travel to NZ with 10 month old. Any tips?

[banthambabe]

Hi I know there have been some posts on this before but does anyone have any tips on long haul flights with 10 month old baby?
We are flying with Emirates and stopping in dubai on the way back. I usually have DS in a good routine and usually sleeps through. (All gone pear shaped due to pesky cold but hope to have it back on track before we go in 3 weeks) So any ideas to survive the flight but also how to cope with jetlag when we get there. We are staying with DH family but as we are only there 2 1/2 weeks there will be lots of people to catch up with and can see as all getting knackered!!
Thanks

hi there, just come back from NZ with a 3 year old and a 10 month old. Is your baby crawling or walking?
Ours crawls and gets very bored if cooped up for too long so I let him crawl down the aisle - other passengers seemed to enjoy chatting to him and he loved it - or I moved him on if they weren't interested. Area at back of plane near loos on our plane had a corridor which was good for playing in, some air stewards not v keen on it - some turn blind eye though. You will prob meet other mums also touring plane with their little ones. Such meetings are entertaining for babies and you can share toys.
If your baby is not mobile it is prob a lot easier - I saw none mobile babies happily entertained in the seat with toys etc. Do you have a skycot or are you taking a car seat? We booked a car seat. We had use of a skycot on some legs but he didn't take to it. Slept better in car seat. Familiarity was more important than lying down I think. So take familiar smelling stuff if using skycot. We used a sleeping bag which goes on car seat and this was brill for keeping him warm. Planes can be really quite chilly. Take finger food, lots of nappies, washable rubber bib, interesting new little toys. Most important thing I think is remembering to give food or drink during takeoff/landing to help equalise air pressure in ears. Lots of kids yelled at these times. BEst time for flight is definitely evening if poss so you can get them on board, feed them and then they go down at normal nap time. As for jet lag, was more a problem on return for us. Excitement of new surroundings kept him going at destination - so he was so exhausted he would sleep at night. Other top tip is to take black out lining and safety pins so you can darken baby's room.

Thanks for ideas rubber bib is a very clever idea, luckily hes not crawling or walking likes standing but doesnt seem interested in crawling, which is fine by me. I didnt know you could take a carseat on board he has never taken to sleeping in his but would solve where to hire one at the other end!

with car seat you have to buy a seat for baby; although you can try taking one with you and they might give you spare seat if plane is not full - if they're not interested they will let you check it in. THere are rules about car seats though - has to tie with lap belt only and carry a kite mark. They won't give you bulk head seat if you book a seat for baby.
It will be very handy on flight that baby doesn't have need to move around loads!
There is a homeopathic jetlag remedy called nojetlag which friends who travel a lot recommend. THe golden rule is to stay up when you arrive until bedtime in that country no matter how tired you are. I entered a rather pleasant hyper reality!
There are loads of old threads on this topic which I found really helpful when planning my trip so search the archives.

You get get the rellies to hire a car seat from Plunket or the Baby Factory for your visit. NZ has different rules from the UK, your UK capsule would be okay for reat facing, but if you have gone into the next stage car seat then our ones have a tether strap which fixes to the parcel shelf or the bottom of the boot if a station wagon or hatch back. This may require an extention strap.

Are you hiring a car or borrowing one.

Sorry but your routine will die completely. Not because of the time difference but because you normally don't move around meeting millions of people.

I've travelled back and forth between NZ with my little one a few times. Check out antihistamines (phenergan) It's best to try them on your child before you go, for 90% of kids it makes them sleepy, the other 10% get hyper. I kept her up and awake until after the stop over. They it's the bedtime routine, nappy change, pyjamas, sleeping bag, drugs and sleep. It worked surpisingly well. The idea is to try and force them into NZ's time by having them wake up when it's morning. Despite what people tell you, you may be surprised at how resiliant he is. I found the sluglet was grumpy on the day we landed and went to sleep a bit earlier than normal, but by day 2 she was back into her usual routine.