Travelling alone with a young child

I recently had to do a long haul flight with just me and my 18 month old, since she has flown long haul before with no problems I knew the flight itself would be fine, I was more worried about navigating through the airport and handling all my luggage after a 12 hour flight. I see many people at the airport with special assistance but failed to really find any more information regarding this, so here's my experience.

I arrived into London Heathrow on a Friday morning at around 7.30 am after a 12 hour flight, the queue for immigration was very long but because I was in the EU queue it moved along quite fast and we were cleared in around 10-15 minutes. So I went to the carousel to search for my bags, I had read online that there are porters that you can pay that can help with your luggage. I found them and I think they said it was £15 for my two suitcases, a buggy and hand luggage. I waited 15 minutes, when they finally came I told them I changed my mind, I couldn't believe for a service that I was paying for they left me waiting for so long! Anyway I managed to load everything onto my trolley and pushed it out of the hall carrying my little diva the whole time.

When I was waiting for my luggage I saw many able bodied single travellers that had 'special assistance' yet when I go onto BA's website unless you are disabled you don't really get any help, so I was confused. I wouldn't even mind paying if it meant that I can bypass the queues and get some help. I am by no means rich but small children are very unpredictable and cannot sit or stand still for long periods of time so to avoid any tantrums I would rather pay a little extra to get out quicker.

There is a premium service that the celebrities and VIP's use where you get an escort from the moment you land but it cost £1,200 which is a little silly so that wasn't an option for me.

Here are a few tips:
Sit towards the back of the plane, small children find the engine sound soothing and fall asleep
Bring some snacks and colouring books
When waiting for the plane in the departure hall let little ones walk around, it'll tire them out
When the plane takes off if you have a window seat talk about what you can see
To help ears pop give a bottle or a drink
If you can, buy a seat for your little one, under two's don't occupy a seat but I paid for my little one and it really helped
I wouldn't use a buggy as it slows you down, when I got off the plane there was a queue of parents waiting for their buggies, it meant when they got to immigration I was all the way at the front
Bring a small rucksack and only put in what you need, remember most things can be purchased at the airport
If its a night flight change your little one into their pyjamas after you clear security and before you get into the plane, its very hard trying to change a child when you have already boarded

I honestly had no problems on a 12 hour flight and it never once occurred to me that I should 'knock her out'. There have been many people who ask me this but I have never really thought of it, some people openly admit to drugging their children on flights but I hope I will never have to resort to that.

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