Why?
Because they didn’t want to take their two little children on a long haul flight. Completely ignoring the thought of child jet lag, they were worried about keeping them entertained for an 8hr+ flight. It got me thinking, not only is it hard to keep young kids entertained on long haul flights; it’s hard to keep them disturbing other passengers as well. It’s with this thought in mind I put the following guide together – How to keep kids on long haul flights happy.
Choose Appropriate toys:
One thing I’ve learnt the hard way is that variety really helps ease in-flight boredom. Take a good selection of toys/light weight books avoiding anything with small parts that will be easily lost. Try to avoid heavier toys to keep within your baggage allowance, and for the sake of other passengers leave the noisy toys at home. No one wants to hear the same cute phrase repeated 3 times a minute for ten hours in a row, that’s how my evenings/weekends are spent at the moment, and trust me, it’s not fun after.
In-flight Children's Colouring and Sticker Books
Always consider packing colouring books, with crayons and sticker. Newly purchased sticker books and colouring books are a good idea as they will create a fresh challenge and the onset of boredom will be delayed that much longer. Your child will take time to explore the new stickers and no doubt you'll be covered in them before the end of the flight and so might the unfortunate business man opposite you, when he's not looking!
Child Friendly Airlines
Always check that your carrier provides TV entertainment for kids and that they have seat back TV on all long haul flights. Kids can't normally see the large screens at the front of the plane, so if seat back TV isn't provided then that can be a real problem! A portable DVD player with a spare set of batteries would be an option to consider in this case.
Compare UK Airline Seat Pitch
Without doubt cramped conditions on board UK airlines affect kids just as much as adults. It goes without saying; a comfortable child is a happy child, especially if you want them to sleep on an overnight flight.
Take-off and Landing Advice
Take off (and landing) can subject the ears of a young child or baby to significant pressure changes and make things very uncomfortable for them. Be sure to give your child something to suck on for take off or landing. Give them a sweet, a dummy or a drink of some kind depending on their age. If the child is old enough, tell him or her to yawn and swallow to equalise the pressure in their ears. This can be quite effective and reduce any discomfort.
In Flight Child/ Baby Refreshments
To avoid de-hydration, it's always a good idea to take plenty to drink for your children or baby on any flight, but particularly for long haul flights. Airlines often serve high sugar content drinks, so if you normally give your child healthier drinks at home or fruit juices, consider taking a variety of them with you in leak-free containers on board, especially for a long transatlantic or international flight.
In-flight Baby Snacks and Children's Meals
I’ve found that in-flight meals rarely turn up at your childs regular meal time, so taking some snack food items on long haul flights for your children is a good idea, to avoid grumpiness if their routine is broken. Don't forget to pack plenty of wet wipes and tissues as snack time can be very messy.
Long Haul Flights - Controlling Your Child's Behaviour
It can be tiring for everyone, yourself and fellow passengers, to have kids running up and down the aisles and for some children, sitting down for even a few minutes can be a real problem, especially my two year old! You can do your best to control them but when other children start running around, there can be immediate problems stopping your child from doing the same. It is at times like this that the importance of packing the right toys, games and puzzles can save the day. In flight seat back children's TV with integral games consoles can also help prevent a very tiring flight for you and other passengers nearby!
After The Flight - Children's Jetlag!
Adrenalin can keep your child going for a surprisingly long time. My little lad once managed to keep himself and me awake for 19 hours last Christmas, mostly due to a drum his Aunt bought him. Children are in fact very resilient to long haul travel and they'll cope very well, often better than us adults, but they still suffer from jetlag even as babies!
When arriving in a different time zone, try your best to stay up until nearly bed time wherever you have arrived. Going to sleep at 6pm local time can be a disaster (even if you only try a short nap) and you're better off trying to keep yourself awake by going out or socialising, or taking the kids to an arcade/kids club – somewhere noisy that will keep their attention.
Try equally hard to put the kids to bed at roughly the time they would normally go to sleep at home. During daylight ours, stay outside as much as possible or in brightly lit indoor surroundings. Believe it or not, your body reacts to daylight and this is a key part of adjusting back your body's internal time clock onto a new time-zone. If you follow these steps, within a few days the effects of jetlag begin to disappear.
The Denial Method
Or, you could buy a sleep mask, an mp3 player with a good pair of headphones and just sleep the flight away and let the cabin crew and the other passengers dael with your kids, and trust me I've been on more than a few of these flights.
If you have any other ideas that you think might help people please add them here, the more the merrier.
Happy Cruising
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