Preparing for jet lag

[Hsmum]

Not sure which area to post this in...Anyway, I live in Tokyo and am planning to take my 11 month old son to the UK to visit our family. They will be 8 hours behind and it's a 12-14 hour flight (!!), leaving Tokyo in the morning, arriving UK in the UK afternoon. Any tips would be appreciated (both parents and in-laws are too elderly to make the trip - we have to go!) Going back's worse - leave UK lunchtime, arrive in Tokyo in the Tokyo morning!

[notenoughshelfspace]

This is what worked for me; on the plane I went with whatever the baby wanted sleeping when and for however long ( I did stick to the four hour eating gaps if she was awake though. As soon as we landed I put her on her old routine; so if the time in London is midday then I gave her lunch, playtime, walk etc... and carried on with the day as much as I could. She was over her jet lag in 3 days. ( London-LA)

[Hsmum]

Thank you. 3 days! Wow, some of my friends did the trip and it took 2 weeks for the babies to get over it! (which is why I kept putting it off and putting it off!)....I think we'll be ok on the arrival in the UK but the coming back will be tough -it's usually travelling east which is the tricky one!

[deenz]

We found it actually worked better landing in the morning as then you had the whole day to try and get more into the time zone.  Coming home (from South Africa) we arrived late at night, and so we were supposed to be sleeping, but really didn't feel like it.  Like the pp said we tried to get straight into the local time when we arrived (limiting sleeping during the day etc). 

On the plane trip we also ended up just allowing dd to sleep whenever and however long she wanted (which wasn't very long over the 24hrs of flying time  ).  She was 14/15 months old at the time.

It was tough!  We were in South Africa for 2 weeks, and it took pretty much all that time for dd to sleep through the night again.  Back at home it seemed to take about 1 week to get back to normal.  (SA was 10hrs behind NZ time).

Good luck!

[Hsmum]

Thanks for your post. I was thinking more of me when I was saying about going east! Whenever I've travelled from London to Tokyo, that first day is a nightmare! Basically, you've been on the plane for 12 hours - then you land in the morning so if you didn't sleep on the plane (which probably will be the case) then you should try to stay awake until the evening (or have a short nap!)...Usually takes me 3 days but I keep hearing horror stories about the babies! I'm in the UK for 4 weeks so I hope he'll at least get a couple of weeks where he's in the time zone! I also hope it'll cure his current habit of waking at 5am every morning!

[Baby Ethan]

I actually just did a trip to Australia from uk with both legs via Tokyo.
Make sure you get a basinett, and if possible make sure its a basinette in the centre aisle and not one by the windows. I flew with JAL and their was more leg room, also it was easier for both me and my partner to get out and go to the toilet, with the window seat, the basinette pretty much locks you in unless you go climbing all the seats. Also, very NB, the arm rests by the window seats DO NOT lift up, where as the aisles seats arm rests do so you can lift them up and get yourself more comfortable by sitting at an angle or putting your legs all over your husband 
To be honest, i found reversing my LO sleep patterns easy, it was changing the feeding patterns that i find difficult (No good trying to get them to sleep through the night if they are going to keep waking up for food) So for this, during a normal day my LO gets 4 bottles every 4 hours but on the plane, if the flight is during the day, instead of feeding him every four hours i wait till he's really hungry (normally longer than 4 hours) and i only feed him as much as he need to keep him happy. By holding back on the calories during the day, i was able to make him more hungry at night (which is actually your daytime,,,, hope this makes sense!!) And the when i arrived at my destination i stuck to the feeding every 4 hours during the day. I know this sounds terrible but you basically have try your hardest to get at least some food into them so that you can start add ounces during the day and hence take those away during the night. This will also mean waking them up to feed and keeping them up as much as possible even though all they want to do is sleep. It might feel like hell the first day, but the first day will be your hardest, it'll only get better. It took my LO about 3 days to get back to sleeping through the night.
Also, (last tip, i promise) flying can be very dehydrating so make sure you give your LO plently of water, not only will this quench the thirst but it'll also fill the tummy up for a little while which will help when swapping feeds around

[Hsmum]

Baby Ethan, I was just wondering how old your baby is? We flew to Malaysia (great, no time difference!) at Christmas and the bassinette (LO was 8 months) was almost too small....Thanks!

[deenz]

When we flew to South Africa we went with Singapore Airlines, and my dd still fitted in the basinets (she is quite small for her age, but not tiny).  I can't remember what the weight limit was... maybe 10kg??   She didn't sleep in them either, but that's another story!!

I just remembered another tip - to spend some time out in the sunlight at your destination (could be a bit tricky in the UK  ) as this helps your body adjust to the time difference.

And I also remember giving dd something to eat in the early hours of the morning, as she was hungry...  so when they eat is also something to keep a track of.

Bf'ing my dd to sleep was the ONLY way she would fall asleep on the plane, and I also did this at our destination sometimes too in the middle of the night (we were staying with people, so didn't want her to cry and wake others up).

[Hsmum]

Thanks for the advice ladies!  Let's see what happens....!