1-Yr Old and Dealing with Time Difference

What we have done is to keep our daughters on Chicago time. The first day/night is a bit dicey, but basically what we do is try to schedule naps for say 2pm (basically the Chicago morning nap) and 6pm (equiv. to the PM nap) and bedtime around 11pm or midnight local time, at least for the first couple days (by the end of the trip our girls tend to sleep a bit earlier and wake a bit earlier as their bodies adjust to the daylight). Keep the room dark in the morning and hopefully baby will sleep until 11AM or noon. Kind of a bummer to be stuck indoors for so long, but the nice thing is being able to enjoy some nightlife for once with such a late bedtime. We have done this twice and it has worked really well. The best part is that the transition back to Chicago time is basically automatic. We would usually arrive late afternoon and just put our girls to bed around 6pm and they would sleep through the night. We found that they bounce back way faster than we do from the time difference!

i just do this the same way as i deal with it for myself. Try to do the naps on the schedule you do them at home but by english or in my case irish time. So for instance, my little sweetie goes to bed at 8pm so I put her to sleep around that time irish time. It takes a day or two on either end but generally works - naps I do when they need them.

We just took a trip to Paris over Thanksgiving with our one-year-old. Hopefully, your son will sleep on the way over. For some reason, our daughter was too excited to sleep.

It took her about 2-3 days to adjust on each end. Just try to maintain his nap schedule functioning on local time. We had a couple nights where she was up from 3-5 in the morning, perfectly happy, but awake. Her internal clock just hadn't reset. Baby Einstein on a DVD player helped us through those nights so Mom and Dad could get adjusted too.

I can't recommend the portable DVD player enough for the plane and early morning adjustment time. Don't feel like your a bad parent--your airplane neighbors will thank you! Good luck!

Hi Im also from the UK an living in Chicago.
The best way I find is to let them sleep the whole wy on the flight. If you are flying with BA get one of there bassinetts, they are brilliant. I have traveled with my 3 girls on my own to the uk. My youngest is now 21months, she slept all the way.
Then when you get there keep them awake like you would normally. let them nap at thier usual nap time. Only go on british time. put them to bed normal time so say in the US they go to bed at 7pm. Put them to bed UK time at 7pm. Within a day or two they will be on UK time.
Do the same then when you get back, night flights are better for kids coz they start off with there usual sleep.
Also I have tried before giving them an antihistamene. Uks Piriton is the best, but find one that doesnt say non drowsy. This makes them relax an sleep easier.Its not harmfull as you are only given them a tiny amount
Hope this helps
have a good time
Kim

Hi A.,

We found while traveling to Sweden with our then 6-month-old that you just have to let them sleep when their bodies want to. There is nothing else to be done, unfortunately, and it takes a while (a few or several days) to adjust to the same wake/nap/sleep times you had at home. We decided to try to put our baby on a later schedule while in Sweden so we could enjoy the long summer evenings with her, and that worked. After a few days we had her getting up at 8:30 and to bed around 9:30 or 10pm. If we had wanted to her to be up at 7 like at home, I think it would have taken a few more days. Good luck!