We are flying in a week with our 2-year old dd; I'm looking for any tips/suggestions to make this as smooth a flight(s) as possible. We've already done a few things to try and help, but I'd like to hear from parents who've flown with a 2-year old.

TIA!

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mommy to 1 (dd - Jadyn) and preggy with # 2

Get a portable dvd player with 2 new shows/movies, that he will like, one for each way. You can wrap them up like presents, my son loves that. You can also buy some new books or small, quiet toys and wrap them up too. 2 year olds tend to do well on planes because they are so excited by the whole process.
Also, if your traveling with another adult, it should be easy, one of you has baby duty, the other holds all the stuff.
My son has done well on our yearly plane trips home, except when he was 7 months old, that was the worst one ever.

I just flew with my 4 year old and my then 8 month old a couple of months back. The portable DVD player was nice. Having little treats to eat, nice, though our airline kept bringing us food everytime I turned around. An empty sippy cup was a good idea as my daughter dumped the open cup that they gave us. I had a couple of surprise gifts (books) to give her on the plane.

Our trip was very good, coming and going. Going down it was just me with both kids and coming back it was me and my husband and that was a LOT easier. And maybe giving your child a backpack with some of their stuff in it. That let's them help you carry some of your items.

Enjoy your trip.

Pack light.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

Bring a lightweight stroller to the airport and gate check it.

Have plenty of snacks, games, etc. on hand to entertain him. I agree - those DVD players are awesome if your child has the attention span to watch the movies.

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Thanks! We have a few new movies (and some old favs) and some new books/toys we're going to surprise her with - I am wondering about headphones. Does anybody recommend any specific headphones good for toddlers? We're taking our laptop to play DVDs for her; I'm also wondering if there is a good way to tote around the car seat, but I'm sure we'll just have to suck it up and carry it or carry her and put it in the stroller.

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mommy to 1 (dd - Jadyn) and preggy with # 2

You can check your car seat in the luggage section. They don't have to be in it on the plane, at least my 18mt old dd didn't and neither did the other toddlers on the plane.

I don't know what airline you are flying, but we flew Frontier and they had DirecTV service offered online. There were tv screens in the back of all the headrests on the seats. You had to pay $5 to watch it, but they provided headphones and the cartoon channel really kept dd entertained.

Good Luck. I think they will be better than you expect.

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Mommy to Hope (10.10.06)
Monkey mommy to Allyson (10.13.02)

Ds and I just flew to NC last month (2hr flight from WI), and things went much more smoothly than I expected. All the tips the ladies had are correct, plenty of games, anything new, dvd player. The thing I found worked the best for us though were M&Ms. Don't condemn me ladies! Ds never gets candy when we are at home, so it was a real treat for him to get 2 M&Ms for being a good boy. As someone replied to me when I posted about flying, give up nutrition for the day, and do whatever it takes!