Long haul travel for 8-month baby

[snowmoon]

We will be travelling to Thailand in April 2005, when our DS would be 8 months old. The flight will be about 10-12 hours. Has anyone travelled by air for similar duration with their babies at a similar age? And did you experience any problem with baby's sleep while on the plane?

Also the time difference is 7 hours and I'm worried that once we get there it will be difficult to get DS back to his normal schedule. Any advice / comments on that?

Thanks.

[louloubelle]

Hi...we have just got back from California, and our baby was exactly the same age...an 11 hour flight both ways. It may be different going East/West, but we had a day flight, leaving at 1ish, and a night flight on the way back, leaving at 7-30. I was worried about sleeping too, as my baby sleeps very well, 8pm til 8am, a morning nap and a couple of hours at lunchtime. On the way out we fed her lunch on the plane, she had a 45 minute nap and we put her to bed about an hour earlier (she had only had a short lunch sleep). She then slept the rest of the flight until they started feeding everyone and hour and a half before landing (very annoying as it was her middle of the night, but she wasn't bothered!) We gave her lunch again and landed at 5ish, went straight to hotel, gave her dinner and then bath/book/bed routine and we all went to bed at 8ish. I think she woke once, I fed her and we woke her the next day at 8am. On the way back we just fed her last milk, read a story and she went to sleep...she woke after a couple of hours because her teeth were sore, I gave her some Medised and she slept the whole flight!! We had 2 broken nights on our return, ie she woke at 2am, first night, fed and slept again, and the same the next night, when I didn't feed her (trying to avoid it becoming a habit) and was totally back to normal after 3 nights!
Be aware that your baby may be teething at that age, so test out some medicines first. We used Medised as it has a mild antihistamine in it which makes some babies a bit drowsy, but can make a very few hyper, so try at least once before you fly! Get a bulkhead seat and if the flight isn;t busy ask them to block the seat next to you as your baby may prefer to sleep on the seat.
Sorry for long ramble, but hopefully this will reassure you...you can travel with an 8 month old!

[louloubelle]

Hi...we have just got back from California, and our baby was exactly the same age...an 11 hour flight both ways. It may be different going East/West, but we had a day flight, leaving at 1ish, and a night flight on the way back, leaving at 7-30. I was worried about sleeping too, as my baby sleeps very well, 8pm til 8am, a morning nap and a couple of hours at lunchtime. On the way out we fed her lunch on the plane, she had a 45 minute nap and we put her to bed about an hour earlier (she had only had a short lunch sleep). She then slept the rest of the flight until they started feeding everyone and hour and a half before landing (very annoying as it was her middle of the night, but she wasn't bothered!) We gave her lunch again and landed at 5ish, went straight to hotel, gave her dinner and then bath/book/bed routine and we all went to bed at 8ish. I think she woke once, I fed her and we woke her the next day at 8am. On the way back we just fed her last milk, read a story and she went to sleep...she woke after a couple of hours because her teeth were sore, I gave her some Medised and she slept the whole flight!! We had 2 broken nights on our return, ie she woke at 2am, first night, fed and slept again, and the same the next night, when I didn't feed her (trying to avoid it becoming a habit) and was totally back to normal after 3 nights!
Be aware that your baby may be teething at that age, so test out some medicines first. We used Medised as it has a mild antihistamine in it which makes some babies a bit drowsy, but can make a very few hyper, so try at least once before you fly! Get a bulkhead seat and if the flight isn;t busy ask them to block the seat next to you as your baby may prefer to sleep on the seat.
Sorry for long ramble, but hopefully this will reassure you...you can travel with an 8 month old!

[snowmoon]

Hi louloubelle. Thanks for your response. It's encouraging to know that your DD coped pretty well with the flight and was back on her normal schedule very quickly. Good advice too about teething medicine. I was worried because like your DD, my DS sleeps well at night and I don't want it to go wrong. Thanks again.

[SoupDragon]

DS2 flew to Florida (round about 8 hours) at 7 months old. Had no problems whatsoever really. I think it took about 2-3 days to shift him onto US time and back to UK time (about 5 hours different I think) and that wasn't a problem because it took us that long to adjust properly too. We basically tweaked his routine during the flight wrt mealtimes and naps.

I'd book a sky cot - even if they don't sleep in it, DS1 & 2 loved to sit in it and flirt with everyone sitting behind us on the plane. I second Medised, but we only used it for the night flights.

[Oooggs]

Sorry to hijack but where do you buy Medised from please?

[jenkel]

You can get Medised from a chemist without prescription. Its basically a cold relief medicine which also eases teething pain, soothes pain and fever and more importantly helps restful sleep. I have some that I have used with dd for colds and its for age 3 months +. I intend to give to dd1 (26 months) and dd2 (7 months) when we fly to oz in 2 weeks times.