10 Air Travel Tips with a Toddler

Bear flies a lot with me, and since she’s such a frequent flyer I thought I’d do a post on some tips to help your travel with a one year old! If you have any toddler air travel tips, I’d love to hear them!

*The Diaper Bag by Carri Eight featured in this review was sent to me for free to review. All opinions as always are 100% honest and my own!*

10 Air Travel Tips with a Toddler

1. Give yourself TONS of time (duh, but I sometimes end up cutting it close, and then remember I have a one year old and EVERYTHING takes longer!!
2. If you’re traveling with a car seat, check it for free! Car seats get checked for free. I bought a car seat cover on Amazon, and it was worth the $40+ I spent on it. It won’t get dirty, bang around, etc. And you know they’re banging the crap out of everything that goes under that plane!
3. Find a stroller you LOVE. My favorite is this Pocket Stroller. YES it is expensive; I bought it with my registry rewards points…but it’s AMAZING, and literally folds down to nothing, and I can take it right onto the plane and put it right up in the overhead bin. They check the stroller gate-side for you, but then it still could get tossed around (plus then you have to wait for them to grab it, which is annoying if you have a connection).
4. Bring snacks. Again, this probably is a duh, but really. Airport food is expensive. I packed my Zoli container full of animal crackers and cheerios, and it lasted 4 flights. I love this thing! (It’s that white container in my Carri Eight bag above, and what she’s pulling out of the bag below!) So anyway, bring food. DON’T bring items that will break or get crushed easily, unless they’re in a tupperware box! (I’m looking at your granola bars)
5. Bring a backpack and a top-opening bag. I know this sounds excessive, but I’ll explain why! The backpack is for the carry-on items you don’t “really” need every second. You can put extra toys in there, clothes, etc. Note that this really only works if you’re checking a bag, because you can only have 2 carryon items. So for my last trip, I checked a bag, and had a backpack and this Carri Eight bag which is actually a shoulder bag, not strictly a diaper bag. I packed my computer, an extra pair of clothes, her special bear, some toys, notepad, and some other odds and ends into the backpack. That went up into the overhead space, because it didn’t have items I needed while sitting on the plane. This bag went under the seat, and its open design allowed me to easily access everything I needed while on the flight. I can’t stress enough, you want to be able to easily access your stuff. See how easy it is to see and grab everything while it’s under the seat? It was a total winner. This was my first test run with this bag, as I received it free to review, and it was great as an open-air bag (it does have a magnetic closure). Normally I’m drawn to zippers, but when traveling and needing everything easy and fast, this was great.
6. Bring the tablet and download shows from Amazon. Did you know that you can download shows on the Amazon app if you’re a Prime member?! Netflix is doing this on their app now too, and it’s amazing! I use it all the time when I know I’ll be on a smaller flight that doesn’t have the DVD players. Note: if you fly Delta, the Delta app also offers free entertainment! Anyway, my favorite is Daniel Tiger. I freaking love that little guy, and it’s the only show I don’t get sick of (yet). Bear isn’t super interested in shows yet, but it keeps her entertained, if only for a second!
7. Bring an empty sippy cup. A lot of airports have water bottle fill-up stations, or any airport restaurant will give you water to fill it up. You never know when they’ll need an extra drink!!
8. Bring a blanket or sweatshirt–for you and baby!! Planes can get cold sometimes, so I always make sure I have something extra in case it’s cold.
9. Board first. Each airline does it differently; we almost exclusively fly Delta, and they board families with young kids and strollers right after the people that need extra time getting on. GO to the front of the line; butt your way up there and GET ON FIRST. Trust me, you’ll be sooooo glad you did. It’s worth it.
10. Try to have them drink on the way up and down. If they take a paci, that’s good too. The sucking motion will help with their ears!!

I hope you enjoyed these toddler air travel tips! Comment below if you have any of your own! If you’d like to see more pics of my Carri Eight bag, here’s a few more! I used this bag for work one day as well, and it fit my computer and work items perfectly!

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Meredith