10 hour flight -- shouid I go now with DC at age 3 or wait 6 months?

[Anonymous]

I'm a first time mom, and we travel once or twice a year by plane, so I feel comfortable with it. But this 10 hour flight is really daunting to me. The thought of trying to keep a super physically active boy occupied in a tiny plane for 10 hours is a little scary. I could delay this trip until Christmas. Would he change significantly in 6 months so that it might be a little easier? For example, he's just starting to enjoy coloring. I thought that might be much better developed in six months and something that might hold his interest for good periods of time.

If not, any tips for a 3 to 3.5 year old on a 10 hour flight? We'll have a portable DVD player but I don't know how long the batteries hold out for that or whether he'd even watch it for long periods of time.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP who responded to you on the other thread. I've travelled quite a few times to Europe with our kids - the oldest is now 4.5. I don't think you'll find much difference between 3 and 3.5. To be honest, the bigger difference is probably whether you get a day or night flight (we prefer day), how good the airline staff are, how well your child is feeling, etc. Here are a couple of tips:

1. Yes, use the portable DVD player (my 2.5 year old spent about 5 hours on a flight watching it once!). I'm looking into getting a backup battery pack for ours. Get him to 'practice' being on the plane and watching it at home. Do you have headphones (we have the panda ones). Someone suggested on DCUM an insulated lunch box which we got (Lands End) - it's great for the DVD player plus some snacks and the DVDs. Our kids loved having their little bag of things.

2. Snacks & sweets. Those pez dispensers (and lots of refills) have bought us several hours.

3. Talk to him before travelling about going to sleep on the plane and getting comfortable. With our most recent trip, the youngest (2.5) was too excited to go to sleep so I'm going to talk about how that's what you are meant to do for the next trip.

4. Have a bag of little activities and pull out a new one when needed. Sticker books have worked well for us.

Good luck.