we just got back from Gran canaria which was a 4.5 hour flight and Oran is 1. We had his own seat booked (thank god as would have been a nightmare without it) he fell asleep in the most awkward posotion on take odd and slept for 2 hours! Once he woke we just kept giving him drinks and bits of food (not becuase he was hungry so much but because eating a triange of sandwhich kept him quiet for 10 mins pmsl. We took lots of little toys and books and just kept swapping him between me and daddy so he didnt get bored easily! On landing he fell asleep again, I think it must have been the vibrations!
On the way home he was so tired he fell asleep for 20 mins in the airport
this cause havok as meant he had only had that plus another 30 min all day and he was shattered but couldn't get comfy and was overtired to sleep so cried ALOT - everytime he started to drift off the kids on the row oposite cried and woke him so he cried then they slept so he returned the favour and screamed to wake them up - it wasnt pretty lol. Oh then the pratt infrom put his chair back really suddenly when O was on OHs knee and hit O in his head so OH accidentally on purpose let O throw the plane mag over the chair on the tossers head
One familyy had a portable DVD player with In the night Garden playing quietly and that kept their kids attention (and orans when he caught site of it) so next time im getting one to take! I would deffo advise to try and keep them awake so they can have a good sleep on the plane, it will pass the time for a while.
So my top tips are
1) tire them out
2) fave toys / books
3) food and drink
4) pass between parents to keep occupied
5) walk up and down the isles
6) don't care what anyone else says or thinks or looks if bubba does create
7) take buggy to gate and ask when you get on for it to be there when you get off (say bad back so can't carry child much if they say they cant because they can they just dont like to)
Not sure where your going but we went ot Gran Can and on way back even though they say no more than 100mls of fluid we had 3 full froot shoots, and 4 big water bottles in our bags and they just let us through with no questions! Oh and on the way from manchester we were able to take orans juice though as was in a proper baby cup and it was more than 100ml and they didnt make us taste it - I think they must be more laid back now to a degree!