15 HACKS YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR FLYING WITH A BABY OR TODDLER!!!

Hi guys, Marian here. Welcome back to my channel. In today's video, I'm going to be sharing my top 15 travel hacks if you are going to be flying with a toddler or a baby. So if you're looking for helpful information for an upcoming trip, then you have clicked the right video. I hope you like it. If you do, don't forget to give it a big thumbs up to let me know. And I would love for you to be one of my subscribers to my channel. I share tons of helpful videos about being a mom and being a So let's jump in. We have already done some traveling this summer and we love flying with our kids because my family lives all across the country. So we love going to visit them. And over the years, I have picked up some awesome travel hacks to share with you guys. And if I can just say before we jump in, one of my greatest mom achievements was when I took my two and a half year old and newborn. I flew from DC to LA by myself. Not sure I can ever top that. Okay, let's jump in. I've got 15 travel hacks for you right here. Let's go. My number one hack is the car seat. So if you're flying on a plane with a child who needs to be in a car seat, they're going to need to have one when they get there. And renting one is almost always a really bad idea because car rental companies don't take good care of their car seats and you don't know where they've been. So it's really great to bring your own. If you have a super heavy, super deluxe car seat, you might want to think about purchasing a travel one. We use the Costco's Scenera Next, which is a $40 one. It works for kids about two and a half years and younger. And it's really lightweight, about 10 pounds. I'll link it for you guys down below. And we actually just bought a booster seat for my five-year-old to travel with. That one is by Evenflo and it's about 12 or 13 pounds. So very, very light. And we have car seat travel bags. It's really important that you put your car seat in a travel bag, especially if you're going to check it. Because again, the airlines aren't going to be that careful with it. And the ones that we have are backpacks, which makes them really easy to carry because of course they're still bulky. But my hack for you guys is to bring the car seat onto the plane. Make sure that you have an FAA approved car seat. The ones I link below are FAA approved and most newborn, like infant car seats are as well. And put your child into their car seat. I know this sounds crazy if you've never flown with a child before in a car seat, but it's actually super helpful because they're very comfortable in their car seats. They are used to being in them all the time. Way more used to their car seat than they are an airplane seat. And it's made just for them, just for their size. And it's also a lot safer. So I'll link some articles down below. But it's really nice. You just install their car seat similar to how you would in the car, pop them in and you're good to go. My next hack is to carry a fanny pack. Maybe it's a little bit dorky, but it is so, so helpful. I keep my phone, my wallet, a little bit of wipes, like little baby wipes and some hand sanitizer. Those are my absolute must haves. And sometimes I have some extra things as well, but I want everything that I might need in a pinch really quickly, right there on my person. The problem is if you have your stuff in your big diaper bag or other places, it can be hard to access when, especially when you're juggling a million things, holding the baby, pushing the stroller. So I love having the fanny pack. And then it's really nice when you go through security, you just put it right back on. You're like, okay, I have everything I absolutely need right here. Something else I like to keep in that fanny pack is a diaper. Even though of course I have diapers and wipes in my diaper bag. Sometimes you just need one in a pinch right then and there. So I love to have one as well in my fanny pack. The next hack I have for you is to gate check your stroller. So I wanted to give a little bit of information about this because I know for any first time moms flying, this is always a big question of like how exactly this happens. So you have two options. When you get to the gate, the first thing you should do is get a gate check tag. It's usually bright pink. Just go up to them and say, I'm gate checking a stroller. And they'll give you a little tag, pop that on your stroller. So your two options are, one, you can keep your kid in the stroller all the way down to when you're literally at the door of the airplane. Take your kid out, fold up the stroller, leave it right there, and you're good to go. The other option, if you have a stroller that you care about and you don't want it to get damaged or scuffed or anything like that, is to buy a travel bag for that stroller. Many of the strollers companies sell travel bags specifically for that stroller. And if you're worried about damage and your stroller is like registered through the company, you want to make sure to use the company's travel bag or else they won't protect it in the same way, the company, if something happens. Anyway, so your other option is to take the travel bag and when you're at the gate to take the time, fold up the stroller, put it in its bag, and then walk it down when you're boarding the plane to that same front door of the airplane and leave it there in its bag. So those are the two options. The last option I'll just mention, there's also a little asterisk bonus option, if you have one of those travel strollers that goes on the airplane, like the Baby Zen Yo-Yo, this Inglisino one, an Ergobaby one, there's a few now that fold up and fit in the overhead compartment. You can keep your kid in the stroller right till you get to your seat. Okay, my next hack is about packing and that is to use packing cubes. Oh my goodness, these are so helpful if you're packing for multiple kids or multiple members of your family. It's so nice because each person gets one or two cubes and then when you arrive, you just put that straight in their room and the best other part is when you get home, you can also put it straight back if you've washed the clothes. So I find it super helpful and super easy to keep organized that way. I have a set, I actually have four sets from Amazon of the same kind, just in different colors and we absolutely love ours. Speaking of packing, let's talk about packing for on the plane. I have a few hacks for what you should bring with you that are super, super helpful. Number one, if you have a dog, bring some poop bags because if you have dirty diaper around and when you're on the plane, you don't always have access to, you know, put it in a trash can right away. It can be really helpful to have a poop bag and not just for dirty diapers, but for trash in general. It's great to sometimes have your own little trash bag for things to collect when you're on the airplane so that it's not too crazy and too messy. Another thing I love to pack with me in my carry-on is an extra bag. I use a Lululemon bag, but any sort of reusable collapsible bag works great because I always acquire things at the airport, usually food, sometimes my stuffed animal that my son is holding for example. There's just always more stuff than I've packed into our little carry-on bags and airlines can be strict about what bags you take on the plane, but what's really nice is if you have an extra reusable bag with you, once you get on the plane, if they are being very strict, if not