Flying with a toddler

We are due to emigrate from the UK in January and are wondering how we will survive the flight with a 2 year old, very active boy! We are flying heathrow to singapore then onto adelaide. Just wondering if anyone has had this experience and how it was? Only part of emigrating that we are not looking forward to!!!

O yeah, we've done that flight. Our son was 22 months old at the time. Was and still is insanely active.

We go the night flight option every time. Last flight out of LHR, keep son awake till gate and then into PJ's at the boarding gate and once on the plane and seated into his sleeping bag. He was out and sleeping within 45 minutes and slept for 8.5 hours then :> Result. We got to eat, rest and were definately better for it.

Then in Singapore we had 3 or 4 hours as usual, so grabbed a shower, used the internet up there also and went and found the play areas with our son. He loved it, ran round, got some fresh air also and by the time we were ready for the next leg, his body clock was telling him it was tea time, early evening and almost ready for bed. So again, into PJs and sleeping bag before boarding and he was asleep before we even set foot on the plane. Straight into the bassinet once we could pop him in after take off and he slept for over 4 hours. Woke, had breakfast (we had stuff in his case to give him in case), then second breakfast from the crew, ran around a bit on the plane, watched some TV and landed at 7.30 and powered through till his naptime after lunch.

Result.

Drop me a PM if you've got any specfic questions. But our routine for the Lon-Adelaide flight is one we like and tend to stick to. Its worked for us and I would always go the night flight route every time, with or without kids.

Nope, not done it as yet, but hang fire, about to on the 6th of Oct so shall report all back- even better doing so with a girl just turned 3yrs last month, a 22month old who will have no seat, and at time of flying ill be 34.5 weeks pregnant!!! Given all those circumstances think you situation sounds pretty appealing lol!!! Clearly I need my head looking at but we were let down by first job sponsor 12 weeks into the process and so had to find a new one, hence why we never intended to fly me quite SO largely pregnant, but visa just arrived and so the prospect of another winter in UK driving me to stifle my gripes and go for it! Doing 7.5hr day flight from Dublin, 3hr stop in Abu Dabi, then night flight to Sydney, followed by 1.5 hr flight to Melbourne, should be a riot (NOT). Ill let you know how that one goes providing my waters dont break half way there and we end up having a Dubai baby!! Buying 3 or 4 matching small gifts for them- to wrap, so they have several things to open when tempers get frayed.

Hello

We went on holiday in January to Oz, flying from LHR - Malaysia and then onto Brisbane. The flight was actually not tooo bad! Honestly! You'll be surprised how many kids are actually on the flights, the air hostesses were really good with kids too.

We got the kids to sleep on the plane and they managed a couple of times about 4 / 5 hours each. We took a couple of toys / colouring books etc on the plane which kept them entertained for a while. I'm not sure whether your little boy likes TV but both mine do so we took a DVD player and a few favourite DVD's which also helped.

Good luck with your move!

Where does the bassinet fit on the plane and what is the max age a child can go into one? I have a 3 yr old and 18 month old - we are only at TRA stage but I'm already dreading the flight!!

We have four young children, the youngest being 2 months. We will be using a bassinet for the youngest, and for the others we have DVD players and some new DVDs to watch, crayons, paper, colouring books, snacks etc. We are also on the night flight, but it's going to Dubai so only a 7 hour flight, but hopefully they'll sleep for most of that as we'll keep them up until they get on the plane. Then by the time we get off that flight it'll be 3am UK time so they'll still be tired...we then have a few hours at the airport before the next flight, by which time I should think they'll be exhausted again. So I'm thinking with DVDs and sleep and lots of snacks, we should be ok. Or on the other hand, maybe all my hair will have turned grey by the time we get there!:arghh: :biglaugh: