also very much enjoyed pressing the attendant call button and switching lights on and off...

Hope you have a great trip.

P x

[bluesuperted]

Boob! How could I have forgotten that! Most helpful device I had. If in doubt, boob to the rescue!

I never usually cover up much but was advised to take something in case next to old man or something as in such close proximity so I made sure I had a large shawl. As it happened was next to a lovely girl about my age so was pretty brazen and blas? about it. Don't think anyone else would have noticed though, just thought we were cuddling.

[candj]

Not sure who you are flying, but the BA bassinets are small (my 8 month old doesn't fit in it), but what they do have is the car seat type chair which is useful if you little boy sleeps well in the car.

Edited to add the flight is much shorter returning back to the UK so you have that working in your favour :)

[sanity girl]

So, now I am here in the US I thought I'd update you on how the journey went - it was a breeze :)) I was lucky enough to get a bulkhead seat with an empty space next to us, so I made a little play area on the floor and baby E played happily there a while with the stacking toys I bought from fisher price at the airport. He was also thoughtful enough to have two 2 hour naps (he never does that usually!!) so that was half the flight sorted. The rest of the time he entertained everyone with his yogic flying style of bum shuffling up and down the aisles. And of course he did the foulest poo he's ever done while on the flight!

The real challenge was a 1.5 hour board meeting this afternoon with a jet lagged baby who didn't want to nap - I was too tight to pay for a nanny just for a couple of hours so he came with me and he was all over the place - tired, hungry, yelling etc. I ended up putting him on the boob :-$. Luckily my colleagues were very understanding.

Anyway, tomorrow morning nanny arrives so I can concentrate on work, then I just have to hope that the return journey goes as well the way here!