you could do it before, you can throw in your extra sweaters, your stuffed animals, your food items, whatever it is that you've collected and that way you have it all in one bag that's easy to hold. One other hack I love is to carry hooks with you that hook onto your stroller because oh my goodness it is so helpful to just hook your bags on there and have one less thing to carry. Another thing I always pack is sweaters even in the summer because airplanes can be really cold and kids can be really temperature sensitive and they might get grumpy up in the air so I love to always have a sweater of some kind with me for my little ones when I'm traveling. My next hack is to bring snacks. There are all sorts of fun like Pinterest-y style ways you can do this. Some people use a like little bead container or medicine container you know that has separate little compartments and put different snacks in them. My kids are not as into that kind of thing but I definitely always bring my own snacks on the plane. You never know how long you can be sitting on the tarmac for. You might get stuck at the gate for a while so definitely bring more food on the plane than you would expect to eat and snacks are also a really great way to help pass the time when kids are bored. I always pack their favorite you know special snacks for the airplane and I always include some like gummy bears or special treats like that in a pinch if I really need them to like behave, put on their mask, whatever it is. It's great to have a special treat option for them available. The next hack I have is for takeoff and landing. So as you know cabin pressure changes and it can hurt your ears and kids are especially sensitive to that and no parents are always worried about their kids or babies crying. So if you have a toddler my hack is to pack a lollipop. A lollipop is really good for takeoff and landing because they're sucking on it and that movement in their mouth and swallowing is what helps relieve the pressure in their ear. If you have a baby and you're going to be nursing or bottle feeding my hack is to not give them, not start nursing and not give them the bottle until the plane is literally taking off because you can get again stuck on that tarmac for a long time and what you don't want to do is give the baby your only bottle or you know use up all your milk while you're sitting waiting in line to take off. You want to have it so that they actually have it while they take off. Okay next up a little hack for toddlers is I always pack activities for them of course and I wanted to share some of my favorites. One is the Melissa and Doug water wow. The reason I love this is because the pen is refillable with just water so they can use it over and over again as well as the coloring sheets. They just erase when they dry and you can reuse them and another thing I love is triangular shaped crayons because they don't roll. I don't know why all crayons aren't made this way but they're just in the shape of a triangle and they're a little bit bigger for smaller hands to more easily hold. Other things that are great for activities that aren't your typical ones is stickers as well as just tape in general especially for like the under two crowd. Just pulling that tape out sticking it on different things is really entertaining for them and something else that kind of ties into that is a measuring tape. I'm going to try and insert a picture right here but one of the retractable ones like for sewing my babies have always found these fascinating and they're really little fit in your bag really easily and again in a pinch when you just hand them something to play with this is great. I also love fidget toys like bubble poppers for times like that. Another reason those are really helpful even if you have ipad and screen time of course is when you're for example boarding you let's say you have five minutes before you have to get on the plane if you start the show and then the kid gets upset because they have to pause while they get on the plane it just kind of disrupts them. I also find that with screen times once you start it can be difficult to stop because your kid gets in that zone so I try to save screen time until they need it because I know once we you know give them the ipad there's really no going back. So while we're waiting for the airplane I want them to like kind of run around a little bit get their energy out or while we just need five minutes while we're waiting in line I'll give them one of these kind of fidget toys or even a snack to keep them busy. My next tip is that you don't have to sit right next to your gate when you're waiting for your airplane as long as you're close enough that you can get there and you can hear what's going on. I like to try and find a spot in the airport that's pretty empty right next to a big window and just let them play and watch the airplanes because they're going to be sitting for so long on the flight I don't want them to have to sit quietly in the airport as well. So my next hack I want to talk about is masks and for flying right now our kids two and over have to wear masks the whole time and it is it can be tough. My kids are very used to wearing masks and very good with it but my little one by the end of the flight was done so it's good to keep snacks on hand because if they're eating you know it's okay. But my other tip is to just be relaxed about it and to not freak out and that's kind of my in general overall with kids tip but especially for flying. Flying can be stressful going through security can be stressful all all of that is stressful and your kids kind of pick up on your mood so if you're freaking out and being like oh my god he's not wearing the mask like you know just whatever's happening that's going wrong if you start getting emotional and freaking out it's only going to make things worse for them so my best advice is just be calm whatever it is you'll figure it out if you forgot your favorite snack you'll get one at the airport like just to kind of keep a calm presence helps so so much. And my next tip is about going through security it really helps to prep your kid for what's going to happen because it's really different than any other experience in the airport or in life especially if you don't have TSA pre check and they have to take their shoes off and whatnot they have to get out of their stroller so it's great to just show them some pictures or some youtube videos about what happens and how it works especially for little things like if they're holding their stuffed animal when you go through this metal detector they have to put it on the separate you know luggage belt so that's a really good thing to explain to them beforehand so that you don't show up there and then they start being like what is going on so that's another thing to just talk to about them also about how the luggage goes into a separate place definitely with my little ones they've been concerned about you know their special bag with all their stuff in it leaving them and all that kind of thing so it's nice to just talk through that there's also some great books they're a little bit for older kids the ones that we have but i will link the ones that we love about the airport below so you guys could check those out so that is it those are my top hacks for flying with toddler and baby i hope you guys like this video and found it helpful if you did don't forget to give it a big thumbs up to let me know hit that red subscribe button so you don't miss any more of my videos and i'll see you in the next one bye