Flying Long Haul With Kids: Toys, Snacks & Survival Tips for Parents
Hello! We have just come back from two wonderful weeks in Canada. That means we have just done the 8 hour flight with three kids (7,4 and 15 months old)! I wanted to write this to help others prepare and feel more equipped! Here are some travel tips for flying with children, and what worked for us!
Preparing to Fly Long Distance With Kids
We didn’t agonise over flight times, but we knew ideally we’d have a day flight to our destination and a night flight back. There’s tips and tricks you can be doing to make the time zone shift as easy as possible like altering bedtimes in the run up but we didnt personally do this.
We looked before to confirm if there would be TV’s on our flight, and we had a backup group of shows on Joseph’s phone if for some reason there wasn’t something suitable.
Travel bags/toys for kids- plane activities for kids
We set each of the kids up with their own individual backpack for the flight. Which they carried through the airport and onto the plane. Their backpack had some essentials like their blankets and water bottles but also a collection of things I had been gathering from vinted in the run up to the trip that the kids hadn’t seen. I also took some things from home that would be useful too here’s what we packed (scroll to the bottom images to be taken to the links)
Plane activites for Heppy and Moses (Ages 4-7)
Drawing pads (Electronic drawing board)
How to draw book (To use with the drawing pad
Magazines (Our favourite magazines are Anorak & Dot magazines and I’d managed to find a few on vinted)
A Lego set each
Audiobooks from the library ( At the library you can check out individual Playaway devices where you pop batteries in and plug in your headphones, then can play the device. We felt this was easier than taking our yoto as we have the bigger model which isn’t great for travelling.)
Sudoku Pages
Seek and find books
100 dogs game
Top Trumps
Story Cubes
Activities for Lazarus (16 months)
A photo book of our family
Remote control
A few playmobil characters to do some pretend play (here’s really got into this recently)
A friend lent me some items they had in their house like a rubiks cube, a man to attatch to the window with sticky feet, and a keyboard popper.
Don’t be afraid to ask friends, and look secondhand first!! Amazon makes it too easy to go on and buy these things new and get them delivered next day….try and prep beforehand to avoid the last minute panic!
BEST TRAVEL SNACKS FOR LONG DISTANCE FLIGHTS:
This is probably the thing I packed the most. BUT, like any days with my kids, it all goes so much smoother if they have full tummies. I knew from the outset that I wanted to ideally not buy food in the airport mainly to do with cost as well as sometimes a lack of nourishing options.
Here is what I packed for them and found to be my best snacks for kids on the
Sausages (pre-cooked the night before)
Turkey slices
Boiled eggs (OKAY OKAY….they don’t smell)
Cut up veggies
Hummus
Freeze dried raspberries
Play in Choc box
Liquorice stick from Panda
Refillable water bottles
Tip: Make sure your snacks don’t contain nuts, someone on our flight had a nut allergy (which isn’t abnormal), so no nut products were able to be eaten!
Comfort
Eye Masks and Neck Pillows A friend lent us these and I am SO glad we had them. I had forgotten how uncomfortable it was sleeping on an aeroplane! You can get these easily secondhand/i bet your neighbours are storing some I have recommended ethically made options which is why they are more expensive.
A self-inflating pillow We encouraged sleep through a self-inflating pillow that fills the footwell so your child can sleep across, making it into a bed! This worked really well for us on the return night flight! You charge it before hand so it self inflates when youre on the plane (you can also find ones that don’t do this). It’s a little loud for about 20 seconds when it’s inflating but after that it’s simple to deflate when you are finished with it and put it back in the bag. We had also tried to get hold of a few other variations like the jetbox for Heppy which I will link below but only managed to secure one in time and we didn’t want to buy new.
I took my ergo onto the flight as I wanted the option to be able to put Lazarus to sleep in it. I went to the front of the plane where there was less people and spent a while bouncing him around until he fell asleep and then I transferred him onto the seats of the plane.
And again just a note to say before buying any of the things I’ve recommended, why not look secondhand or ask a friend! You can also rent various things through travel rental websites such as Tiny Explorers.
WELLNESS
I am sure there’s plenty of tips about how to avoid jet lag. But we just majored on staying hydrated, eating nourishing foods and spending lots of time outside! Here are some other things we used:
Saline Nasal Mist: Spray 15-30 minutes before taking off and landing to help avoid build-up and ear pressure, and also just to support clear passageways
Liposomal Vitamin C for an extra immunity boost
Magnesium balm for calm and to rub into the kids’ feet before sleeping
Arnica- I have the full homeopathy kit but Arnica is a great one for flying/jetlag it helps the body recover from the flight.
Other tips and tricks for long haul flights with kids:
We’ve always given the kids chewing gum when taking off. Something my parents did with me and the kids find so exciting. It’s meant to mean your ears don’t pop and it kept them going for a while.
Download shows/games beforehand onto a device if you dont think the in flight-experience will be suitable
Bring your own headphones for the kids as they are alot comfier and some airlines don’t even offer them for free
Having a buggy through the airport was so helpful as Lazarus was strapped in and we could load all the bags onto it when needed
It sounds obvious but everyone with their own designated bag to take charge off was so helpful.
what I’d Do Differently Next Time
I did not bring enough blankets! On the flight home I was freezing because my jumper was covering Lazarus and so was Moses’s blanket and so everyone was cold! So if youre doing an overnight flight i’d definitely reccommend bringing enough things to make sure everyone is snuggly!
Conclusion!
All in all, I had kept expectations low on how the flight would go and I think it was better than I had anticipated, there was defintitely our fair share of Lazarus stroking the guys leg hair on the seat next to us and spitting up apple into his hand but we did it! I would love to know your own travel stories in the comments.