What to feed toddler for long flight?

[neeter]

Hi, we have a long flight coming up (about 12 hours travel time). I'm looking for some good ideas on what to bring for my son, who is nearly 19 months, to eat for his meals. I can't imagine him just snacking the whole time, and am looking for some substantive options. He enjoys fried rice, mac & cheese, etc. Should I bring small portions of those items and ask the flight attendants to heat it up?

We just tried a "Little Entree" and DS didn't really like it. We're willing to try other things if you have suggestions!

Thanks!

[californiagirl]

Usually the child meals are pretty toddler-friendly; they often have mac and cheese, for instance. I don't know if you get a meal for a lap baby -- I would hope you do if they charge you, but maybe not.

I bet the flight attendants will try to help out, but they may have trouble. How is he with sandwiches or roll-ups? Or lentil soup, which works well lukewarm?

[jbowman]

What about string cheese, turkey, sliced fruit in little containers, grapes that you can cut up in flight? Just some ideas!

[neeter]

Thanks for your ideas! We bought a seat for DS - I don't think he'd be a very cooperative lap baby for very long! :)

Great ideas - we do "sandwiches" for breakfast, with a little jam and cream cheese, so that's a good option. He usually gets warm food for lunch and dinner, so that's why I need to think outside the box a bit. Since the flight is in a few weeks, we'll try sandwiches and rollups with turkey inside....and loves cheese and fruit - great suggestions. He is so-so with soup and I think that would get really really messy since he pretty much demands to self-feed these days.

Thanks!! :)

[jbowman]

That sounds great! And good call on buying the seat. I traveled with DD last month (on much shorter flights, BTW) & wished that we had purchased her a seat.

Have fun!

[californiagirl]

Usually between our meal and a child meal, there's plenty DD will eat. Sometimes the child meal is really nice -- one flight where all the adults got little boxes with not much in them, the child meal was pancakes and sausage and a banana and some yogurt. Sometimes it's pretty nasty -- one flight the child dinner was mostly a hotdog and she wouldn't even contemplate it. And it's sourced from the country you're flying from, so United out of Switzerland gave us, with apologies, a Swiss idea of a good kid's meal, involving veal in cream sauce, which DD adored.