travelling long haul with two kids under 3 - madness?

Cunning Stunt

Hi all,

has anyone advice/experience with travelling long haul flights to the likes of the US etc. with young kids - in our case a two year old and a three month old...?
- is it insane to consider such a thing, or is it do-able?


Thanks!

Manitoban

Cunning Stunt wrote: »

Hi all,

has anyone advice/experience with travelling long haul flights to the likes of the US etc. with young kids - in our case a two year old and a three month old...?
- is it insane to consider such a thing, or is it do-able?


Thanks!

Travelled with a 10 week old and a 2.5yr old from Dublin to Toronto, honestly they were easier at that age than now at 6 and 3!

Ms2011

Took a 2 Year old to the states. I got lots of cheap toys from the Euro shops, made up a goodie bag of snacks, toys & colours for him to root through & occupy him. He slept for a couple of hours too so that helped. It's certainly doable

zeffabelli

I travelled with one but I did it alone.... experience is different at different stages.

The three month old will be easier. The two year old will walk up and down the aisle for hours on end and might dash at security check....they can can be pretty tricky.....Plus time zone differences harder on the two year old.

godtabh

Flew with a 6 month old and 3 year old to San Francisco. Way over was fine. The 6 month old had a cot.

The way back was a pain. No cot. 3 year old didn't settle at all. A very long 13 hours!

MrCreosote

We just did NZ-Dublin and back with 4- 7, 5, 2.5 and 4mths. Not as bad as expected, the older 2 and the baby were fine. Hardest thing is getting to the first flight

Don't expect any sleep/rest and plan nothing big for a few days after.

LegacyUser

It's manageable with two adults.
If you're on your own, it's a big ask!!
I know from friends who have done it, you can survive the flight in one piece, but it does take the guts of a fortnight for sleep patterns to sort themselves again for the kids, both when over there and on return.

Ryan Mac Sweeney

Hi there
I read your post about travelling long haul with two kids under3. Yes it can he stressful but heres some advice
When travelling with 3 month old remember that their earswill pop with air pressure causing it distress. Seeing as this annoys other passengers so my advice would be to always give it calpol before you board and then it will sleep for the flight. For the 2 year old bring some colouring books toys etc for it to play with on flight. Also a portable DVD player with is worth bringing with you. Also give him some Calpol before you board and then hopefully he will also sleep for the flight. Take these tips from me and then let me know how you got on thanks.

the_syco

Cunning Stunt wrote: »

a three month old...?

Get an airline that you can reserve a bassinet on board.

Neyite

It's doable. I know someone who did it on her own with a newborn and toddler from Australia a few times. The airline hostesses doted on her babies and practically kidnapped them to play with for a couple of hours of their downtime on the long flight telling my friend to get some sleep which was an unexpected but very welcome help.

An airline bassinet for the newborn is very useful, plenty of activities for the toddler, plenty of drinks to help pop their ears, snacks, dvd player and new toys will help and try to coincide flights with sleep times if you can. Their sleep patterns will adjust after a week usually.

Cunning Stunt

Thanks all for the responses - some great info there.

ken76

Travelled to Brazil with 2 young kids , one was just under 2 , you should ask for bulkhead seats and a sky cot.The movement of the plane makes kids sleep, the hard part is not the flight its the airports and waiting around.