No Screens Possible for Short Flight with 13 month old?

L

lostinthepast

New member
Looking for any and all tips for flying with our will-be 13 month old. I’ve already done some searches and looked at older posts- but I’m hoping for fresh perspective on our unique situation.

First flight is 1.5 hours, layover 1 hour, second flight 1 hour. So, not super long… (a lot of what I’m reading is for 12+ hr international flights)

We’ve done no screens so far, and I would like to stick with it, but I’m also not against it if need be. I certainly wouldn’t mind the encouragement from anyone who has done a flight with no screens.

Found some good fidget toys online, will definitely have to tether everything as my boy is a thrower. I’d rather save the money and do DIY and second-hand toys and introduce them for the first time on the flight. We will have him in his infant car seat, probably rear facing, in his own seat.

My main question is the screen time thing, but any tips are greatly appreciated!
 
@lpadr009 Came here to say painter's tape and sticky notes. Also walks up and down the aisle.

But really my 18 month was more interested in the pamphlets in the back of the seat and putting the tray and window shade up and down repeatedly than the toys I brought lol. An hour ish flight will be nothing! It'll be over before you know it.

Also my son slept through a surprising amount of it. Our flight was about 6 hours total, one way.
 
@lostinthepast For an 1.5 flight, definitely can do it (but I’d load something on your phone JUST in case. Snack boxes, Vinyl reuseable stickers, suction cup toys for the windows, plenty of things you can do.
 
@lostinthepast I guess it's a different age but we flew with our 10 month old - two approx. 2 hour flights with 1h30 layover, and then back again. We downloaded stuff on the iPad in case we had to resort to screens for the first time but ended up not even taking it out. We tried to keep him up and time naps so he would sleep on the plane (although he didn't sleep much... but was tired enough to mostly just cuddle with me, and did a bit of goofing - peek a boo - with other passengers and played with some toys). We tried to pick "quiet" toys and had some spinner and Dimpl-style things and soft books. It's time consuming but simple enough to DIY a busy book?

Maybe we just lucked out but I guess my advice is we didn't need nearly as much stuff as I thought we would!
 
@lostinthepast We have screen time in our home and use the tablets for travel. But outside of regularly scheduled screen time and travel, I will sometimes let my kids look at photos and videos I have in my camera roll on my phone, as in videos and pictures of ourselves. It’s a way more interactive experience because we can talk about the people in the photos and about the experiences we had in the past. This would be my recommendation if all else fails and you need to keep the toddler happy mid flight!

Also, snacks, snacks, snacks!
 
@lostinthepast We’ve done multiple flights starting from around that age and are firmly a no screen family. We don’t use snacks for activities/boredom AND don’t use screens so I was getting a little nervous since those two seemed to be the main recs when I searched online, so happy to offer encouragement!

My perspective is that if you want to use them, sure, but no, certainly don’t have to! For us personally, screens aren’t even a fallback option, so we spent time figuring out lots of other options. I packed kiddo a little backpack with books, coloring options, a spinner toy, and lots more, plus a favorite stuffed animal. I wrapped things up so that she could spend time unwrapping.

However, I started off just by engaging her with things around us—looking out the window, waving to people who made eye contact with her, reading the various seatback magazines, narrating what flight crew was doing, and it was tiring for me, but also cool how well that worked, since everything is new for a toddler! Realizing that anything can potentially be engaging at this age really helps me when we’re out and about, not just for flights. Honestly, even on the 10+ hour flights, we only ended up using one actual toy and a couple books, but I still bring the backpack of wrapped things just in case!

Safe travels :)
 
@lostinthepast Screens didn't seem to hold attention anyway, if you're avoiding it I wouldn't bother. I sang lots of songs with hand motions and brought books to read. New toys are nice, and you could use the trick of wrapping them first so it's two activities in one. Snack time is also an activity. And for a short flight the environment might be stimulating, just exploring the novelty and looking out the window will eat some time.
 
@lostinthepast Screens at that age didn't really help us much. My daughter spent like 30 minutes screwing and unscrewing a lid to a fruit pouch on one flight though. Just bring lots of novel objects to play with.
 
@lostinthepast painters tape! just flew with my 14 mo, we stuck tape on everything and she had fun peeling it off and resticking. it was the only thing that would hold her attention
 
@lostinthepast We did this when ours was around that age. We bought a couple small toys and books that were just for the flight. We did have to rock her, take her out of her seat, etc.

Remember our parents did flights like this before screens were ever an option. You just have to be willing to be uncomfortable at times.
 
@lostinthepast We took a couple sensory board books, a magnetic draw board, and some other sort if fidgety toy. There's no reason for screens. Babies and people existed just fine before we had them at our finger tips. Mine also slept for most of the flight on 3 out of 4 flights. The white noise of flying really knocked him out, bonus points if you're nursing because then it's a double whammy.
 
@lostinthepast Oh you will be shocked at how short those flights feel. You won’t need screens at all. The surrounds of a flight may just be interesting enough. We just flew loooong flights to and from LA and Scandinavia with our 13 month old and we didn’t do screens at all. Well actually we tried at one point to give ourselves a break and he wasn’t interested, haha! He was very into the safety info cards in the seat back pocket, opening and closing the window shade, looking around, having snacks, walking up and down the aisle with us, etc. He was barely interested in the toys we brought because the environment of the plane is interesting enough. You got this!! It will be very hands on but isn’t every part of parenting at this age,
 
@lostinthepast We just flew with my 15 month old! Tried to time naps so he would sleep. He slept most of the flight but otherwise we did loads of snacks and some of his favorite toys/books! He’s super into the touch and feel books so we brought those and some little animals to play with on the tray table. Fidget spinners on the window and he even played with the cups and safety manual. Totally doable to do without screens! We also let him run around before we got on the plane to get some energy out of
 
@lostinthepast Definitely! I solo parented a 4 hour flight at 13 months and it went really well. Lots of snacks and toys. But also it’s luck of the draw - baby just cooperated that day for whatever reason. The lady next to me introduced herself as a grandmother of 5 which helped too.
 
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