How do you sort jet lag for a 12-month old?

[Goatbongosanonynous]

Just that, really. We will be flying to NZ next summer with DS who will have just turned one. I have avidly read the travel tips for long haul with babies, loads of fantastic tips, thank you! But how do you get into a routine when you arrive and everything is topsy turvy for him? We will be travelling around some and also with family.

Google jetlag in children. There is an excellent site written by a jetsetting US mum. Sorry can't link from phone. I seem to recall the tips are things like: as much daylight as possible, be outside at dusk and even Dawn, etc. She recommends going with their flow for 24h, then start to get onto host time but continue to feed when asked (but in dim light, no playing etc) for 24h, gradually working to normal meal and sleep times. It takes kids 3-4 days to adjust GMT to Pacific time IME (done journey 4 times now when DDs at 5m, 9m, 19m, & 3). In a weird way they get there quicker than adults as they don't stress about the lack of sleep etc. Their bodies just adjust.

My top tip would be to just be you, H and Child for first couple of days if you can wangle that. You won't want the pressure of socialising or worry about how your child is doing in front of others. Our best trip to BC post-DD1 was when we had a mini-4 day holiday in an apartment before 10 days with family. Have fun

The site I looked at was Delicious Baby

Thanks, that's really helpful! I shall have a look now.

Argh I did this with an eight month old and it almost killed me. he was jet lagged for two weeks each way. i did everything the book said and my ds is a good sleeper and it was still a struggle.
i recommend using Phenergan Elixir it's an antihistimine that you can use for children and it helps them get to sleep. It might not be very natural but it works. Also when i fly long haul i used to take sleeping tablets for the fist few nights to get my body clock back to normal. in fact were flying long haul agin in a few months and i already have my bottle ready to go!

I took my two dd's back o the uk, from Oz. I didn't use ny books or techniques. Just winged it.

It took about 3 or 4 days to gt ack yo normal. Dd's were 2.9, and 14mo.

I took phenergan for the flight, and can highly recommend it. I basically just winged it when we landed.

I do all those tips posted above & it always takes me+DC a week to adjust (only sort of). I suspect it comes down to natural body clock programming which can't be engineered. DH managed to transition in one day, the one time he flew with NO CHILDREN. But I always took a week to adjust even pre kids (sigh).