Traveling with a 3 year old?

I will be traveling with my 3 year old son to Australia from Ireland later in the year, the flight time is 24 hours, anyone got advice on how to handle him , any one with expeirance

well as i have experience
you could give him a toy to play with that helped all the time.
you could give him a bottle of his favorite juice or his fav. toy and let him rest. thats what i usually do.

Since it is a long flight, the plane will be larger and you will be able to walk around more. A portable DVD player with a headset works well for my kids. I usually buy a few new movies/shows and wait until the plane ride before the see them. Coloring books, crayons, and glue sticks are a big winner - make sure you cut out the pieces that he will be able to glue on, you cannot take scissors on he plane. If he likes video games, try Leapster Lmax. It's a portable video game system that teaches/educates as much as it allows him to play. My son is addicted to this machine.
Have some chewing gum available and a straw for drinking, both will help "pop" his ears during the flight.
Have fun and relax, he will sense your tension and respond likewise.
Enjoy.

Good morning. My little girl loves Disney movies, and I would bring along our whole collection. As with adults, only multiplied to a factor of "n," a child will be difficult to pacify on such a long flight. I flew from Los Angeles, USA to Sidney and it was very difficult for me to sit still for 14 hours. Reading is also a great distraction, for all ages.

Best of luck. Regardless of your solution, it will probably be inadequate, but hopefully a remedy for most of the duration.

get a window seat if possible. Have him look out the window and see how much he can see. make a game out of it. Show him the different things on the airplane and see what he can identify. bring a couple cars, video games (if possible).

Three year olds are tough because they have such short attention spans. I would bring a variety of things to switch to when he grows bored with the last. As others have suggested, movies are good for using up chunks of time, and so are:
crayons & paper
a couple of small toy trucks
a few of his favorite bedtime books
his favorite stuffed animal
a sticker book (peel off, place somewhere on the page, etc)
familiar music (an mp3 or CD player might help)
a simple game you and he could play together

You should probably go into this excursion planning on having to spend a lot of your time and energy keeping your son occupied. Play some games with him, read the books to him, talk to him a lot if that seems to help.

Plan some surprises to bring out during the trip, or at least be ready to come up with something on the spot. Maybe make a little sock puppet that will be his own special friend on the flight. Introduce the puppet early on and then bring him back when it seems like your son needs comfort, surprise, distraction or a little help with something. I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of those stretchy medical gloves. You can put them on your son’s hands so they flop around, blow them up so they look like cartoon hands, draw faces on the fingertips and put on a little show.

You might also come up with a little game to play that will get him walking around the plane when he gets fidgety. Like how fast can he WALK around a section of seats. Challenge him to beat his best time every hour or so. Maybe it's walking around the plane with him pointing out every green piece of clothing he can find. Stuff like that.

For your own sanity, you will need for him to rest. Some parents give their kids cold medicine that makes them sleepy. I don't really recommend this, but it might not hurt to have some on hand just in case you get desperate. I think some motion sickness products make people drowsy too, but check to make sure it is kid-safe.

Finally, prepare your child for the trip by making the flight itself sound like it will be an adventure. It will be for him, and you might as well play that up. Think ahead to things he can expect - the take off, the landing, looking at clouds, the buttons for the lights, the air vent, the bathroom - then tell him about them with excitement in your voice for the days leading up to the trip. Carry that attitude through the flight so it does seem like a really fun thing to do instead of the necessary evil we adults think of it as.

And be sure to bring an extra set of clothes, plenty of juice/water, some small meals, some treats like cookies (use them as rewards for playing quietly or staying in his seat), those damp clean up towels and everything else you would normally carry along, "just in case." I'd bring anti-bacterial lotion too, and use it liberally, but I'm a bit of a germophobe.

You are a brave parent to take on this trip, so remember that when things aren't going smoothly. Also remember that people who don’t have kids don’t understand how difficult it can be. Don't count on making it without some stressful moments, but rest assured that you're doing the best you can. The less stress you show, the more content your child will be. Try to keep it fun, and see if the flight attendants have some tricks up their sleeves. Good luck!