Whenever I hit the airport with my two whirling dervishes -- Doug, 4, and Charlie, 5 -- we spend most of our terminal time on the move, burning off energy in preparation for all those hours of having to sit still on the plane. That's us at Newark, Feb 14, 2008.

by Wendy Perrin

Many thanks to all of you who, before my dreaded overnight flight to Spain with the kids two weeks ago, generously offered your tips for relieving children's ear pain inflight. I'm happy to report that, despite ear infections and head colds, our trip was tears-free.  Sucking lollipops (in combination with antibiotics) did the trick.

On our descent into Madrid, we may have been sleepy and disheveled, but we were free of ear pain. Charlie and I played Uno.

I heard another great tip yesterday -- from Carl Schwartz, director of marketing for Cheapflights, who was in my office sharing war stories about flying with children.  He has three of them -- ages 7, 5, and almost 1 -- and his best earache-prevention tip comes from Cheapflights' Air Travel And Families section:  Ask the flight attendant to soak a couple of paper napkins in very hot water, wring them out, stick them in the bottom of plastic drink cups, and put the cups over your kids' ears. This creates a vacuum, reducing the ear pressure. Who woulda thunk?!

Cheapflights has equally nifty advice for entertaining, exercising, and otherwise occupying kids in airports. Its Kids' Airport Diversion Guide lists child-friendly features of and facilities at 22 U.S. hubs. At Boston's Logan Airport, for instance, there's the Boston Children's Museum's Kidport in Terminal C, and at Chicago's O'Hare there's a Kids On the Fly interactive exhibit, as well as a restored F4F-3 Wildcat, in Terminal 2.

Whenever we fly through Atlanta, we ride the underground train back and forth from concourse to concourse. That's Doug and Charlie the last time we were in Atlanta, August 2007.