When I flew with my toddler for the first time when he was two and a half and we were also in the throws of potty training.
We were flying alone to go and meet his dad for a weeks holiday.
I wanted to be as prepared as possible because my lovely toddler definitely has an edge to him and we were very much in the tantrum phase of his life. But I also didn't want to bring too much with us as I was travelling solo.
We stayed at a hotel in the airport the night before as we had an early flight and we live quite far from the airport and I would need as much energy as possible to entertain him.
I took his lightweight buggy we have the Ickle Bubba which weighs about 6 kilos, there are lighter ones but this one at the time of purchase was reasonably priced. He was quite overwhelmed by the bright lights, noise and vast amounts of people so was very happy to be in the stroller for some of the time while in the departure lounge.
What did I bring?
Two bags, one for him to carry, and one for me.
I kept his backpack as light as possible so he could carry it some of the time, with his water bottle, a tablet with movies and tv series downloaded, child friendly headphones and I let him choose a couple of small toys to put in there.
In my bag I divided everything up into individual plastic cases, I had snacks, more than you think you will possibly need, spare clothes for him and a spare top/leggings for me. Just in case he had an accident or spilled something on me. I also bought a few cheap things he hadn't seen before so I could bring them out when I could tell he was getting bored.
Colouring book / Crayons
Small construction vehicles there were 6 in the pack so id bring one out at a time, in fact he loved them so much he played with them all week.
Re-usable stickers and normal stickers
I only took one book to read so it was less to carry and downloaded books to read to him on the iPad.
Next time I would also take a travel pack of magnetic building tiles, we have the normal sized ones at home and they are hours of fun, so a travel pack would be a great idea and also for in a restaurant or hotel room
To be honest he was pretty good, I was totally anxious he was going to have a meltdown, we only had two small incidents; the first when he screamed he was bored and wanted to get off the plane and the other, when I needed the bathroom, I forgot how loud the noise is in the toilet of an aircraft. I had to take him with me, he refused to have a sit on the toilet and also didn't want to be in the toilet, so thankfully the steward/stewardesses looked after him for me but the whole time he was knocking on the door. I was about 30 seconds, I can wee fast but it felt like an eternity with an emotional toddler the other side of the door.
Even though he hadn't been in nappies for a month by this point and had very little in the way of accidents I did put him in a pull up for the flight as this journey could very well have thrown him off.
All in all it wasn't too bad but my key takeaway was most definitely as many snacks and entertainment as possible.
Speaking of snacks while I wanted him to have little treats I did try and avoid sugar where possible because I was then thinking I don't want a hyper toddler strapped into a seat either...get my point!