travel to London with a 15 month old

[Anonymous]

Traveling to London w a 15 months old next month and planning to keep him on EST schedule... is this realistic? trip is 5 days. go to bed at 1am in London (8pm EST) and then sleep in until noon (7am EST)? could be perfect if it works! anyone else done? What else should I know abt traveling w toddler this age? plane tricks, thoughts, advice?? TIA

[Anonymous]

Unlikely. Your exposure to natural light is going to work against your imposed schedule.

[Anonymous]

We went the other way (west) and found it was just easier to go with the new time zone from the get-go. He did wake up really early the first day, but he adjusted quickly. It helped that the long travel totally messed up his sleep and he was exhausted and ready for bed, but since we were active and doing stuff, he didn't have the chance to go to sleep earlier. I think when we go to the UK (now he's 3, he was 23 months the last trip) we'll do the same. It's an overnight flight so he'll probably be cranky and tired the first day and to sleep easily....I'm hoping! It's hard to find breakfast at noon and all the other parts of your day, including daylight as PP mentioned are clues to your brain about what time of day it is. Maybe skip or shorten the nap the first day.

[Anonymous]

It never works, but the baby will adjust quicker than you will.

[Anonymous]

It won't work. The first day will be rough for everyone, but after that you will all adjust. I usually try to keep everyone up so that we get on local time as quickly as possible.

Something like:

Day 1: Overnight flight, kids sleep, adults might get some sleep

Day 2: Arrive in the morning local time. Wake kids up, adults are pretty tired, kids got enough sleep but not a full night's sleep. Stay up for as long as we can doing stuff all day. Go to sleep early around 7 pm (kids and adults).

Day 3: Sleep in as much as we can and then we are all fine for the rest of the trip.

[Anonymous]

1. Buy a seat for the 15-month old so he doesn't have to sleep on your laps.
2. Take a night flight over.
3. Get him to take a nap roughly in the middle of the day UK time.
4. Early bed time.
5. Room darkening shades (if not in a hotel just tape up some trash bags)
6. Get out as early as possible the next morning, lots of fresh air & outdoor activity, keep busy during the day. Nap in the middle of the day, bed time as usual.

We did this with our 18-month old on a recent trip to Europe and he was adjusted by Day 2.

[Anonymous]

Treat it as a 3 hour shift, and you'll be in bed by 11 and up by 10 am.

In the week leading up to the trip, get up a half hour earlier each day; by the day you leave, you will already have shifted 3 hours.

Make sure that your accommodations will allow you to check in the morning that you arrive. You'll be tired and probably hungry when you get there.

Pack in your carry on the things you'll need when you first arrive at the hotel. Couple of extra diapers, wipes, some trash bags, chargers and adapters for your phone. PJs for the kid if that's what they nap in. Clean undies for yourself. (In general, I pack my carry on so I can survive 24 hours at my destination without luggage, in case it goes missing en route.)

I also recommend getting over the ear headphones to bring on the flight.

[Anonymous]

Whenever we fly to Europe for a short trip like this, we have a natural shift in routine that's part of the jet lag and lack of sleep on that overnight flight. The kids (now age 4) just sleep in and thus nap and go to bed later than at home. It works really well for us there! And on the return, there's not much jet lag at all for them since the travel day is so exhausting.