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3 takeaways from first solo flight with a toddler

Thanks to COVID, we did very little flying with just one child, but he did get a lot of experience with roadtrips. (See tips for roadtripping with a baby/toddler). I was pregnant with my second by the time my first got on an airplane at 17 months. His first trip I did solo with him on a short flight from Dayton to Washington, DC. Given his age and that I was flying solo with him, I did buy him his own seat. I also brought his carseat onboard which we were going to need at our destination. I had three major takeaways from this first flying experience.

  • First – ALways pack at least a clean top for yourself in your carryon in addition to a change of clothes for your child. I had heard enough stories of massive diaper blowouts that I had a couple spare outfits for my kid on hand, but I didn’t make anything for me accessible.
  • Second – Don’t (unknowningly) bring a kid with norovirus onto an airplane. Let’s just say there was a big round of throwing up, thankfully towards the end of the flight. Since it was his first flight, after consulting with our pediatrician we thought it might have been motion sickness. However over the next couple of nights but then both me and my husband (back at home) became ill.
  • Third – If you buy a seat when your kid is under two, make sure they scan his boarding pass. I hadn’t noticed they didn’t when we boarded. When we went to fly home his portion had been canceled for a no-show. The checkin desk sorted it out pretty quickly and the flights weren’t full, so it ended up not being a big issue, but it added some stress to the process.