Traveling with a toddler is a true adventure. You never know what is going to happen with your travel plans, nor do you know how your toddler will be feeling. A well-planned travel day can be completely derailed by a molar deciding to surface.We have flown with Jackson over 16 flights in his short 15 months, not including the two to three hour drive times tacked on to the end and/or beginning of those flights. Our most recent adventure was out to Keystone, CO to ski with my family. I was anticipating it to be a piece of cake. I was wrong.

Flying with a walking, talking toddler is much more difficult for us than flying with a newborn or small infant. Our first mistake was getting to the airport way too early. With security being completely unpredictable in our Providence airport, that was unavoidable in my opinion. I’d rather have a restless toddler at 6am than miss our flight and have to do it all over again another day.  Our second mistake was not getting the toddler his own seat on the airplane.  I foolishly thought that since “lap babies” are under the age of two then it is completely reasonable to hold a toddler in your lap for six hours of flying time. No one was happy in our family of three for those two flights to Denver. I think Jackson even wondered why he couldn’t have his own seat to lay back and relax.

I’ve already covered the biggest mistakes we made on our most recent trip so I should also give my tips on what went smoothly.

Traveling with Toddler Tips:

• Bring something to wear your toddler through the airport (my carrier of choice is the Beco Gemini- much easier than wrangling a toddler!)
• Pack lots of interesting snacks
  • ones that won’t leave crumbs all over your neighbors on the plane, preferably
• Pack milk your toddler is used to drinking in insulated cups
  • TSA will check it for explosives, but the 3 oz liquid rule doesn’t apply to baby food
• Bring a binky/pacifier if your toddler still uses one
  • Jackson is limited to car & naps with his, but it saved the day several times on our trip
• Toys, toys and new toys
  • I had bags of toys in my carry on, all small and cheap but would keep his interest for a while
• Sanitizing wipes!
  • We wipe down the seat/tray on the plane as much as possible when we first board
• If you’re taking a car seat and checking it, get a heavy duty bag for it– baggage claim is rough on them! I love this one with backpack straps and can carry it with the baby: http://goo.gl/4KazD
• Spare set of clothes for the toddler
  • It must be the altitude, but Jackson has had the most epic blow outs on planes!
  • On all the planes we have flown on, the forward bathroom is the one with the microscopic changing table
• Book his or her own seat, if possible!
• Try to arrive at the airport as close as possible to boarding time
• When all else fails, let him or her destroy the SkyMall catalog, after all it is yours to keep

I’m sure there are many more tips I missed, so I would love to hear your ideas! Our next flight is home to Florida {Disney!} next month and we’ve taken the first step towards an easier flight by booking our little man his own seat.

Thanks for sharing your ideas. I know we can all benefit, especially my friend Katie {http://picklesandpaisleys.com/} who will be flying with her son for the first time across the country!

This entry was filed under babywearing, toddlerhood, travel on Monday, March 7th, 2011.