How do infants (16 months ) handle jet-lag?

[bonbonpixie]

Hi DH, DD and I are travelling In September to Singapore and then on to Sydney. I know the flights will be difficult, but what I'm really wondering about it the jet lag at the other end?! Our flight to Singapore leaves London after 7 and arrives at 3pm local time. We are here for three nights before our Sydney flight which leaves again around 7 and arrives at 5am local time. If we let her sleep on the Singapore leg will she be up all night? What happens if she doesn't sleep at all? Worried! Does anyone have experience of this? Generally DD sleeps 8pm until 7:30 (although she is standing waving at me just now - damn you mmr!)

I flew to New Zealand with a 1-night stopover in Hong Kong last year with DS when he was 18m. So the flights were quite similar to yours in times and lengths. I too was worried about how he'd sleep on landing having just slept most of the flight etc! In reality he did sleep for much of the first leg, but still not as many hours as normal, so even though we arrived in HK around 5pm local time he still went to bed again a few hours later no problems, and the same on arrival in NZ. However the problem was keeping him asleep - he'd wake up early hours of the morning ready to play! That lasted the whole (two-week) holiday I'm afraid! The good thing was he miraculously had no jet lag at all on coming back to the Uk!

Not sure if that helps at all...?!

My DS was 20 months when we flew to NZ. We went all the way through with just a 2 hour stop in LA for refuelling. He (and his 3 year old sister) didn't sleep the entire way to LA (around 12 hours), despite us arriving at 2am our time, ran around for the whole 2 hours in LA, then lasted another 2 hours before they fell asleep on the Auckland flight, and then only had a few hours. They were just so excited! Despite me being totally, totally, exhausted (not helped by the fact I was 7 months pregnant too...) it did mean that they didn't really suffer from jet lag - we kept them awake most of the first day (we arrived 10am NZ time) and then they fell asleep at normal time that evening. They got up about 6am for a week or so (they were normally up at 7), but that was about it. My DC are a bit of a nightmare when it comes to going to sleep though, they seem to need less than other children .
I'd try and keep her awake for some of the flight so she is tired enough to sleep that first night. You may well have a child that actually likes to sleep though...