Easy(ish) Airplane Carry on Packing with Toddlers

I was fortunate to be able to do a good amount of traveling in my 20s and loved it! I realized having kids would make this a different experience, but I wanted to continue this with kids as well! Traveling with kids is definitely a different experience, but it is still one I enjoy. As a working mom, I have to make the most of my time off and the easiest way to maximize our travel experiences is by hopping on a plane and minimizing the amount of time spent traveling to our destination and maximizing the amount of time we are at our destination. While hopping on a plane with toddlers can seem daunting at first, I’ve come to enjoy the process. Just like so much of motherhood, a little bit of prep goes a long way towards EVERYONE having an easier time. Packing the right things for your airplane ride with toddlers will help everyone have a better time. I talked specifically about getting through the airport with toddlers here. This post will focus on how I prep for the plane ride.

Pack the “health kit”  

I learned this lesson the hard way – you do not want to discover your toddler has a fever in the middle of the night in a town where nothing is open. In my opinion, packing a health kit for your airplane travel with toddlers is the single most important thing. I pack four items in an old makeup bag and bring it on my carryon:  

1. Infant Tylenol – infant Tylenol and children’s Tylenol are the same thing – just you pay for the syringe (and get a smaller bottle) with infant Tylenol. Perfect for a carryon!  
2. Medicine syringe- self explanatory, comes with infant tylenol
3. Nose bulb: suck the snot on the go. Everyone sleeps better when the little one can breathe out his or her nose! 
4. Thermometer: again something you don’t want to learn the hard way like I did. 🙂 we’ve gone through a lot of bad ones – this one is very reliable and accurate. We paid way too much for this exact thermometer in the middle of the night but it is our favorite one we’ve tried. Amazon has way better deals on it than the midnight pharmacy run we made…

Pack the diaper change kit 

I like to have SO many wet dry bags – they’re great for so many uses including packing a wet dry bag for each kid in my backpack and pack it effectively so I can hand it off to dad to do the diaper changes without me 😉  

1. Diapers in the main pocket (or pull ups/undies for older kiddos) – I shoot to have no fewer than 5 in here (maybe more depending on flight length)  
2. Pack an extra set of clothes in the other wet dry bag pocket – helpful for an unexpectedly messy diaper change  
3. Shove a travel size hand sanitizer in the spare pocket. 

Packing the Hangry Toddler on an Airplane Kit 

The snack bag – stuff it with a good variety and when you don’t want to deal with rejection, hand them the bag to let them choose their own snack!  

I like using  reusable snack/sandwich bags to stow a variety of snacks for my kiddos. The bags aren’t too giant, they have cute patterns, and they’re easy to hand off to my oldest to let him pick his own snack. (I’ll get slowly rejected if I offer snacks one by one but it seems he’s always able to find a satisfying snack when he picks it from the bag himself).  

The main pocket:  

1. Extra shirt for mama: a lesson learned the hard way – you don’t want to be caught without an extra shirt after holding a baby that had a blow out 🙂  
2. Portable sound machine: this helped my littlest one when she was less than a year old the most, but handy to have nonetheless!  
3. Toddler hats: beanie and gloves for cold weather travels, sun hats for warm weather travels. My sister in law got me into these “Sunday Afternoon” hats that have great coverage from the sun and a strap to attempt to keep it on little kids heads 
4. Another spare outfit for each kid: I mean just in case…  
5. Mini first aid kit: this might be a little over the top but also sometimes the placebo affect of a bandaid really comes in handy. Ha  
6. Muslin blanket: great as a coverup for nursing, soothing to have on the kiddos lap for a nap. Squishes easily into a backpack  
7. Lovey: my oldest LOVES his lovey. I have two of the same one and keep one for travel and one at home. Sometimes just a soft cuddle near his face is just the push he needs to nap on the go  
8. Diaper bag dispenser: any soiled clothes, extra smelly diapers, etc – put that into one of these bags. This can easily clip to the outside of your diaper bag for use on the go.  

You’ll notice I conveniently left of entertainment/toys on this post. I will save that for another post in of itsself but it really is very kid dependent. Last things last… always pack a brand new set of wipes before a trip. Wipes will be used. You don’t want to run out of wipes, trust me.  

Airplane Packing with Toddlers Conclusion

Good luck with your travels! Packing the right things for an airplane ride with toddlers helps the fam have a better time while travelling. Let me know what I missed in the comments or any of your tips for packing a carry on.

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