How to Keep Your Toddler from a Mid-Air Tantrum: 5 Things We Pack to Keep Our Little One at Bay

Traveling with kids can feel like an overwhelming adventure, destined for tantrums, tears and stress but it doesn’t have to be.

Recently we have been travelling heaps with our 3yo (now 4yo). While we travelled with her as a baby, we hadn’t ventured more than a couple hours from home on a plane. Taking her on her first 11-hour flight was a tad daunting for her dad and I. We really didn’t want to be “those parents” who had a kid that screamed the entire flight and was so scared of being judged. While we were fretting at what was about to come, our 3yo was focused on fun and snacks, taking all the new experiences in her stride. Here are 5 things we packed, to help on our flights:

1. Noise Cancelling Headphones

We brought our daughter a kids set of noise-cancelling headphones by JBL. We liked these ones because they come in some funky colours (our daughter chose pink), they are noise capped to 85db (protecting their little eardrums), they’re wireless and they have a long battery life (20hours).

We opted for noise cancelling headphones because on an aeroplane, they are helpful for so much more than just watching inflight entertainment. When our daughter was tired, she kept her headphones on which helped her fall to sleep quickly and stay asleep. During takeoff and landing, they helped by lowering the noise of the engine, so she didn’t get scared. They were a great investment and she loves putting them on and plugging them into the entertainment unit. It definitely helps they’re pink!

2. A few, small toys – wrapped or new

We don’t buy toys for our little one very often (think Christmas and Birthdays) so any new toys are a bit of a treat. Just before heading away on holiday she had been eyeing up the LOL Surprise Balls. Before heading off on our trip, we brought a couple of small toys she could enjoy on the plane. We brought her a 3x pack of kinder surprise (she loves the little toys inside and the chocolates a bonus for bribing) and 2x LOL Surprise balls. These were perfect, and entertained her for hours.

A couple hours into our flight, we brought out a LOL Surprise Ball – she was so excited, and took her time opening up each section (if you haven’t seen the inside of one, the ball is separated into small wedges with a doll and accessories in each wedge). As she worked her way through the ball, she took her time to inspect each accessory. Once she had the doll and all accessories out, she played for a good hour, keeping herself entertained with her new toys.

But you don’t have to buy new toys for this trick to work.

I recently saw a post of a mum who dug around in her kids toy box to find small toys her kids hadn’t played with in a while. She wrapped them up and took them on a long-haul flight, they were a hit. I wish I had seen this before we went on our last long-haul flight, but I am definitely doing it for our next one.

There are a couple key tips:

1. Keep them small and easy to pop into a backpack side pocket – you don’t need them taking up extra space in your luggage
2. If you’re wrapping toys from home, make sure you’re ok with losing or forgetting them – I wouldn’t wrap toys that are expensive or of sentimental value.
3. Ration them out throughout the flight (this is kind of the point), if you give them to your little one in one-go you will have nothing exciting for them to look forward too when you’re a couple hours in, but still a couple hours from landing.

3. Favourite Snacks

Packing some of your kids favourite dry snacks is a great way to help keep them calm on a long-haul journey. We like to pack a mix of things our daughter will like, including her favourite potato stix, some cookies, and even some packed sandwiches. We are lucky to have access to an airport lounge and will pack her a couple cubes of cheese from the lounge too (this helps, because it’s airside and means we don’t have to navigate coming through customs/security with it).

Our biggest warning though is you need to either consume all the food on the plane before you arrive at your destination or bin it on the aeroplane. It can be super easy to forget you packed a mandarin or apple as an emergency snack at the bottom of your bag! (this brings pretty serious fines with customs!) To help with this, we like to pack all our food into a clip box, so we know we have disposed of everything when we land. This also comes in hand as we travel for keeping things like moisturiser or toothpaste which have a habit of “popping” in our luggage.

Key tip would be to avoid smelly things (this can be offensive to your immediate neighbours and if it spills, you don’t want an egg sandwich stinking up your bag all trip) – bring an empty water bottle through customs and fill it with water once airside for sips throughout your flight.

4. A selection of Lollies and Chocolate

I know, lollies and chocolate are not what you want to give your kids when you’re trapped in a tin can with them but, as an absolute back-up they are a lifesaver. They also come in handy when you’re wanting something sweet too!

We love to take extra bags of NZ lollies in our luggage for gifts, and we always pack a couple in our backpacks for bribes when our little one has had enough.

5. A Change of Clothes and Wipes

Do not underestimate the damage a chocolate bar and little fingers can cause to a set of clothes!

On our last flight, we mistakenly let our little one wear her favourite white jumper.

What. A. Disaster.

By the time we landed, her once pristine jumper was a mosaic of chocolate smears and sticky fingerprints. Thankfully, we had a spare set of clothes and some wipes in our carry-on, allowing us to quickly clean up and change her into something fresh. This experience taught us the importance of always being prepared with a change of clothes and wipes. Wipes are great for cleaning up little ones, the plane table and even smeared chocolate .Now, we never travel without an extra outfit and a generous supply of wipes. It saves us from stress and keeps our little one comfortable and presentable throughout the journey

For more information on how to travel with kids, stress-free, checkout our blog posts here.Have you got some great tips for keeping little ones occupied on a long-haul flight? Let me know by sending an email to nicola@prettyfarfromhome.com – we’d love to share them!