Suggestions to Occupy 15 Month Old on a Plane?

OK.
lots of snacks. (food rules don't apply on flites :))
neither do tv rules :) dvds ....

triangle crayons that cant roll, playdough...books

Food. Also, get a little medicine dispenser container and fill it with lots of new little things to play with or eat.

I hope your flight isn't long. I never recommend "lap child," unless it's a baby.

If you still have time to buy him a seat, please do. If he is in your lap it hugely increases the likeliehood he will be restless, hot, sweaty, annoyed. And so will you. Both of you will arrive worn out, not ready for fun. If he has his own seat he will be much easier to occupy and distract. If he's in your lap, the whole flight will be about the struggle between you for him to stay there. You will not be able just to walk him up and down an aisle the entire time -- you will need to be near your 4-year-old in his or her seat too, and when the drinks or food get served, you and he will end up stranded behind a cart that consumes the entire aisle and you will be cut off from your seats for a while. Not good. You already know he's a squirmer so why not get him a seat? It is worth the cost for him not to melt down.

Get new toys/games/books he has never seen before so he is extra distracted but also throw in some reliable favorites you know get his attention. Be prepared to switch to a new toy or book every few minutes -- his attention span is very short at this age. So you'll have a good bit to carry. Bring things for his hands to do -- chunky crayons and a coloring book if he is able to do that, or toys or books with flaps to open, buttons to button, etc. Those books or dolls with zippers, buttons, snaps, flaps, and other closures for kids to do and undo are good options if he has never had one -- he will find that interesting. Avoid anything with sound unless you want other passengers to become very quickly irritated and start asking you to turn it down or off. If you go with DVDs, be sure to use headphones (not ear buds! They are bad for kids' hearing!) and ensure the sound is very low for his young ears. Don't sedate him with constant videos but have short ones and alternate them with toys and games so he doesn't get bored with either option as quickly.

I hope for your sake it's a short flight! We take our child to England every year to see our family there (6 to 9 hour flight depending on weather) and even at 15 months she did fine but it's overnight so she could sleep some, and she had her own seat and lots to explore just by taking things in and out of the seat back pockets!

I would get any child a seat, especially a squirmy on.

It will be more comfortable, not to mention safer, for everyone. Worth the extra $ in my book..

As for playtime, we flew with our daughter from early on. She was a sleeper for many of the flights. Other times, we made puppets with the air sick bags, had snacks, and I brought out "new" things for her that she hadn't seen before at home to hold interest.

Good luck.

portable DVD player
books
and be prepared to do a lot of walking up and down the aisle

portable DVD player.

And I agree with the others, if the flight is longer than 1.5 hours or so, get him a seat. You will both be much happier.

We did a 3.5 hour flight last week with my squirmy 15 month old in my lap. We brought one of his dangly toys, his glowworm and his sister's Leapfrog laptop and that was it as for toys. He pretty much ignored the toys anyway. He played with his sister, snacked and was actually really good. I buckled my seatbelt around both of us, which really helped him feel like he was restrained and helped me have a free hand or two to entertain him. About an hour before we landed his sister watched a show on the iPad and he watched over her shoulder, but that's about it. Honestly, food and the seatbelt made the flight easy. Good luck!

I didn't have wigglers but I will say I was quite nervous on my first trip with an 18mo old. I found stickers to my surprise to be a big help and now there are lots of kits out there with removable ones. Otherwise I would say dvds and as many choices that come in small packages :). Good luck!

How long is your flight? Honestly, at that age I just sucked it up and bought my son a seat, he was a mess to keep still and I needed the carseat to keep him buckled in!

Other than that I would suggest things that make noise....electronic books, games, things that have buttons, etc. The noise won't really be that loud to disturb others and the white noise of the plane will cover a lot of it too, besides most people who would be bothered will probably have headphones of some kind.

I don't recommend play doh, especially if he's on your lap. It's messy and gets everywhere. Favorite books for sure, cars, wind up toys, crayons. Maybe a few blocks that you can stack on the tray table. Stickers, band aids (they like to stick and unstick), a soft ball maybe, unless he's prone to throw it at the head of the person in front of you, then skip that! :)

You'd also be amazed at how long a cup of ice will entertain! Make sure you get him his own cup and then leave a few extra pieces in yours! ;)

I would try to get him to nap.

Thank you for asking this question. I will be faced in a couple of months with the same situation, but with a child just a little bit older. There will be several other adults flying with me, so I'm hoping the adults will be able to pass our little wiggler back and forth! I will be looking back at your post for all of the suggestions.

We have been flying 2-3 times a year since our daughter was 4 months old. We always did laps until they were 2 and we had to buy seats. I actually found that they were a lot easier as lap kids when they were wiggly. If you have purchased a seat the flight attendants will expect your child to be seated in the seat, especially at take off and landing when I found them to be the most wiggly. Walking the aisles is also frowned upon now. Flight attendants are much more strict today about those kinds of things (hence the stories you hear more often about families being removed from flights). That said, the flight will be fine! Take stickers and crayons. I always buy a new (small) coloring/sticker book before a flight (a lot of times from the dollar section at Target). My kids love pipe cleaners although the ends of them can be sharp. Try Wikki sticks instead. I agree with the ice idea! My almost 3 year old entertained himself with a cup of ice for about 30 minutes on our flight last week. Just be sure to have napkins or paper towels to wipe up the melted ice. When my kids were that age I would usually buy a small toy for them to unwrap on the plane. The toy was great, but so was the paper! Don't be surprised if he falls asleep. The white noise of the plane would usually put mine to sleep. Take snacks! Most airlines don't hand out free snacks anymore and the ones you can purchase are expensive and not always kid friendly. If your kids like milk, be sure to buy some in the airport. You can't take it through security and they don't have it on the planes. Have something they can suck on or chew on to help with ear popping. Drinking from a straw helps. We use the Thermos mugs. Just be careful when you open them on the plane because when the plane has pressurized it can cause the Thermos mugs to slew out when you open them. We have also used suckers, but actually have found that gummy snacks or Tootsie Rolls work the best. They are more like chewing gum. Electronic entertainment is great, but we have had some mini-meltdowns when we have had to turn them off and anything with an on/off switch has to be turned off. Pack your carryon as light as possible. We are finding that airlines don't really give families of small children priority boarding anymore. It would also be wise to check ahead of time that your seats are together and if you can pick your own seats (even if you have to pay more). We have had several flights where the four of us are in 3 or even 4 different rows. It is a huge pain to try and get seats rearranged at the gate. I know when you buy tickets on line they ask children's ages, but when it comes to seat assignment they don't pay any attention to it. We had one flight where my seat and my year old's seat were together, my husband's seat was 4 rows in front of us, and our 4 year old daughter's seat was 6 rows in front if his! They were finally able to get us into a row together, but for awhile we thought we might even have to try and get another flight. I know I've maybe told some "horror stories", but to be honest, we have never had a terrible flight with our kids. Have fun and good luck!

Magna Doodle! and brightly colored, chunky books worked well for our kids. A car he can roll on the fold-out tray, or a wind up toy...Oh, and I totally agree with snacks. Nothing keeps my kids better occupied on long car rides or flights than different kinds of snacks: grapes or blueberries (you can't get off the plane with them, so make sure you eat them all), cereal, Pirate Booty, etc., etc.