Time difference / sleep & routine disturbance?

[weesagirl]

I am taking my 8 month old to the US. She is a fabulous sleeper (7-7) and I am nervous of the time difference and jet lag.

Does anyone have any tips for helping her to adjust as easily and quickly as I can (both arriving in US and when we get home?)

I've travelled to NZ and the US with DD and DS at various ages - DS was 7 months when we first went. I too was worried about disruption to routine but was amazed at how adaptable they are. Both woke earlier than usual the morning after we arrived, but within 24 hours were into usual routine. On return, both got back into routine v quickly.

We took DD (4y) and DS (19m) on a round the world trip thsi year (sorry to everyone who's sick of me rattling on about it). We were amaazed at how well the kids adapted.

First stop was New York. We simply shifted straight to local time. We arrived at hotel at about 11pm so went to bed. Kids had already slept about 5h on plane. Unsurprisingly we all woke in the early hours. We managed to jolly them along for a while until an early breakfast at 6am. I took some milk and cereal bars with us but your baby is so young that it will be easy just to give her her usual breast/bottle and baby food.

We then strung the morning out as long as poss by doing exciting things before an early lunch and a longer than normal afternoon nap (for all of us). We then had tea and bedtime at our normal time.

We stuck tp essentially the same plan with each change in timezone. It seemed to take a couple of days each time to feel in the right timezone but possibly 4-5 days to get back to a normal waking up time.

I feel that the most important thing is to have meals at the same local time that you would eat at home, ie if breakfast is 7am in UK, have at 7am US time. Eating sends hormional signals to instruct your body in it's normal rhythms so forms an imporatnt part of adjusting those rhytms. However you'll neeed a supply of snacks or small jars when your baby simply won't wait for the next meal at the 'right' time

Good luck and prepare to be amazed at how well children can travel

Message withdrawn