My wife and I will soon be taking a long plane journey to Canada with our son who is just about to turn two-years old.
I would like the journey to be as painless as possible for us, him and all the other passengers. Any advise, please.
You will have to work very hard.
Bring a container with a selection of toys, books, etc, some old favourites and some new ones. Dole these out at carefully timed intervals so as to maximise the “preoccupation value” of each one.
Bring an ample supply of bottles and teats, and all the food you think he will need or want on the journey. Do not rely on the airline to provide food that he will want to eat (although they should provide as much milk as you want).
If it is an overnight flight, try bringing him already in his pyjamas, or change him into his pyjamas at the appropriate time. Replicate as much as you can of the usual bedtime routine - books, stories, goodnight kisses, whatever - and bring a familiar sheet or blanket from the bed or cot he slept in the previous night.
Even if the airline doesn’t require it, book him his own seat.
Take along his favorites. Not sure about candy though – does it get your two year old even more excited?
I second the idea of a seat for him.
Be patient.
I take along a laptop with Timon and Pumba (or the cartoons of his choice), and set that sucker up. Guaranteed for an hour or maybe two of a TV zombie. May want an extra battery so you get a few more hours. This really works for us. Not only does it buy significant peace, but the little one just might want to sleep after watching the cartoons.
good luck
We have a portable DVD player that keeps the kids occupied on long car rides. I have a three year old and a one and a half year old that are very quiet when they watch a DVD in the back seat.
The prices on these have come way down. We paid $279 for this unit and it has a 16:9 ratio 6 inch screen. Thier favorite movies are Monsters Inc. and Ice Age, along with the standard cartoons.
Our kids usually fall asleep in the car but a plane ride might be too exciting for them to sleep.
I wish you luck.
I’ve had great success travelling with mini-micco by toting along everything we’d use in about twice the travel time at home. Getting the kid their own seat is essential if the flight is over an hour or so because neither you or them will be comfortable for long with them on your lap.
Books, toys, food, etc. are all required but must be chosen with care. Tinkertoys, puzzles and board games are bad because the small pieces will be distributed around the cabin. Books, photo albums, stuffed animals are good. Puzzle books like I-Spy are excellent if your kid is into that because they can take as much time as they want on each page. “Executive stress toys” like gel hand-squeeze balls are great for a little focused fidgeting. A wide variety of snack food is also good but must be selected to limit sugar. We pack dried fruit, crackers, cheese sticks and juice, which is pretty much what we’d snack on at home.
I also brought a small pair of binoculars on one flight and scored the kid a window seat. That was entertaining for quite a while since he spent equal time looking out the window and just tinkering with the binocs.
Bring a couple of blankets too, or get on the plane early and get theirs. On one long flight, we couldn’t settle down for a nap until we built a “beaver den” under his seat and mine to give him a cozy place to stretch out.
A lot of your success may depend on how well you’ve taught your kid to respect other people. On one flight, mine was fussy and crying for no reason until I explained how unpleasant that was for everyone else on the plane. Another crying baby helped illustrate that for him. A lot of kids don’t have a grasp of how their behavior affects others, so this strategy may or may not be useful.
So far, all good suggestions, especially blankets and pillows to make the child comfortable. Typically those flights are during the day, and the plane should be something like a 747-400, so you should be able to take some walks and look out the windows and such. Bring tons of toys, maybe a few news ones that you can give to him during the flight.
Prepare yourself to handle the stress of an untimely tantrum, and toughen up your skin for the rude passengers who will give you real nasty looks. Our experience comes from a 4 hour flight, that turned into about 8 due to bad weather. I just laughed at the situation, did what I could to keep him quiet, and winked at the people glaring at my son (like anyone enjoys sitting on the tarmac for 3 hours). My wife, on the other hand, just about burst a blood vessel from the stress!
Also, as someone who used to fly a lot, screaming children never bothered me as much as the people whining about it. However, what was really annoying was when the child was kicking my seat. Something to keep in mind if you’re concerned about the neighbors 
Sugar-free gummy bears candy.
For a two year old who probably cannot chew gum without swallowing, these can provide a chewing motion to relieve ear pressure and the associated crankiness. Sugar-free so your little rugrat doesn’t get hyper and start kicking the seat in front of him.
One important piece of advice: Take full advantage of the airline’s offer to let passengers with small children board first. Don’t be noble and say, “Oh, no, no, we’re fine…” This gives you plenty of time to get all the gear stashed before the irritable business travelers who travel light with only a clean hanky, a Palm, and a 20 dollar bill in their shoe start shoving past you in the aisle.
