Marina

As an expat family we have early accepted the fact that most of our holidays will be spent visiting family back in our home country, especially after we got a baby. My mom would kill us if she didn’t get the chance to see her granddaughter every couple of months. Sometimes I don’t have time to call her on video chat for two full days, and she is already ready to call the police to check on us. But that means that every few months we have to survive a plane flight with a toddler.

If you are actually one of the lucky ones that can actually choose where to go on holiday, check out our old blog post about planning a holiday with toddler. I will have to wait a little bit longer for that.

While she was a baby, she was a perfect travel companion. By the time plane lifted from a ground she was already fast asleep and she would stay like that almost until the end of the flight. Now, it is more difficult. She is more active and interested in everything that is happening around her, especially in other people. Stalker vibe is strong in her.

Plane flight with a toddler

1. Always try booking a direct flight

Layover is already hard enough when travelling alone, but with a child can be a horrible experience. They are already nervous and confused, you want to make this experience as fast as possible. If you have to choose a connection flight, make sure that you have enough time between the flights so they can relax, have a meal and run around for a bit.

• Don’t pack light when it comes their essentials

Always, but always bring enough pacifiers if your child is using it, and then bring some more. Usually, I always have at least one in my bag, but when travelling I pack backups everywhere. My bag? Check. Suitcase? Check? Diaper bag? Check. My husbands’ backpack? Check. The same thing goes for their favourite toy. Always pack a spare one unless you want to end up with an unhappy child. I don’t have to even tell you about spare clothes in their diaper bag. You know that they will have an accident the only time when you don’t bring a change of clothes.

• Protect their ears during take-off and landing

In order to help them through pressure changes, you should make sure they are either sucking or chewing during the take-off and landing. You have few options, you can either breastfeed, give them a bottle of formula or breastmilk, Sippy cup, pacifier or even something to eat like a cracker or a cookie.

• Organize the flights so they correspond to your child sleeping schedule

If you have this option definitely use it to make your life easier. This is the best way to make sure your flight goes as smoothly as possible. Your child will sleep happily during the flight and you can also get some downtime.

• Bring entertainment

 You know what child likes the best, so make sure you pack enough of the toys that can keep them entertained if they decide they don’t want to sleep. For us the winners are the quiet books and drawing board or sketch pad.

Do you have any useful advice I can use on our next trip?

I don’t know what it is with toddlers and hair washing, but most of them consider it equal to murder. If you have one of those perfect toddlers that don’t scream murder the moment they realize it is time for dreadful hair washing, just keep on scrolling. You don’t want them to get some ideas. Just retreat quietly and don’t even mention to them that hair washing could be a problematic experience. If you are not one of those lucky parents, stay with me. We will think of something together.

You have a couple of strategies to survive washing your toddler’s hair.

• Just don’t wash the hair.

First and the one my toddler prefers is to just forget about it. It is already been a week since last hair washing? Just sniff them, if they don’t smell bad you just bought yourself another week. Unfortunately, it is not a really effective solution as eventually, you will have to tackle the dragon, and it will be anything but calm and relaxing experience you wish for.

• Involve them in the process.

What I have noticed with Emily is that she is more willing to cooperate if she has a choice, so we make bath time full-on immersive experience. She gets to choose the shampoo and the towel we will be using, which toys will join her during the bath time and even in which colour we will change the bathwater too.

You can even get them to practice hair washing on one of their dolls. Help them to wash the doll’s hair while you lead them through it and it might make them more comfortable when it is their turn.

• Find out what is making them scream less.

Emily is willing to jump out from the bath head first if we dare to turn on the handheld shower. The moment she hears it she is an uncontrollable crying mess while if we try rinsing with a jug of water, she will cry just for a second and then continue to moan and whine.  The alternative is not ideal as she is still not happy to wash her hair, but it is making her less annoyed and more cooperative. Last time she even took a small cup and tried to rinse her own hair which is a win in my book.

Some kids also hate leaning the head back as they don’t feel safe, and they will be happier to lean forward. Just make sure you place a dry cloth over their eyes to make sure no water gets to their eyes. Hopefully, after a while they will learn this helps and they will hold it without any help.

• Never let them leave the bath while they are still crying.

The most important thing you need to do is to make sure they associate bath time with fun time, if you allow them to leave the bath while they are still crying, they will always associate it with being unhappy. If they just make a fuss when washing their hair but love taking a bath, try to wash the hair at the beginning and then bring on the fun. Give them different cups to play with, rubber ducky or any other bath toy. If you want my suggestion, invest in Bath crayons. They were a complete game-changer. Now she will cry during the rinsing, but stop the moment she gets her hand on the bath crayons.

Hopefully, some of these tips will work for you also so you will finally be able to relax during the bath time, but if you have any suggestion please share it with us. We need all help we can get to survive this toddlerhood.