• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

The Pit Parenting Thread

Flying this weekend with a 14 month old. Any advice from Pit Parents? We've got snacks and new books/toys which are wrapped (double the fun!). She's normally a fairly chill kid, but not sure how being cooped up for 5 hours is going to play out.
 
Flying this weekend with a 14 month old. Any advice from Pit Parents? We've got snacks and new books/toys which are wrapped (double the fun!). She's normally a fairly chill kid, but not sure how being cooped up for 5 hours is going to play out.

Benadryl is your friend.
 
Flying this weekend with a 14 month old. Any advice from Pit Parents? We've got snacks and new books/toys which are wrapped (double the fun!). She's normally a fairly chill kid, but not sure how being cooped up for 5 hours is going to play out.

We picked up a small portable DVD player and just let her OD on Elmo and Blues Clues. Worked pretty well except the plane was noisy and she had trouble hearing it. She was fine just watching it, though.
 
Flying this weekend with a 14 month old. Any advice from Pit Parents? We've got snacks and new books/toys which are wrapped (double the fun!). She's normally a fairly chill kid, but not sure how being cooped up for 5 hours is going to play out.

Good luck with that. We took our oldest on his first flight when he was about 6 months old. Turned out he has an extremely rare genetic condition (like 1 in 10 million) where hearing levels can fluctuate and head trauma or pressure changes (or a couple of other things including just totally random time) can cause complete permanent deafness. Departing flight was fine. Return flight - up we went, down we went - pop - he never heard naturally again. 3+ years, learning sign language, genetic testing, $200,000 of bilateral cochlear implant surgeries on an infant/toddler, and a ton of hearing and speech therapy later, and he is on a normal school track. Fun times. Thanks, US Air (just kidding, not their fault).
 
Good luck with that. We took our oldest on his first flight when he was about 6 months old. Turned out he has an extremely rare genetic condition (like 1 in 10 million) where hearing levels can fluctuate and head trauma or pressure changes (or a couple of other things including just totally random time) can cause complete permanent deafness. Departing flight was fine. Return flight - up we went, down we went - pop - he never heard naturally again. 3+ years, learning sign language, genetic testing, $200,000 of bilateral cochlear implant surgeries on an infant/toddler, and a ton of hearing and speech therapy later, and he is on a normal school track. Fun times. Thanks, US Air (just kidding, not their fault).

Thanks, I just went from being worried about a crying kid to deafness. I'm sorry to hear about that though.
 
We picked up a small portable DVD player and just let her OD on Elmo and Blues Clues. Worked pretty well except the plane was noisy and she had trouble hearing it. She was fine just watching it, though.

Yea, so we're trying to avoid having her have screen-time at this age, but we did buy a ebook (Mr. Brown Can Moo) as a last resort. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
Good luck with that. We took our oldest on his first flight when he was about 6 months old. Turned out he has an extremely rare genetic condition (like 1 in 10 million) where hearing levels can fluctuate and head trauma or pressure changes (or a couple of other things including just totally random time) can cause complete permanent deafness. Departing flight was fine. Return flight - up we went, down we went - pop - he never heard naturally again. 3+ years, learning sign language, genetic testing, $200,000 of bilateral cochlear implant surgeries on an infant/toddler, and a ton of hearing and speech therapy later, and he is on a normal school track. Fun times. Thanks, US Air (just kidding, not their fault).

:eek: Damn, I'm sorry to hear that. Was it going to happen no matter when he took his first flight/might have happened over time anyway?
 
:eek: Damn, I'm sorry to hear that. Was it going to happen no matter when he took his first flight/might have happened over time anyway?

Probably would have happened at some point regardless of going on a plane. Some people it happens right after birth, but others doesn't happen until they are teenagers or in their 20s. We met one guy who it didn't happen to until he was like 45.

We actually just got the genetic test results back last week on our 2-month-old - he is a carrier of the recessive gene but doesn't have the condition himself. SO that should make this go-round easier than the last one, though I'm sure we will worry enough about him for whatever reasons he gets into.
 
Yea, so we're trying to avoid having her have screen-time at this age, but we did buy a ebook (Mr. Brown Can Moo) as a last resort. Thanks for the suggestions.

Oh, I get it. We still do the same thing (except, live sports that daddy watches doesn't count toward the TV limit). We figured if we only used it during flights we probably wouldn't ruin her.
 
Oh, I get it. We still do the same thing (except, live sports that daddy watches doesn't count toward the TV limit). We figured if we only used it during flights we probably wouldn't ruin her.

Ha. This has been the case thus far in our house. We have a couple of iPhone/iPad apps we'll let her watch (she's only 7 months old) that are more interactive, but try to keep the TV off for the most part. Except for sports.
 
Flying this weekend with a 14 month old. Any advice from Pit Parents? We've got snacks and new books/toys which are wrapped (double the fun!). She's normally a fairly chill kid, but not sure how being cooped up for 5 hours is going to play out.

I'm not sure if you want to deal with the excitement of new toys on a plane. Familiarity is a better bet here. A toy she's comfortable with may help calm her down.

If you can find a less populated area of the terminal, give her some room to run around. Definitely walk her around the terminal and show her things and keep her involved. Hopefully that tires her out for the flight. The worst thing would be to keep her confined at the gate before being confined on the plane.

What time is the flight?
 
This is an email from another parent at my 1 year old's daycare. Her kid is same age as mine.

"Now that we're beginning the transition from nursing to almond milk in a cup, I thought I'd pass along a few details on _____'s feeding preferences so that she can start enjoying snack time.

Generally she can and will eat most anything. I'd still like to avoid things with too much sugar, dairy, artificial colors, MSG (unfortunately this includes goldfish)—the less processed the better. Sorry to be so "granola-ey"

She still hasn't gotten the hang of taking smaller bites off larger food items, so things should be in pieces about the size of a pinky nail.

Foods she really likes:
Puffs
Bananas (she will want to eat the whole thing but please try to keep it to 1/2 a banana)
Berries
Applesauce
grapes
Peeled pears
Bits of pretzels
Raisins/craisins
Crackers
Feel free to offer her the almond milk in a cup with snack—she will hopefully drink it!

Oh, and I've attached a video of her sign for more (looks kind of like clapping). There is a sign for "all done" but I've never seen her use it so I just cut her off at some point.

If you have any questions about a particular item, feel free to ask!"
 
Why did you get that e-mail?
 
This is a paraphrasing of my conversation on same subject:

Me: So, uh, we are trying to wean him off formula. You can just give him snacks when the older kids have snacks, but give him formula if he won't nap. Do I need to bring snacks or do you provide them?
Daycare: We provide them.
Me: Cool.
 
Count me happy our daycare doesn't have a listserv.
 
That doesn't suck at all if she can sleep on the plane. The early rise to get to the airport may result in a morning nap on the flight. If you can keep her awake closer to boarding, there's a good chance she'll sleep on the late return flight.

We had good similar flights from Chicago to RDU and RDU back home for Thanksgiving. The morning flight led to a morning nap. We let the boys run around in the empty part of the Southwest terminal and they were asleep the whole flight back. Couldn't post up at the bar and watch the end of the Iron Bowl though. That part sucked.
 
Back
Top