Also, if you have to change planes, take full advantage of the airline’s help to tote said gear across the airport to catch your other plane. I once flew with an infant from D/FW to Champaign/Urbana by way of Dayton, Ohio, and American Airlines very kindly loaned me a Slave Employee to help tote the gear from one side of the Dayton airport to the other side. You may have to request it (“Would you like some help with that?” “Yes, indeed, I certainly would”), but the help is there.
Er, Gummy Bears are a “choke item” here at this end, dunno where you’re from, H8_2_W8. Anything smaller in diameter than a quarter is verboten for the Under-Three set.
Plan to spend some time letting him get up and walk him in the aisle. Spend some time standing around the galley, if the flight attendants don’t mind (they’re usually pretty helpful with kids). The seat space is getting smaller all the time and the confinement will drive him and you crazy.
If you do not already have seat assignments, consider making a request ASAP for bulkhead seats. These are the seats in the first row of the section, and there is a little more space to play with in front of your seats without anyone in front of you to disturb. Some parents do not prefer these seats, however.
As implied by all above posts, the trick is to stay ahead of the curve. Keep him occupied, and keep your cool. We’ve taken our kids from the US to Egypt three times.
DDG - I didn’t notice the child is not yet 2, I envisioned an older 2 to almost 3 year old.
We just traveled with our 3.5 y/o and used the gummy bears approach, but I agree that they may be too large for a younger child. If they were cut smaller or if they used cut up Starburst fruit chews or even jelly beans they could get the same outcome.
Here’s a practical tip.
Bring something like a pacifier or similar ‘sucking’ thing along.
A fair chunk of distressed small children you hear on plains are suffering from the change in pressure in the cabin. They have pressure discomfort or actual earaches. Sucking, whether with pacifiers, bottles, thumbs, whatever…will help to alleviate the problem.
For handling pressure, I found teaching my kid the val salva trick worked well. This isn’t as automatic as having them chew or suck something, but it was a nice interactive game and we had great fun making faces as we held our noses and puffed our cheeks. One main concern with handling pressure is to not let the kid sleep through takeoff or landing. As much as you may want to let them sleep, if they’re not equalizing during ascent/descent, they may wake up screaming in pain. Keep them awake and equalizing somehow.
Pack a complete change of clothes for your charge and yourself in your carry-on bag. I learned this the hard way when my son threw up on me on a flight to Disney World. (Fortunately we were already on the ground and headed for the gate.) He got to change into his nice clean clothes. I got to wash my shirt in a men’s room sink in the concourse.
(Fortunately it was a Hawaiian shirt, which hid the vomit stains quite nicely … .)
don’t let him sleep the week before you travel…
seriously, keep him occupied and fed…
and resist the temptation to put gin in the bottle
Foods that take awhile to eat (like cheerios) are a good bet, too.
Let the little nipper tear around in the airport before you board, while you still have room to do so.
I always got some special new toys (but those that I knew would be a hit) to maximize the time Cranky Jr would spend interested in them. I definitely doled them out carefully. I usually bring flash cards with pictures (or letters, when he was into the alphabet). A magna-doodle screen is great (they make them in travel sizes). We’d draw things one by one and he’d proudly tell us what they were–boat, house, dog, etc. Then he’d get to erase it and we’d draw a new item or letter or number. This killed a LOT of time.
You might also plan some stretching “games” with him that can be done in the seat or your lap (you might have to manhandle his limbs, but many kids find this hilarious). You can do those on the plane when he gets restless. You know, left hand crosses body to meet right foot, etc.
This summer, it was a 10-hour plane flight home from Greece. Two toddlers ran up and down the aisles, and kept playing with the arm of my seat. PLEASE keep your kids close by.
This is really more an opinion thing.
I second the change of clothes option and add that a few changes of underwear for everyone can be most helpful. My parents flew from Australia to UK with my brother and I when we were 1yo and 4yo respectivly. My brother got sick from the airline milk and the whole family ended up staying in Amsterdam for a couple of days until he got better. Our luggage though continued onto the UK without us.
I just want to point out that I read recently that airplane blankets are rarely ever washed (sorry, I can’t remember where I read this to find a cite), and have quite a few germs on them. You might want to avoid using the plane’s blankets.
Other than that, I don’t have kids, so no advice here.