Hello,
I had a question about travling and a 2 hour time difference. My daughter is 8 months and is on a pretty good routine. We will be going away in a few weeks and I wanted to find out if there are any tips or suggestions to keep my daughter on somewhat of her "normal" schedule even though there is a time difference so she does not get all confused. I have traveled with her before, but not with a time change. So, any thoughts would be great! Thanks.
J.
Thanks for all the responses! It gives me some idea on what I should do!
My husband and I have been traveling to Bermuda every year since my son was 8 months.(We have family there) There is only a 1 hour time difference but I have always kept him on his regular schedule to make the transition on all of us easier!
I would say that you take a little time while she is napping or after she has gone to bed for the night write out her normal schedule then calculate what time it is there in correlation to her normal routines. As an example, if she normally eats breakfast at 7 then she will likely ask for breakfast around 5 with the 2 hour time difference.
I began traveling with my daughter at 8 weeks old and had all kinds of time zone issues. My suggestion is not to worry too much because when you travel EVERYTHING is off her time table: meals, naps, playtime, etc. The day(s) of traveling will be crazy and chaotic, so she will be tired and cranky perhaps. She will probably eat or sleep whenever she is allowed --or not! My experience is a couple hours didn't make any difference (perhaps 1/2 hour either way) because she was tired or extra excited with all the new surroundings. I kept the same bedtime routine, tried to keep the room dark and brought along her familiar blanket and bedtime items to make her feel at home once we arrived. Just go with the flow and be prepared to move her nap perhaps an hour here and there depending on her mood, but nothing too much. YOU will know better than anyone "I think she is acting tired." Follow your instinct! With the all the extra stimulation, she will need her naps and bedtime routine even more!
if possible, keep her on her regular time schedule.. don't change anything if you can help it.. we took our son to Vegas and since we all had issues, it was easy to feed him and bedtime as usual.. it was just early there! LOL
My son was 9 months old when we took him to California with a three hour time difference. We tried to stay on the same schedule and I was very nervous about it.
It ended up working out fine. We fed him on east coast time but his sleep schedule ended up being different. Turns out he went right back to normal when we got home (four days later). Good luck!
If you are only going for a short time (like a week) is there any reason you can't just, for yourselves, stay on current time. Then you won't have to change when you get home.
