Traveling to different time zones with early toddlers Post Reply

[356girl]

Hi, we're about to travel to the States - a 5 hour time difference. Does anyone have advice on adjusting routines to such a different time zone? Debating whether or not I start to change our 1 year-old twins' routine a week before departure. Flight is a daytime flight and is approx 6.5 hours, followed by a 3 hour road trip... Long day. They have experience traveling to a 3 hour difference but this just feels huge. Thanks!

[fionapm]

We went to Australia earlier this year and it was fine. Adjust the routine on the day you travel so that when you are on the plane they sleep, eat etc at the "new" time. When you get to the US don't let them nap more than usual during the day time and stick to their normal evening bed time - it will be tough for the first 2 or 3 days but if you stick with it they should be on track quite quickly. Our first 48 hours was difficult but then it was totally fine.

Do you need long haul travel tips?

[txmum]

We've traveled back to the states a number of times with our now two year old. We go to the central time zone so it's 6 hours, but might not make a significant difference from 5 hours. I don't really do anything to prepare him before we go that far. You just have to accept that they're going to be a little off for a few days and roll with it. Travelling west is easier. Due to the time difference, nap time there will roughly coincide with bedtime here. So it's easy to get them down for an afternoon nap, but you will need to wake them, as their little bodies will think its night and will want to sleep a proper long sleep. Bedtime is also okay because they'll be pretty tired and you're likely to have kept them up later than usual anyway. Just beware the 3 am ready to start the day wake up. I have no cure for that!
It usually takes about 3 days or so to adjust on that side of the Atlantic. It's coming back this way that is hell. It took us a month to get back on track last time. Utter torture.
Meals also seem to get trickier when we travel across time zones too. He's picky anyway, so hard to say its definitely the time difference that puts him off, but we seem to have more mealtime challenges than normal. Maybe he knows feeling judgment from relatives and in-laws!
Hope you have a good trip and remember to enjoy yourselves!

[shaneleone]

I've traveled five times now to California since my son was born - which is an eight hour time difference. I've read that it takes a day to adjust for every hour time change, which seems true in our experience as it is usually about a week before he's completely settled and into the new time zone.

So I agree that you just have to accept that it will be tricky at the beginning. I've found that we've either had hellish flights where he hardly slept during the journey but then was absolutely exhausted when we arrived and slipped fairly easily into the new routine -or- we've had dream flights where he slept a lot, but then it was hellish once we arrived as he was rested and completely off the new timezone. If you leave in the evening, you're more likely to have the latter.

In our experience, it works best if we can arrive to our final destination at roughly his bedtime. We're all shattered and can all crash, ideally get a good nights sleep in before a pretty early start the next day, but then we've already made good progress on switching to the new time zone.

Only other tip would be getting outside as much as possible after arriving and into natural sunlight as that's supposed to help reset the body clock.

And yes, it's far worse coming back I'm afraid.

[BalhamMumWorkingFT]

Same as above. To NY we tried to leave on the 11am ish flights so you can have a nap on the plan but stay up a bit after landing for a good ish night sleep... And we lays take the all day flight back. Proved to be the easiest.

Just go with it is my motto...

[JustUsTravel]

http://www.facebook.com/singlemumtravels?ref=hl

Hi,
I have been on many trips with my daughter, just me and her, from when she was 8 months old. The first long distance trip was when she was 16 months.
I have set up a facebook page and a blog with advice. Please visit.
I would recommend not changing their routine but make sure you are well prepared for the flight. I find that when i arrive i try to fit them into the time zone asap..even though the first day is always hard.
If you would like any more advice on travelling with children please do contact me.