Long haul with 2 little ones?

[Sara]

Would appreciate any advice/tips you could share on how best to travel with 2 children, aged 3 and 1 to Australia. We're staying overnight in Hong Kong on the way out to Perth as I thought this might help.
What about jet lag? Any thoughts on how best to help them deal with the time difference?

[Aldo]

When you check in inform the nice lady that your kids are extremely hyperactive and if you're lucky she will give you a whole row of the plane to yourselves. Failing that I strongly recommend Phenergan (for the kids) amphetamines for the wife and tranquilizers for the husband

[ali]

If you do resort to medicating either yourself or the kids - do try it out first as you may get a adverse reaction or you may find the little ones sleep for too long and you're unable to wake them for necessary drinks etc.,

At some point the kids will get naturally tired and and go to sleep.

Ali

[PaulnLisa]

We bought some new toys and hid them from the children, we would surprise them with one every now and then, worked for us.
Lisa

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Sara

Welcome to Poms in Oz,

Please allow me to introduce you properly to Aldo. Please click on the link below and then follow the link to the Horror Flick. It reveals (amongst other things) thatAldo's children survived the journey to Oz!

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/queens...adventure.html

Aldo was only having you on, as you no doubt realise.

Seriously, though, do not give the children anything which might make them drowsy because it might de-hydrate them as well, and also you can't have floppy, semi-comatose children in case of an emergency.

As Ali said, they will sleep when they are tired anyway and if the flight is not full, the cabin staff are usually good about helping to convert spare seats into beds for the babes.

I would take sweets that they can suck during the descents into Hong Kong & Perth because both are both quite steep because of the hills nearby. As a result, the cabin pressure is altered pretty quickly during it. This used to give me acute earache when I was a child, flying back & forth between the UK and Malaysia the whole time, and sucking boiled sweets helps to make one's ears 'pop' to reduce the pressure. I sometimes still get this earache whe flying even now and the sweets still help.

The planes all, always, carry boiled sweets for any passenger who wants them. However, their choice of sweets may not be the ones your children would choose!

You can also order children's meals if you pre-book them in advance. With Cathay Pacific, these might even be loaded into the plane!

Best wishes

Gill

[ali]

drinking/sucking from a bottle or a tommee tippee cup would help if they couldn't have sweets

[EM&M]

I am travelling back ot the UK soon with 2 girls 31/2 & 16 months. I have firends as far a dubai and after that the last leg is alone. On the way here the girls were just gone 3 and 10 months and they were good as gold. As lisa mentioned for the older one I went to the pound shop and bought it bits new colouring books etc stickers.... I hid them in her little trolley case which she had packed herself for the journe with her special teddy etc. We always let her buy a magazine at airport as well.

I did bring some snack foods as well as my 3 year old hardley eats anything and would not eat the food on the plane. So I made a bit of a packed lunch so that I knew I had food she would eat. They were both good as gold and we had 3 x 7 hour flights.

Fingers crossed they are the same going back lol.

Does anyone know if they supply cows milk on Emirates for babies??

Em x

[Quoll]

I have to laugh, sorry. A good many years ago now I flew to Uk for a 2 month holiday on my own with a 12 week old baby and a 3.5 yr boy. I never even gave a thought about taking them on such a trip. Only thing I did take was travel sick pills because I get horribly air sick and didnt know if the kids would too - better safe than sorry. I look back now and admire that I did it, I was probably nuts!

I travelled really light - the baby in a sling on the front, a small cabin bag for me with a few disposable nappies and a change of clothing. I made a backpack for the lad (that tells you how long ago it was) and he carried a few essentials including some matchbox toys and a couple of transformers which I had wrapped up as presents to keep him occupied. I had a backpack with all our belongings in it so I was incredibly independent and mobile throughout. The only rule we had was if the baby slept then we all slept. I walked a good way across asia with the baby who decided to be interested in everything going on rather than sleeping. It was in the days of a two stopper - we stopped in Bahrain as well as Singapore.

Then two months later I did it all again as we came back. I have done it several times with the kids on my own since then and never had a problem - I didnt even think I would have a problem. I even sent my eldest son on his own to UK at 9 to be the family representative at my parents' ruby wedding - no problems there either.

If you treat it as easily as you would treat a routine trip on the park and ride bus you will be just fine! I think you can overthink these things!

[crafty1]

quoll, i'm going to have to disagree with you here! i'm taking my 4 and a half year old daughter and 6 and a half year old son to melbourne via dubai and i am NOT looking forward to it all!
last year i took them both to toronto by myself, what a b****y nightmare! i took the sweets, the new toys, bags they packed, the little surprises and they still drove me nuts!

i'm flying emirates via dubai on the 17th of march, to melbourne, i'll pay and you can take them on a different flight by yourself if you like!

[Quoll]

Originally Posted by crafty1

i'm flying emirates via dubai on the 17th of march, to melbourne, i'll pay and you can take them on a different flight by yourself if you like!

No worries, you're on!

I guess when I did it I just didnt give a thought that it would be hard! I look back now and wonder why I wasnt freaking but I had flown with the oldest one to UK and back a couple of times and also up to PNG with him so it just sort of happened.

Just another thought, you could send the 6 year old on his own and pick him up at the other end. (I did send DS1 on his own to UK and back at 9 and he was a gem) and that would leave you with just the one to worry about:)

Good luck with it, I am sure it will be fine! (maybe no sweets this time!)