Still, I would avoid loading up children with sucrose and artificial colors and flavors before confining them in an aluminum tube with dozens or hundreds of other people.

Parents need to start thinking about their child’s nutrition a good twenty-four hours before the flight and need to make sure that their child has exactly the right blood sugar level to ensure that they don’t get hyper or hypo glycemic, because both conditions cause bad behavior. Water or fruit juice, and food that has had as little factory processing as possible are the best solutions. Unfortunately, every other kid seems to be allergic to peanuts these days otherwise i’d recommend packing a bunch of PBJs and some fruit boxes, but ham and cheese sandwiches, dried fruit and water (bought airside, or a bottle filled from a water fountain airside) should be fine. Please refrain from feeding your child “snack foods,” candy, soda, or sports drinks in the hours leading up to a flight.

Touche’. Awesome post. And, thank you for the compliment. Children are my favorite passengers. I enjoy their innocence and joy of aviation.

Parents:
Parents have to be prepared. They need to have a plan of how they will deal with situations on the plane, they need to pack things for the kids to do and they need to be prepared for the fact that their attention is required. Yes, they are responsible for their kids behaviour. Being on a plane with kids means being on duty. Part of the job of parenting is also preparing the kids for the trip. We bought the “Shae by Air” DVD to prepare our toddler for flying on a plane. We read books about flying. We discuss with the kids what is going to happen before we get on the plane. And we get them involved in deciding what to bring on the flight.

Airlines:
Airlines sometimes don’t do themselves any favours. We always bought seats for our kids but our experiences of flying with car seats for our toddlers was met with antagonism by the airlines. On every occasion we were made to check them in.
Parents also have to comply with the strict regulations for carry on. While on the one hand airlines are clamping down on extra luggage and slapping on fees for checked bags, they are also cutting down on things like kids activity packs. Is the saving for Airlines really worth it? Surely airlines could get a little more creative and recoup some of that costs through advertising and sponsorship in the activity packs?
I appreciate that space on an airplane is at a premium but even a few extra things that could be tucked away for kids to play with would make a huge difference. I’m thinking of things like puppets or finger puppets, maybe board games or books. Things that kids could borrow and return in much the same way that adults get to borrow magazines. I know airlines don’t make money off the economy class but perhaps taking the view that a pleasant flight for everyone is better for business all round.

Airports:
Our local and extremely large airport completely ignores the fact that kids are passengers too. I hope you are never on a delayed flight from our airport with kids, because there is nothing, absolutely nothing for kids to do. Also having a family friendly policy when dealing with queues for customs and security would go a long way in taking a lot of the stress out of flying. It is not any parents fault that a two year old does not understand an extremely long and boring queue, that is the nature of two year olds.

Flight Attendants:
Encountering flight attendants like Frank is a total God send. I know it’s a hard and thankless task being a flight attendant but um, so is parenting. I am eternally grateful to the wonderful flight attendants we have met who were prepared to go above and beyond the call of duty. We’ve even had attendants walk the kids around the plane and take them down to the galley and show the kids the cupboards! Seriously, the kids were fascinated and it gave us some breathing space. I always write and tell the airline what flight we were on when we have had great service like this. And they are the airlines we rebook with. We don’t expect this kind of service but we really, really, really, appreciate it.

Other Passengers:
I don’t go onto a plane expecting other passengers to entertain my kids but I am extremely grateful to all the people who take the time and make the effort to be kind to them. It doesn’t have to take much, a smile, a question about where we are going and what they are looking forward to. Little pleasantries make a big difference.
I once had a plane trip with my small daughter where both of us had been sick the week before. We got on the plane and five minutes into the flight she was asking if we were there yet. Even thought we were flying at her normal nap time, she didn’t sleep. I was extremely anxious that she was going to be bothering the passengers around us. At the end of the flight however, several of the people who were next to us commented on how good she had been! I was so relieved and it really made all the effort worthwhile. It doesn’t take much to encourage parents who are trying to do a good job and some positive reinforcement for those kids who have behaved themselves (Young man, you were a very good passenger! I hope you keep behaving so well for your Mother, keep up the good work etc).