Advice on cross country flight with 1 year old

[Anonymous]

Help!

I have to fly next week with my one year old from here to SFO and he's SUPER active (already walking). Any advice on how to endure the flight? One is overnight, on the way home, but the one there is an 8 hour flight starting at 6:00am. Kill me now?

[Anonymous]

Hopefully it won't be as bad as you're thinking.

Just make sure you have enough snacks and activities to help keep him entertained. If you need to get up and walk him up/down the aisle in the plane, go ahead and do it. He might be very fascinated by watching out the window of the plane, too. The vibration and noise from the engines might help him sleep during the flight. Make sure you have something for him to suck on during takeoff and landing.

For the overnight flight back, I would suggest keeping him on his regular nap schedule during the day and putting him in pj's before getting to the airport. I did a red-eye from CA with 3 kids under the age of 4 and all were either sleeping before we got on the plane or fell asleep almost right after take-off. The kids who were overtired (i.e., parents kept them awake thinking they would fall asleep on the plane) were the ones screaming and crying in the airport.

Hope it goes well!