Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all - first time posting here. We came back from a 2 week holiday last night - a reasonably successful one apart from the fear of flying that my son has developed. Despite really good prep and taking all the right things with us to allay his fears, on both the flight out and the flight back he worked himself into a state of high anxiety and was physically sick both times, and ended up crying, shaking and moaning. We went to Gatwick and he wore the sunflower lanyard which got us through the departures process easily at this end but he still panicked once we were on the plane and it was even worse on the way back. It was heart breaking to watch as he is usually a cheerful soul and has developed some really good coping mechanisms. I was planning a family trip to Canada to see my brother next year and cannot imagine him being able to cope with the longer flight at all. Any advice of how to help him overcome this? I want to add that airport and plane staff were unwaveringly brilliant and they even let him and his brother see the cockpit on the way out (though my ASC son couldn't wait to get off the plane!).
Since the triip is going to be next year, you still have time to prepare him for that. Watch travel movies, documentaries about plane, something that would catch his interest on planes, and you can do some make-believe play, so to equip him what to do when in a plane. You can even record or play on YouTube plane sound effects so as to familiarize him. But don't do this too soon because he just came from an exhausting trip. Wait for some time until he settles down.