jet lag with baby

6 replies

cosmicdust · 13/12/2008 23:56

Hi,
We will be travelling with 4 1/2 month old ds for first time next week. It will be a 6 hour time difference (US to UK). Any advice on dealing with the jet lag?
Thanks

OP posts:

fall08baby · 14/12/2008 10:00

I'd be interested in this advice too. We'll be traveling with a 3 month old (Spain to US) in January and I was wondering the same.

kwt · 14/12/2008 11:05

hi, i flew with 15 week old baby from uk to singapore. depends on the time you fly. we flew off in the afternoon, and brought her sleeping bag and sleepsuit etc with us. on the plane and in the airport, she was so excited she just wouldn't sleep initially, then crashed for 4 hours, arriving in singapore at about 4pm. by then she was so tired, we put her to bed around 6pm, due to unfamiliar surroundings, missing daddy etc, screamed till 2am (sorry if you don't want to hear this!) and then slept till 8am. in a few days, it just righted itself, but we kept the bedtime routine just as it always was e.g. book, bath, sleeping bag, feed, bed.
coming back this way we left in the middle of the night, she was already asleep so we woke her up, again really excited, but crashed in the plane - advice to you is make sure you sleep when they do! arrived back 16 hours later at 1pm, absolutely exhausted, slept at 4pm, and we kept her in bed with us for one night and one night only, and she slept till the next day 7am. didn't take long after that.
sorry for long post! just sharing my experience, as i was very afraid of this as well. i guess my point is, keep to a strict routine, let them nap as necessary, but not too close to the time you want them to sleep. and if need be put them in bed with you.. unfamiliar surroundings can be very disconcerting. hope that helps.

Original poster

cosmicdust · 15/12/2008 01:58

Thanks kwt!
We leave in the evening & will arrive about 8am UK time, but it will feel like 2am. We then have to take the train from the airport for a few hours (luckily my Mum's coming to help us with that leg!) I'm kind of hoping that he'll sleep better when it's dark and so adjust more easily than I do? I'm pretty nervous about this whole trip as he doesn't seem to adjust well to new places. I've already accepted the fact we'll be co-sleeping. We do so a lot at home anyway.
Good luck with your trip fall08baby!

OP posts:

thumbElf · 15/12/2008 02:08

flew with a 10mo to Australia a couple of months ago - best advice, as kwt says, is to sleep when they do! we wnet out on a night flight, DS was out like a light for 4 hours but sadly we weren't - after that he was much more sporadic. He woke at 3am for a couple of nights after arriving but settled down quite quickly after that; did have to co-sleep with him after waking (he started off in his cot) the first few nights but then he was ok. I'm sure you know to take familiar toys with you to minimise "strangeness".

Worse coming back - but we both caught a bug on the plane so 3 days after getting home he had a temperature and was just ill, and I had a raging sore throat which developed into a 3 week cold . So judging how quickly the jet lag wore off would be pretty difficult for the return. Afternoon flight as well - DS was in no mood to go to sleep at the start, nor later on - the only solid sleep we got was 1 hour out of Bangkok. We arrived back in UK at ~6am - home by 8am, stayed awake for about 4 hours then we all took to our beds, tbh, cos we were just so tired. Had about 4 hours then got up for dinner and no real problems going back to bed - but DS was awake at 3am again.

Good luck!

MadamDeathstarOverBethlehem · 15/12/2008 02:43

We went from LA to London with 2 22 month olds. We kept their routine the same, so if they went to bed at 6.30 p.m. in LA, they went to bed at 6.30 p.m. in London. The jet lag took several days to get over. Just do what you would normally do at home, keep night-time quiet and dark and daytime light and lively.

It was worse on subsequent trips because MIL would get up with them at 2.00 a.m. and take them downstairs to play. By 4.00 p.m. they were exhausted, but all ready to play again with granny at 2.00 a.m.

leothelioness · 15/12/2008 03:08

We have done multiple long haul flight with our 2 ds in my experience the younger they are the more quickly they settle down to the time difference.

sleep when they do on the plane.
if possible try from a few days before the flight to adjust their schedule a little every day so that they are not hit with the full 6 hour when they arrive. even if it just a shift by a couple of hours it will make settling down easier whn you get there.

3.Failiar blankets toys etc.

Try to keep the activities of the first few days a little calm so they have time to adjust without being overwhelmed.
Don't try to force the time adjustment too much otherwise it will backfire, small steps will work much better.

I hope this helps.

Flip