9 Tips to Make Flying With Young Kids More Bearable

Do you have the perfect family vacation planned, but now you’re worried about how the flight will go with your little ones? Flying with young kids can be a daunting task. However, it doesn’t have to be!

As a mother of two young children, I understand the struggle. I have been flying with both of my kids since they were small babies. Some flights have been great. Others, not so much.

Over the years, I have picked up on ways to make flying with young kids more bearable. In this article, I’m going to share these tips and tricks with you! By following these tips, you can set yourself up to have a good flight with your kiddos.

1. Be Patient When Flying With Kids

When it comes to flying with young children, it’s important to keep in mind that they really aren’t much different than us adults. To them, a flight may be new, scary, boring, and uncomfortable.

As adults, I think many of us can relate to these feelings. The difference is, we're able to handle and process them better (sometimes). It’s our job to help our children regulate and work through these feelings. By doing so, the flight can easily become more enjoyable for them and us.

If you're flying with young children and they're being a bit difficult, try your best to not lose your patience. I can guarantee that it won’t make them act any better if they are already dealing with big emotions from the flight. Getting yelled at on top of that won't help.

2. Prepare Them For the Take Off and Landing

The take off and landing can quite easily be the hardest part of the flight for young children. The change in pressure can greatly affect their little bodies. Especially their ears.

If you’ve ever flown, I’m sure you’ve felt it too. For me, during take off, my body feels very weird. Everything feels heavy when the plane starts to accelerate and my body feels pulled against the seat. As the plane gains altitude, my ears start to pop. During the landing, things aren’t much better. The ear popping takes place again and I get a slight headache from the dizzy feeling that I experience.

With the take off and landing affecting adults in such a way, imagine how it must feel for little ones. The pressure is so great for them their ears not only pop, but physically hurt. The take off specifically can make or break a flight. If your child has a bad experience during take off, they’ll most likely be upset for a good portion of the flight.

While there’s not much that you can do to change how the take off and landing feels, there are a couple things that you can do to help your young kids through it.

First, you can let them know what’s going to happen. By having a conversation with them and warning them about what they’re about to feel, you give them an opportunity to prepare themselves. This can greatly help young kids deal with the take off and landing of a flight. It is a much better tactic than letting them be caught off guard and expecting them to handle it well.

You can also help alleviate the pressure that they’re feeling in their ears by giving them something chewy. Gum is commonly used for this, but understandably may not be your first choice for your young child. Instead, you could give them fruit snacks to chew on or another form of chewy candy that you feel comfortable giving them.

3. Make Sure They're Comfortable

Let’s face it. Airplanes aren’t comfortable. A large number of people are squeezed together in a tight space for a decent amount of time on seats that are less than cozy. When you're flying with young children, you can help them feel as comfortable as possible!

If your child is still using a car seat in the car, consider bringing that car seat with you for the flight. There’s a huge difference between their well-padded car seat that has a multi-point harness and the adult seat that they’ll be given on the plane with a single lap belt. By using their regular car seat, they’ll not only feel more secure, but also have something that feels normal and comforting to them.

Other items that you can bring on the flight to help your child be more comfortable are cozy items. Make sure to bring their favorites! Do they have a favorite plushie? Bring it. Favorite blanket? Bring that too. Top it all off by bringing a pillow that they love!

If your little one likes to do things that “big people” do, consider getting them a headrest for the flight. Many companies make child size travel headrests. This will boost their mood and give them additional comfort, which are both great things for a flight!

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4. Prepare a Backpack For Them

Avoid packing one bag for the flight that has everything in it for all of your kids. I’ve learned to pack each of my kids their own backpack for flights. All kids are different and therefore have different needs and interests. By packing each child a bag, you can make sure that they have everything that they need and want in arms reach. This will make their flight better and also alleviate some of your stress!

In the backpack, you’ll want to pack their “plane necessities”. I’ll be going into further detail in just a moment, but plane necessities should include things such as snacks, activities, and entertainment.

Another helpful thing to put in their backpack is wet wipes. These can be used to clean up the children as well as any messes that they may make.

