How do I get my toddler over jet-lag?

2 Comments

1. Jc22ny says:

   August 28, 2009 at 5:37 pm

   Babies and young children suffer from jet lag just as adults do. Traveling across time zones disrupts your sleeping, waking, and eating cycles. Any trip you take with more than a two-hour time change forces your body to adjust to a new schedule. The more time zones you cross, the longer it takes your body to adapt. Most people find that traveling east to west is easier on the body than west to east.

   try the following suggestions:

   * Put your child to sleep at the new location’s bedtime.
   * Immediately change your meal schedule to adapt to the new time zone.
   * Plan outdoor activities for your first few days. Exposure to sunlight and daylight will help you and your baby adjust to the new environment.
   * Don’t give your child an antihistamine to make him drowsy. The medication may interfere with his adjustment to a new time zone. It can also rev up your baby rather than slow him down.

   Your child should recover quite fast but try to follow as normal schedule as possible

   good luck!!!
2. Eclipsepearl says:

   August 30, 2009 at 7:46 am

   I’m a former Flight Attendant and I fly with my children about twice a year between Europe and California, which is a 9 hour time difference.

   Obviously, I had the jet-lag game down cold since I worked almost all international, long-haul flights, but it became a little more complicated when I flew with my children. As babies, I noticed they switched nights and naps. End of story. Easy. Once they hit toddler hood, it was a whole different deal. I had pleas of “Barney! Barney!” at 4am. Yikes!

   First, remember that her stomach needs to adjust just like her sleep schedule. Be sure she’s not headed to bed on an empty stomach, only to wake at 3am with hunger pangs expecting dinner. Get yourselves on the local eating schedule asap.

   Adjust to your new time zone but be reasonable. My guidelines are bed between 8pm-midnight and up between 5am and 10am. Set your alarm if you have to. Once you are on something vaguely reassembling a normal wake/sleep pattern in your new location, you can then “tweak” forward or backwards to make it more sane. This will get rid of that “zombie” feeling and at least have you feeling normal when you’re awake. Don’t try to dive into exactly the same schedule you have at home or you may be paving the way to disaster.

   Light is an important componant to melatonin. Look it up and read up on this important chemical your brain produces which aids sleep. Light supresses it while dark increases it. I used to take melatonin in pill form when I worked but I was hesitant to give it to my children. Don’t give it to your daughter unless you discuss it with a medical professional first.

   During the day, head outside and get in fresh air and sunlight. On a bad day, we would head to the mall. Being with other people, especially other children works well to keep awake in the day time.

   I assume she naps but don’t overdo it! Time it carefully and then wake her up after whatever is the length of a normal nap at home.

   Before bed, turn off all screens, no games, computers or TV’s. Even if the light doesn’t seem bright, this kind of light going in the eye supresses melatonin. Keep lights low as you read a book or do whatever your bedtime routine is.

   If she gets up at night
   -Keep lights low, no computers, TV’s or electronic games.
   -Feed her a snack, if she’s hungry of something not too sugary, salty or greasy. Something bready works well, like a bagel or roll.
   -Skip the teeth for this special situation. Going in the bathroom, flipping on the light, etc. may wake her up more. Your dentist will forgive you this once!
   -Head her back to bed as soon as you can manage it.

   Keep well hydrated. Air travel is very drying and dehyration symptoms are very similar to those of jet lag. You end up with a double battle. I try to stay away from caffine, althought a little green tea during the day seems to help me. If your doctor has restricted bottles or milk, you may want to “liberalize” that a little while she’s adjusting and then go back to any restrictions. Needless to say, this is not the time to get rid of bottles or pacifiers, if she uses either or both.

   I used to call a friend who would say that the whole family got up at noon two weeks after getting back because they were “getting over jet lag”. We were over ours’ in 2-3 days tops, with two more hours of time change than they had (I’m from further away).

   So just hang in there. A little bit of disapline will make things much more sane for both of you.

   Good luck!