My Favorite Baby Toy for Plane Rides (And Why It Works For Wiggly, Bored Travelers)
The seatbelt sign just clicked off on our 3-hour cross-country flight, and my 10-month-old Leo was already red-faced screaming, kicking the back of the seat in front of us so hard the passenger turned around to glance over. I’d forgotten the extra container of puffs at security, my carry-on was wedged under the seat in front so I couldn’t reach the extra change of clothes, and every fancy travel baby toy I’d carefully packed that morning was already forgotten at the bottom of my diaper bag. The crinkle airplane book held his attention for 7 minutes. The glow-in-the-dark teether got thrown under the seat 20 minutes after takeoff. The soft stacking blocks were boring to him, apparently, because he’d rather chew on my crumpled boarding pass. I was digging through the outer pocket, ready to give up and just stand in the back of the plane with him for the rest of the flight, when my hand hit that set of silicone links I’d grabbed off the living room floor that morning. I’d meant to put them back with his play gym accessories, but I’d stuffed them in my bag last minute when I was running out the door. I pulled them out and handed them to him, just looking for 2 minutes of quiet.
He stopped crying mid-scream. He grabbed the whole set with both chubby hands, and went still. For 45 minutes, he sat there on my lap, pulling one link apart from another, then clicking them back together. He dragged the whole linked chain across the tray table, banged it against the window, chewed on the textured edges when his teething gums ached. I got to drink my entire coffee before it went cold, and eat half my pretzel, and even exchange a relieved smile with the woman sitting next to me who’d been bracing for a full flight of screaming.
I’d had these links for months, clipped to his play gym to hold hanging toys, and I never thought much of them. They’re not marketed as a travel toy. They don’t light up, they don’t play annoying nursery rhymes, they don’t have any fancy interactive features. They’re just 12 brightly colored, textured silicone rings that click together and pull apart. But that flight taught me something I’ve tested on three more trips since: the toys that keep babies busy on planes aren’t the ones that do all the work for them.
Babies between 6 and 18 months, which is when most of us start taking them on our first family trips, learn by doing. They want to figure something out, not just watch a toy do a trick for them. When a toy plays a song when you press a button, they press it once or twice, get the result, and then they’re done. With these links, there’s no end to what they can do. They can pull them apart, link them into a long chain, link them into a big circle, chew on them, wear them as a bracelet around their wrist or ankle, drag them around, drop them (they’re soft, so they don’t make a loud noise when they hit the floor). Every little action is something they did, not something the toy did for them, so it holds their attention way longer.
There are a dozen small, practical reasons this works so well for planes specifically, too. First, they’re tiny and light. I can tuck the whole set into the side pocket of my diaper bag and it doesn’t take up any space I need for diapers or wipes. Second, they’re completely silent. No beeping, no music, no loud crinkling that bothers the person next to you trying to nap. Third, they’re easy to clean. They drop on the plane floor, which they will, I don’t panic. I just wipe them down with a sanitizer wipe and hand them back. Fourth, they double as a teether. When air pressure changes leaves babies fussy and gnawing on everything, the textured surface is perfect for sore gums, way better than a thin, smooth teether that gets boring fast. Fifth, they don’t break. I’ve had the same set for a year now, Leo chews on them constantly, throws them, pulls them apart as hard as he can, and there’s no cracks, no peeling, no loose parts to worry about.
On our last trip, the 8-month-old sitting in front of us was crying so hard her mom was about to cry too. She’d pulled out every toy she had, nothing was working. I leaned forward and handed her a couple of the links, and she stopped crying within 30 seconds, just chewing and pulling at them. Her mom asked me what magic toy it was, and I laughed and told her it was a $4 set of silicone links I bought on Amazon a year ago. She wrote down the name, and texted me a week later to say it got her through a 2-hour train ride with her daughter.
I used to overpack for plane trips, filling my diaper bag with a dozen different toys, thinking more options meant more time that Leo would be busy. But I’ve learned that’s the opposite of what works. All those different toys just overwhelm him, and he bounces from one to the other every 5 minutes, getting more fussy the more bored he gets. Now, I just pack the links, his favorite lovey, and a container of puffs, and that’s it. If he gets extra fussy, I can pull out an empty water bottle for him to play with too, but 9 times out of 10, the links are enough.
I know that one of these days, we’ll go on a trip and Leo will be too old for the links. He’ll want to play with stickers or coloring books or whatever toddlers are into these days, and I’ll have to find a new go-to travel toy. But for right now, it’s the first thing I toss into my diaper bag when we’re heading to the airport. It’s not fancy, it’s not expensive, it doesn’t have a big marketing budget behind it, and it’s never let me down. Simple, open-ended toys that let kids do the work don’t just help them practice fine motor skills or problem solving. They also make traveling with a baby a little less stressful for everyone on the plane.
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