Travel tips - flying with a one year old
This year I’ve been lucky enough to get away quite a few times with Hallie and with the right tools it’s been surprisingly easy.
My top tips for travelling with a one year old are:
Travel over their nap - the flight goes much quicker when they’re asleep (trust me).
The white noise of the airplane should help to send them off to sleep, but if not, bring a little white noise machine with you.
Bring a large muslin to put over the seat in front to create a bit of a canopy for them to sleep under.
On boarding, ask if there are any spare seats, the chances are you haven’t paid for a seat for your little one but if you can get a seat next to you, you’ll be much more comfortable. If you’re traveling with more than two booked seats consider one person booking in the row in front or behind, leaving a gap between two of the booked seats, you may be lucky and find that no-one sits in it.
Consider a Trunki or similar to help pull them around in the airport, failing that, a travel buggy like the YoYo Zen that you can take onto the plane is helpful.
A backpack with reins is also a great way to keep hold of your little one in the airport!
If you don’t have a travel buggy you can still usually take your pram straight up to the plane door before it goes in the hold.
On the pram front check what your insurance policy covers you for - when we went to Spain we took our UppaBaby Vista pram and luckily my sister in law lent us their travel case for it as it got broken in transit. Because it was in the bag the insurance paid out, if it hadn’t been the bag they wouldn’t have done.
SNACKS. So many snacks. Especially ones that can’t be eaten too quickly, raisins, an apple that can be munched on for a while etc. Have a variety and just keep them coming. Don’t worry about the mess until you land and then give it good once over to pick up as much debris as you can (don’t be that guy if you can avoid it, leaving a tonne of rubbish for the flight attendants).
Dummy/bottle/food pouch, boob for take off and landing. Those little ears are going to need encouragement to pop!
Don’t stress about the amount of screen time they’re having, purchase some child friendly headphones (these make sure the volume can’t go up too loud for baby ears) and just let them get stuck in.
Bring some new toys and keep them varied - new stickers, toy cars, books, colouring pencils. The LED drawing boards can be a real hit and are only about £10 on Amazon.
Don’t stress about the people around you, the worry that you’re going to have people tutting etc. around you can actually be far worse than the reality. You also can have a very large glass of wine waiting for you at your destination!
Enjoy - that time away is so precious. There’s an argument that the one year old won’t remember it so what’s the point, but when you see their happy face splashing in the sea or exploring all those new textures and experiences they don’t get at home, the memory will be worth it for you.
Have we missed any tips that worked for you? Let us know!
