Multi-city plane trip with active 14 month old...getting VERY nervous!

[mdmom2b]

So I have been reading around the posts on this board to get some tips, and they are much appreciated...we are leaving in five days, flying Los Angeles to Baltimore, then five days later Baltimore to Chicago, then 10 days later back to LA. We did the same trip last summer when DS was 3 mo, and in retrospect is was so easy! He slept the whole time...

Now he is extremely active, almost running, and not content to sit still. I may regret it, but with the cost of the multi-city ticket we did not buy him a seat. I need tips for the plane ride...what do you do to keep your LO occupied? I have a couple of Sesame Street DVDs, some new toys, and new snacks...but I'm worried all that together may only buy me an hour!

We are traveling with our Quest and bringing the Britax Marathon which will likely have to be gate checked--I am under no delusion that there will be open seats on 4th of July weekend. What else do I need? Thanks!

[hillview]

Lots of new little toys. tons of snacks. New lift the flap books. Rip magazines. Finger puppets.
/hillary

[emily]

A DVD player?

[tiapam]

DS loves a little tape measure I got for free at a furniture store. We took it on our last plane trip. Maybe a smallish magnadoodle? If he is too little to do it, you can draw things for him. Good luck!

[mmama]

New small books. My son loves trains so I bought him the paperback Thomas books.

Also, finger puppets. I saw some at IKEA when DS was about the age of your DC and DS loved them. There were ten different animals so we acted out songs and stories with them. Also, I've gone so far as to use the barf bag as a puppet -- colored in eyes and used the bottom of the bag as the mouth. That held DS's attention for a surprisingly long time. We also looked through the magazines we had and tore out food pictures to "feed" the puppet. Yeah, I was desperate, but it worked really well.

[hlphillips2]

At that age generally I let my kids walk up & down the aisle as long as there was no refreshment service and provided it didn't interfere with anyone else. My kids got such a kick out of seeing all the people ("you all came here to see me! Wow!"), and the vast majority of people were friendly considering that my child wasn't screaming or adversely affecting their travel.

My youngest doesn't do well with DVDs, but she likes movies on the ipod. Her attention span is very short so I go for lots of free movie clips (think youtube) versus full movies. She also loves snacks and books.

[larig]

Someone told me once take 1 cheerio for each minute of flying time. Just letting them eat cheerios off the tray table can eat up a lot of time.

Lots of airports have playgrounds these days or at least family areas, perhaps look up this before you go and see where one is near your gate by looking at online terminal maps.

DS did great on the plane. I'm sure your kiddo will be fine too.

[hlphillips2]

One quick note about cheerios (or all food) on the tray. This didn't occur to me until our first child was halfway through her meal on one of her first flights. DEFINITELY sanitize the tray the minute you get on the plane. Those things are NEVER cleaned. I swear most of the colds my kids have had they got from eating off the airline tray table.