The only way I can think of to guarantee that you will avoid jet lag is to not cross time zones. Other than that I don’t know how, answers on a postcard please.
If you follow me on instagram, you might have seen that we flew over to visit my family in the UK last week.
I’ve already written a post about flying long-haul with small children, but really that’s only the beginning. That’s the easy part. It may be horrific, but at least it can only last for a certain amount of time. It may feel like a lifetime, but you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. (I may feel differently on the matter after flying back with my two on my own in a couple of weeks…) As an aside, the Buddyphones that I bought for my daughter were worth every penny of the $20. They kept her quiet for hours and the airline didn’t provide headphones for children*, so without them we’d have had to entertain her ourselves or something awful.
If you’re flying a long way (and going east or west rather than north or south), you’ll also have a time difference to contend with. The time difference between the west coast of Canada and the UK is eight hours (most of the time).
My daughter never really had jet lag as a baby – I was very strict with keeping her in a routine and it seemed to work. I’d wake her up from naps after two hours, to make sure she knew the difference between day and night; she went to bed at the normal time, ate at the normal time, etc. I’m not going to deny it, I was a little bit smug. If I’d had a blog at the time, maybe I’d even have been tempted to write a serious post on how to stop your children from being jetlagged…
Of course, second children are there to make smug parents realize that actually they were just lucky and any good behaviour displayed by their first-born had absolutely nothing to do with them.
My son had jet lag for about a week when we came over at Christmas. I spent my nights sleeping on the settee with him in my arms because the only way I could get any sleep was by letting him feed to sleep and then NOT MOVING A MUSCLE.
So this time, I was anticipating something similar and I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, he exceeded my expectations, and my daughter joined in too. On the first night he wouldn’t go down until 2:30 and then they were both up at 4:30. The following night was even worse. He didn’t sleep until 6 o’clock in the morning.
By this time I had had about 5 hours’ sleep in 60+ hours. So when my son and daughter both went down without a fuss on the third night, I was relieved beyond belief. However, it turns out the celebrations were a little premature. The screaming started at about 11 and didn’t stop until long past midnight.
So, my advice for avoiding jet lag?
Adults should definitely stick to their routine – going to bed at nighttime in the country you’re in is the easiest way, even if sleep seems like a good idea. And, yes, try and get your children to stick to their routine if you can – don’t let them spend the whole day asleep, etc, etc.
But really the only foolproof way to avoid jet lag is just not to travel across several time zones in a short space of time… If anyone has any better advice, I’m all ears!
*The company we flew with did however provide an inflatable beach ball. To every child. On a plane. I don’t even know where to start.
The Mulberry Bush 