How do I help my baby / child with jet lag?
Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant
Children watching planes at an airport
When planning a holiday abroad we often have to consider jet lag and how this might affect our children. For some families the idea of jet lagged children can put them off wanting to travel at all, but try to not let it put you off as there are a few things you can do to help!
What is jet lag?
Jet lag is when your normal sleep pattern is affected by travel to another country with a different time zone. Jet lag can cause your child’s (and your) circadian rhythm (our internal body clock) to be disrupted for a couple of days up to a week.
When a child experiences jet lag they will have symptoms, such as sleep disruption (not being able to get to sleep, waking in the night for long periods of time or very early in the morning), mood changes (clingy, fussy or upset) and feeling unwell.
Babies and children can suffer with jet lag more significantly than adults as they are not able to adjust to new time zones in the same way an adult might. Children are not able to prepare for the change in time zone, tell the time (younger children) or have strategies in place for getting into a new routine. For these reasons they rely heavily on us helping them out with this.
When looking at jet lag and how long it takes to adjust, work to the idea that for every 1 hour of time difference it will take a child 24 hours to recover or adjust, so, for example a 4 hour time difference can mean 4 days before they have fully adjusted.
Parent and baby on a plane
What can we do to help?
Adjust timings before travel and a couple of days before you return to help with the transition. This can help to reduce the number of hours difference between home and where you are travelling or from. For long haul and locations which are 5+ hours different to the UK, you might want to move mealtimes/sleep times by 15/30 mins over a couple of days so that you have changed by 1-2 hours so not such a shock to the system when travelling.
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If you are going to a location which is 1-2 hours different to the UK then you may want to consider sticking with UK timings so it might be that you normally get up at 7am which will be 8/9am in your new location, then means that if you normally do bedtime at 7pm then it will be 8/9pm in your new location. For a shorter time difference, it might work better to stick to your normal timings.
Try to plan flights so that you are arriving at your destination in the morning so that you then have the day for your little one to adjust to the location, familiarise themselves with the environment before it is time to go to bed. On return it might help to do a night flight so that your little one is able to sleep and get back into some routine for the time zone at home.
Try to keep to your child’s routine where possible – for babies, this means trying to keep feed times and nap times at around the same time as usual when away and for older children look at having meals at regular times as this helps to set the body clock. Regular wake up times can also really help keep to a routine and set the body clock.
Eating well and keeping hydrated means that the body is able to adjust more easily to the time change -flying can also cause us to be dehydrated, which can then impact on sleep.
Fresh air and daylight – getting out during the day for fresh air and natural daylight is an excellent way of helping to set the body clock.
Bedtime routine – it can help to have familiarity around bedtimes, so this might be bed sheets from home so that they smell familiar, blackout blinds (darkness at night will really help), using things such as white noise if you use this at home, a comforter and having the same routine that you have when putting your little one down for a nap or at bedtime.
Always set an alarm if you are taking a nap. Often when we are jet lagged we need to take a nap to be able to get through to bedtime, but it is essential not to over sleep as this will continue to cause jet lag symptoms. Set an alarm so that you have a power nap but only for 1-2 hours (depending on the time etc) so that you get up and are then ready to sleep again when it comes to bedtime.
If your little one is getting up in the night, then try to keep things dark and treat it as a night-time waking. It can be tempting to put the lights or TV on etc but this can confuse the body clock even more, so try to keep with nights being dark, quiet and calm at night time and then in the days get out in the light and do things to burn off the energy.
Get out and burn off the energy. This might be finding a play park, going swimming or just getting out for a walk. Often when we are travelling our little ones are sitting for long periods of time which they are not designed to do, so getting them moving can really help with building appetite, tiring them out for naps or bedtime and again re- setting the body clock.
Many of us have experienced jet lag and while it can feel very hard at the time it is often very much worth it for being in a new location and having valuable family time. Try to not put too much pressure on getting things into place straightaway, it might be an up and down first couple of days but it will settle once you are into a routine in your new location!
Happy Holidays!
While you are here we have lots more blogs on various topics which you can find here, as well as our downloadable webinars on topics such as behaviour and emotions, sleep and toilet training. You might also like to read our blog ‘My 8 top tips for travelling with children’.
Don’t forget that we offer parent consultations should you need support with anything from sleep to behaviour and so much more! Details of the packages we offer can be found here.
We also have a Podcast ‘Newborn to Teen and Everything in Between’, you can listen here.