Air travel with toddler--advice on take off and landing

[Anonymous]

We are traveling by plane with our one year old and wonder what we can do to help alleviate pressure in his ears at take off and landing. When he was a younger baby we gave him a bottle and he did fine. Now that he's off the bottle, do we give him a sippy cup as we did the bottle?

Also, any advice on getting DS to sleep once aboard the plane (we are traveling at night)? It seemed so much easier when he was in the infant seat and I could "create" darkness and quiet space for him by covering the car seat with a blanket! He can sleep in a bright room, but I'm worried that once we're on the plane, he'll be too stimulated by lights, people, loudspeaker to sleep.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

A sippy cup or a snack works just fine for takeoff/landing.

I still haven't figured out the sleep one! I have better luck getting her to fall asleep in the stroller at the airport...

[Anonymous]

We give dc a dose of Children's/Infant Mylicon about 20 minutes before take-off and before descent. Seems to help with overall comfort.

[Anonymous]

Okay, I am expecting my first, so I have no first hand knowledge, but I did see this work once: a family had a flight attendant fill up a styrofoam coffee cup with hot water, then pour it out. Then they placed the warmed cups over baby's ears. I have no idea how it was supposed to work, but it seemed to work great.