Air Travel with a 15-Month Old

We have traveled by air a couple times with our daughter who is now 18 months. (One 3+ hr flight at 13 months & one 3 hr flight at 17 months). The DVD player worked wonders. We brought along several DVDs..and she'd watch most for anywhere from 10-20 minutes before getting bored. You can save space by not brining each case for the dvds. (We put about 5 or 6 into a plastic sleeve CD holder). Our daughter wasn't into coloring yet either...plus those crayons would go everywhere, right? We also packed LOTS of snacks in different snack baggies. Things we wouldn't always give her too (chocolate chips, goldfish, raisins,). You can of course bring an empty sippy cup and fill it once you go through security. We held off her nap for the entire day until the plane ride as well---so at take off she's was exhausted and DID end up taking an hour nap. (Though my arm fell asleep holding her...it was worth it!).
We had some of her favorite little books in the diaper bag too. Twice we got lucky and were seated in a row of 3 without a 3rd person! (So my husband and I could sit on either end and our daughter had her own seat in the middle!).
Good luck...the best part about the trip is when you finally land! :-)

-Wrap toys in wrapping paper so it takes more time to get at them.
-Board the plan last so you're not sitting as long.
-Use the in-airport kids play areas to wear them out prior to flying and in between flights.
-Check luggage so you don't have a lot of extra items to deal with during layovers etc.
-Stand in back, walk the aisles, use the bjorn

We travelled from Minnesota to Florida with a 25 month old. It was not too bad. Reading to him worked well. I went to a dollar store and got some new books and wrapped each one. He got to unwrap them and then we read them. Also snacking worked well for altitude changes. We used fruit by the foot and I handed him small pieces one at a time. It took about 1 1/2 rolls to get through the entire ascent. He slept throught the landings. The chewy food worked well as he didn't want to drink then.

Good Luck!
R.

Get a Baby Einsteain DVD or two. I don't know what it is, but it entertains them!

Buy a new toy that he would really enjoy to put in his activity bag. The novelty of it might buy you a little more time than the same toys he already has at home. Maybe buy one for the return trip that he won't see until that flight, too. Snacks and special treats are also good, especially if/when he starts to meltdown from not being able to move. Good luck and have a safe and happy flight!

STICKERS! We bought alot of different stickers, and they pack light, so our child could put them on some coloring books we had, but also he had fun putting them on the magazines that are in the seatbacks on the plane. It kept my son entertained for a while off and on, especially on the ascent and descent portions of the plane when you can't have much out. And pack several different snacks, too--that always works for entertainment!

Things that have worked for us...

--being proactive on the plane--regular "potty" breaks--who cares if it's YOU that goes, and you really didn't need to? And we've found that people in aisles with small children or grandparent-y tendencies are much happier to smile and wave and play peek-a-book with a happy baby than they are to have a small, crying child being walked up and down, up and down...take advantage of it when you can!
--dollar store/happy meal trinkets. I know...fast food; yuck. But...those silly little toys...we pulled them from all fast food meals for like 2 months and doled them out. It worked well.
--food. any food. especially food he doesn't usually get--fruit snacks, dried fruit, chocolate milk. We try to make mealtime happen when we're on the road/in the air (to the point of under-feeding our children, hoping they'll be hungry during travel).
--one dvd that we got a lot of mileage from with our small just-past-one was the Veggie Tales Sing Along songs. We literally listened to it for almost 2 hours (4x) in the car on the drive to grandma and grandpa's house (we do over 40 hours of driving in less than two weeks over the winter holidays). It IS a Christian video, though, but we're happy with that. :)
--STICKERS. Of any kind. Works small motor skills; all you need to do is find ANYTHING--freebie address labels work at 15 months!
--and, for future reference, esp if you're traveling to CA often, we found that redeye flights saved us a lot of hassle. Yes, they're a pain for mom and dad, but the kids were OUT--and, more significantly, were tired when they arrived, which meant they were in for an easy day--nice for us, too.

Good luck!

I used to put things in the bag the kids had never seen before, or they thought was a real treat. So...lots of stickers to decorate something. The something could be paper, or a medium-sized toy (a plastic airplane, boat, etc) that you can take the stickers off once you get there and re-use for the return trip. (we didn't reuse stickers on paper...) Also, Wiki-sticks work well..they're those "sticks" that are covered in wax and the kids can bend, mash or whatever. My son LOVED rescue heroes, so we'd take a "new" one of those (or one he hadn't seen in awhile). Snacks also are good...especially things he likes (we took lots of fruit snacks and goldfish and teddy grahams).

We found that we could only have one thing out at a time or we'd lose stuff on the airplane. So, we'd pack toys into baggies and pull out a baggie, play, and put away before the next baggie came out. We didn't lose any matchbox cars again! Then, if you need an extra baggie on the trip, you'll have some (after you empty a toy or 2...).

Good luck!