What to pack when flying with kids

Isabella and I decided to make a short video and post with some tips of what works best for us when flying. We have done at least 5 long haul flights with Isabella now, she's only 5 years old and while it is still not easy, it does get better!

Before flying:

We always book Isabella a kids meal. You can do this via your airline's website and should find it around the section where you can select your seats. The kids meals usually consists of something like chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, vegetables, salad and fruit plus child friendly crisps, chocolate treat and a juice/ water bottle. There is no way Isabella would eat any of the regular meals you would receive. Too many different bits touching and strange sauces etc. So this way she usually manages to eat at least something.

The other benefit to ordering a special kids meal is that it is brought to your seat before the rest of the plane is served their meals. This allows you to help your child with his/ her meal, then get them settled with a movie before your meal arrives, allowing you to enjoy your meal in relative peace.

What to pack:

Carry on suitcase 

We use one of these once it's sleep time to extend Isabella's seat to a bed. Place it upright at the child's feet with a pillow on top and you have a bed! See photo below.

Pillows and spare clothes

In this suitcase we pack 1-2 pillows depending on space and spare clothes for everyone. We've never needed it, but I'm pretty sure the day I don't pack spare clothes for all of us she will be vomiting all over us or spilling a drink on me. It can also often be quite warm on flights so pack light clothing and layers.

Sleep mask

Isabella sometimes likes sleeping with a sleep mask at home or will drape her comforter over her eyes. We find it definitely helps her to switch off and fall asleep faster. Especially useful on a plane with many distractions and then on the rest of the holiday too. She had a cute reindeer one from Primark for the past Christmas flight.

Favourite toys

Isabella loves her soft toys so we pack about three of these, a few dolls, note pad and pens, stickers, activity books. Any of your child's favourites, although we find these get used minimally on the flight. Do pack lots of toys for the holiday as we found Isabella gets homesick even during the best holidays and it helped having enough bits from home. 

She now looks after her own carry-on as you can see below, which also holds her favourite soft toy or doll in a pouch on the outside. She used to have a Trunki which was useful to sit or ride on when her legs got tired, but a pain to pull along as the wheels don't swivel and a pain to open on the flight as it needs to fold completely open.

Tablet and headphones

When Isabella was younger, the angle of the screen and her height meant she couldn't see the built in  screen very well so a tablet worked better. Now that she is 5 and taller the screen worked perfectly fine for her and she enjoyed the choice of movies. Having her own comfortable headphones was a must as the adult size in-ear headphones wouldn't have been comfortable for her.

Snacks

Isabella usually ends up not eating a lot of her snacks, but again, should I not pack any she would probably be asking for more snacks. I would pack as many snacks as possible.

Milk

Isabella loves her milk so we pack her empty milk bottle which now is a sippy bottle she loves. Before boarding get some warm milk from a coffee shop. You could even bring a flask to fill with warm milk form a coffee shop. Previously on flights we were told they didn't have enough milk for children to drink and that it was only really for tea/ coffee on the flight. 

When she was under a year and drinking formula milk I took pre-made bottles of formula which you are allowed to take for babies. Plus some formula powder in a container to prepare fresh on the plane if needed.

Reward for good sleeping

On our first long flight with Isabella I bought various cheap small toys to have some new things to keep her occupied. This was a mistake as she was so excited to open all of these she didn't want to sleep. Now what we find works better is having one treat which is kept for the next morning, usually very early morning, once your child has hopefully slept at least a few hours during the night. We've had good flights where Isabella slept six hours, and then we had our last flight when she had three hours sleep only.

If you're flying with little ones, may it be as quick and painless as possible! Enjoy your trip!