Traveling with a 1 Year Old - Murrells Inlet,SC

Let him run in the airports when you can to burn off some energy.

When we flew with DS at that age, we used everything. Things around the house that you wouldn't think of normally: A band-aid kept my DS busy for 20 minutes alone because it was sticky and "new" to him! A calculator - lots of buttons to push. Or an old cell phone. Chip clips and let him "clip" something.

Go to the dollar store - or the dollar section at Target (on the end caps) and load up on stupid little stuff. I would advise new toys, rather than what he knows, since those aren't as fun. Bring books he likes. And I always keep a couple of episdoes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ( a favorite) and now the movie Cars on my video iPod as a backup distraction. (I don't like hauling the DVD player around).

At target they sell a travel sized magnadoodle type thing. The "pen" is attached and he can erase and scribble over and over again. Then you can draw pictures for him (whatever he asks for, doggy, elephant etc.) You could also bring some small books. And I would pick up a box of the triangle shaped crayons and coloring books (coloring on a plane is difficult because normal crayons roll away, but these don't).

Have a fun trip!

We did a lot of traveling with my little one when he was that age. A couple things that I really liked were blankets (believe it or not, a GREAT toy) and the airsick bags on the planes.

Blankets: use for matador practice in the airport; great for peek-a-boo; can also "wrap" other toys/snacks/body parts for a fun surprise.
Airsick bags: use a marker to make a puppet for the airplane; kid can practice putting things in/taking things out of it (great fun for that age).

The balloons are a great idea. We would also spend a lot of time running around the airport and looking out the windows at the airplanes. Anything active while not on the plane worked really well for us. We would let him crawl all over the "miles" of chairs in the airport... provided no one else was using them, of course!

at that age, i had a back pack for my daughter, and would put coloring books of all sorts with crayons, and blank white and colored paper for her to draw on and color, and what ever else would fit kept her busy for hours when an all day trip to texas was in the plans.

My number 1 suggestion is to take a cheapo pack of balloons with you in your carry on. Use these in the airport and between flights. Blow them up, let your kiddo run around with it and be happy and then pass it on or throw it out! It let's them be active in the airport but have focus and it works like a charm! For on the plane, I would take books and plenty of snacks. Fisher Price makes these battery powered books with super thick plastic pages that read and sing and my kids love those too. THey are great to keep him busy and they aren't super loud. Besides, my theory on an airplane is noisy toys are better than noisy babies! Also go to the Dollar Store maybe and find some cheapo toys that are new that might be interesting. I bought one of those barrell of monkeys that my kids love! My 13 month old loves to shake it and dump out the monkeys and put them back in...entertaining. Oh and he also totally loves those Disney phones that look like cell phones, my daughter has a few of the princess ones and he LOVES them...they kept him quite entertained on a car trip! At 1 your son just isn't going to be into the normal magna doodle/crayon stuff I might suggest, so you'll have to get creative! He might sleep too, white noise works like a charm!

A bag with a lot of different openings and compartments which you can fill with surprise treats and activities. A variety of snacks, some he can open the container for and eat by himself.Soemthing my daughter loved discovering in her bag was a strand of mardi gras beads and a silver chain necklace (I don't know why, but she went nuts for these on our recent plane ride). Another odd distraction for her was a cup of ice on the plane which she stirred and felt incessantly! Feel free to let him stand up on you on the plane, look at other people, explore the air vent , the light, the window shade. All of that wiggling is waaay better than crying :) I second the advice of lots of movement between flights, quiet toys, etc. Oh, and be sure you have plenty of diapers and a couple extra changes of clothes. Good luck and here's hoping you have plenty of sympathetic (and maybe even entertaining) fellow passengers!

:)

Stickers (and paper to put them on), a tiny container of play dough (put in your liquids bag at security!), books, and any small new toys you can find. Don't forget lots of snacks too. The play dough worked the best for us. Even if your child doesn't want to make something out of it, you can create many "toys" for your child...cars, planes, dogs, "balls", letters, etc.

I would bring quiet toys - LOL!
What I really wanted to share, though it may be too late, is from a friend whose husband is a pilot. She told me to always ask for the "bulkhead" seat. It is the first one. that way you have a little extra room and your DS won't be kicking a row of seats in front of you.
If you can do online check in (AA) you can select your seat assignement then, too.

I would recommend not bringing toys that make noise or are 'big' on the plane. You don't want your child's toys to annoy other travelers or infringe on their very limited space. In the airport toys that make noise will be OK since it is a noisy place. Do you have a portable DVD player? Ideally you wouldn't want your child watching too much TV, but in this case, anything to keep him occupied will be a life saver for YOU!

While you are in the airport, let him run and jump so that he can get his engery out. Take him for walks down the concourse.

Happy holidays!!!

love the triangle crayons and the magnadoodle ideas. I hadn't noticed anyone else say this so: try to just get out one or two things at a time. We did that on a car trip last year and it worked really well when I just handed her one thing at a time and then when she started to get a little restless, something new. She surprised me by drawing for over an hour - something she never did much of at home before that. I also saved the new stuff until the end and she played so well with her current toys we didn't get to the new stuff until almost the end of the trip. I've also got some songs she loves to listen to saved on my phone that she'll listen to over and over.

My son is 15 months old and loves toy cars, books, remote controls and toy phones to play with in the car so I'm sure that would be the same for a plan ride. The trick is to buy a few new toys to keep him interested longer. Good luck and have a safe trip.