Clothes are another thing that you’ll want to consider packing. Perhaps your little one would enjoy having a sweatshirt or hoodie available in case they get cold. You may also want to consider packing a full outfit as a backup for “just in case” moments. Their clothes can easily be ruined by a spilled juice or an accident.

On that note, keep in mind that the flight may stress your young child out mentally and physically and they might react in ways that they normally don’t. My friend recently flew with her 6 year old son who is potty trained and hadn’t had an accident in well over a year prior to her flight. However, he ended up having an accident on the flight and she wasn’t prepared.

It helps to be prepared for anything when traveling with young kids!

5. Pack Snacks For the Flight

Keep those bellies full! Even if you have a short flight, make sure that you have snacks packed for your kiddos. For some reason, even though it may only be a couple hours, kids seem to think they’re STARVING during flights.

I don’t know about your kids, but mine either get grumpy or weepy when they need to be fed. To avoid hanger and sadness by having some of your child’s favorite snacks ready for them in their bag.

If you forget to pack snacks, don’t worry. Airports generally have small shops that include a variety of snacks and drinks that are available for purchase. Your airline may even provide snacks on the flight. However, if you have a picky eater, I wouldn’t solely rely on the snacks that are provided.

6. Keep Them Occupied with Activities and Toys

Something that you won’t want to forget for the flight are activities. Your children will be so much happier on a flight if they aren’t bored. Make sure that you pack a variety! Some items that have been useful with my own children are coloring/activity books, drawing pads, pop its, fidget toys, play dough with plastic cookie cutters, and entertainment devices (more on that soon).

When deciding what activities you want to pack, consider how those things will do on a plane. Avoid packing items that have small pieces. If your child drops them and they roll under the seats around them, that can easily start a tantrum.

For coloring activities, consider packing things with invisible ink! I did this on my last flight with young children and it was a life saver. This is a great way to make sure that your child stays clean as well as their surrounding area.

Another thing that I did was take an electronic drawing pad as opposed to a pad of paper. This, again, kept my kids and their area clean. Plus, you don’t have to worry about any frustrations when the pages get filled up, the paper rips during erasing, and so forth. They can simply draw what they want, push a button to erase it, and start again. You  can also play games with on their drawing pad such as tic-tac-toe or hangman!

7. Entertainment Devices For Children

If your young child is able to utilize entertainment devices without too much assistance, this is another item that can be brought along to keep boredom at bay. I say without too much assistance because if they do need a decent amount of help, this can become frustrating for both them and you. If they’re constantly having to hand it to you for help, they’ll soon be over the thought of using it and that’ll be one less thing that you have available to keep them occupied.

Some devices that you can consider bringing are tablets, gaming devices, portable DVD players, and music devices. Keep in mind that these devices will need to go into airplane mode for the flight. You’ll have to prep whichever device you plan on bringing so it’s able to be used without internet connection. Unless, of course, you plan on purchasing WiFi access on your flight. If you do plan to purchase WiFi access, make sure that it’s available for your flight. While it’s available on most, there are some that do not offer it.

To prepare tablets for the lack of internet connection, you’ll want to make sure that you download any movies or shows that your child may want to watch. For gaming devices, you’ll need to make sure that the games are downloaded to the device or that you have a physical chip or card for the game. Songs will also need to be downloaded onto music devices.

For entertainment devices, another thing you’ll want to pack are headphones. This will allow your child to hear the movie, game, songs, or show without disturbing those around them.

8. Consider Which Seat is Best For Your Child

For one of my flights, I specifically sat my son in the window seat because I thought he would enjoy looking out the window. I quickly learned that was a bad idea since he likes to touch things. This resulted in him wanting to continuously put the window shade up and down the entire flight.

When planning your flight, if you have the option to pick where your child sits, think about which seat they’d do better in.

9. Go With the Flow

No matter how much you plan and prepare for, kids are unpredictable. There’s no way to know how your flight will be until it’s happening. The most important thing is to remain level headed.

Remember, kids who are being difficult on flights are most likely only doing so because they are struggling. Help them out with this abnormal situation and deal with things gracefully as they come along.

Above all else, try to have a fun flight with your little ones so you have a great start to your vacation!