Help - My baby is jetlagged!

S

Shenzhennifer

Registered User
I just flew to Canada with my husband and baby. We had no basinnette on the plane and it was a long flight needless to say. Baby got some some sleep but not ideal and not comfortable.
So now, despite what I have read, he is completely jetlagged, more than us! All he wants to do in the day is sleep. I will keep him awake for up to an hour(which is normal for him) but then his usual 45 min nap will be 2 hrs+ and I have to wake him up. Then he is really cranky and the cycle continues. During the night then he wakes up, cannot sleep and then spend a few hours crying, and we cannot soothe him. He's been asleep since 5am and aside from a feed, is going strong and it's nearly 10am. I don't know what to do.
We are actually having a party today to introduce Mr. CrankyPants and Silent Husband. I'm just worried that the main attraction will want to sleep all through it and then be up at night again crying... sigh.
Please some suggestions!!!!!
 
it is only natural, you have after all travelled half way around the world and are trying to adjust to a time change of no less than 12 hours and up to 16 hours (depending on where you are).

it generally takes 1 day for each 1 hour of time change... so you have roughly 12 days ahead of you.

there's not much you can do about it except explain that he is jetlagged to the party attendees.

he's still very little, so it's not like you can tempt him with activities/bribes etc. so, you'll just have to go with the flow.

i would wake him at noon... then see how long he can last. if he's beyond tired, let him sleep. it's what his little body is craving and it will make your life easier if you just try to accomodate him as much as you can. don't try to change his schedule by an hour at a time, work in smaller timeframes, like 15 or 20 minutes.

lastly, good luck and try to enjoy yourself! (i'm more than a little jealous!)
 
Taking him out in the daylight is supposed to help jet-lag and yes...it is one day for each hour of time difference for people to generally get over their jet-lag. I try to not organise anything in the first couple of days of landing in the UK just so we can all adjust and be in the land of living when we see people! Enjoy your holiday!
 
I have done 4 UK/HK trips with my son (now 11 months). The time difference is 7 or 8 hours depending on daylight saving.

Each time I have made my son get up at the new wake up time e.g. 7 am in the new country and stay up for at least an hour. Then I let him nap for an hour only at a time then wake him -I keep this up all day - never letting him nap more than 1 hour at a time with an hour in between naps. I make sure he takes these naps in a light room or outside in the pushchair with a lot of noise etc around. I make sure we spend lots of time outside - some natural light but also shopping malls and friends flats just to get the 'buzz' of daytime.

Then I put him down at normal bedtime e.g. 7pm. He can sleep or be awake as much as he wants between 7pm and 7am but sleep is in a darkened room - if he wakes we play - it's not fair to leav him crying when we chose to do the trip.

Then at 7 am the next day we start this over again.

Each day gets much easier than the last - he has bad jet lag for about 48 hrs then about 3 days when he wakes a couple of times in the night but settles back down with patting etc. Then by about day 5 he is fine.

Not saying it would work for all babies but works for him - warning day 1 is tough but the harshness of it seems to get him over it quickly.

sorry I know this is not going to resolve it in time for you party.
 
jetlag for babies is miserable. like the mums above have said, 1 hour = 1 day for them - poor little bubs! We've done 3 trips from UK to NYC, NYC to HK and HK to Hawaii. We are very familar with jetlag.

My best advice is to try and continue a normal routine as soon as you land. So if you land in the morning, try and stick to lunch and dinner knowing that dinner might be at 4pm rather than 6pm. They usually crash around 4:30pm on the first day so each day after I would try and keep him up 20-30 minutes later until I reached the desire bed time which for my son is 7pm. He usually would wake up at 4:30/5am, but I would let him play in his crib as long as possible and then when I did go in to get him, I would act as if this was the normal wake-up time for him.

Other advice - just making sure he gets all the calories he needs during the day and make sure your little one is well hydrated.

Hope this helps! There's no easy answer.....when we returned from Hawaii in December, it took my son around 2.5 weeks so show any signs for his old routine and he was 12 months old.
 
Thanks for the advice. I wish I was more diligent about keeping up his routine from the first day but I felt bad that he didn't get enough sleep on the plane. The party was ok. He cried for about half of it - poor thing didn't realise he was the centre of attention and got overwhelmed with all the grabbing hands and big faces.
The last couple of nights have been a bit miserable for us both, but today was better - he never napped for more than 45 min(his usual). He slept in, but I moved his whole nighttime routine a couple hours later too so we'll see what happens tonight. He's usually up crying and whining for a couple hours in the middle of the night. Not wanting to play, but just generally unhappy. Poor thing. Let's hope he gets used to things soon. My jetlagged husband is a whole different story... me, I'm echausted all the time so I don't know the difference:)
 
Hopeyoua re both feeling better now. I don't really have any advise, but I remember going through the same thing, crying baby all night when you are exhausted and jet lagged yourself. I always found that HK to canada was worse that canada to Hk, hopefully the jet lag home will be better. You will probably find that once everything is back to normal, it will be time to go home and do it all over again. Makes for a painful holiday!
 
Muuucchhhh better now. He is back to his usual catnaps, is only a bit fussier than usual (every day getting better) and is sleeping like normal during the night, just waking up for feeds. We're keeping him up later than usual but he's also sleeping later than usual. It's working out ok so far. When you're in the thick of it all, it feels like it will never get better. But Grandma is great with him and he seems to be settling well...and then we will go back to HK and it will just be me alone to deal with his jetlag;)
Really enjoying being back in Canada - the BabiesRUs here is amazing!!! Lots of baby stuff and great food for Mommy and Daddy! (not to mention the extra help in childcare finally...so this is what normal family life is like...).
Thanks for all your suggestions and help!
 
Hi Shenzhennifer,
Glad to hear things are getting better!
I was in Canada for a month this past March and loved it!!! (not the jetlag part, but everything else)
I totally agree BabiesRUs is AMAZING!!! Not sure where abouts in Canada you are, but I was in Richmond Hill, Ontario and I miss the Loblaws there...I was able to purchase all organic produce there and at a reasonable price for my 3 year old and 9 month old.

Have a fantastic time!
 
SUPERSTORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! please visit it for me! LOL! i'm going through withdrawl! i was in canada for a month in april and am missing it terribly....

hey, do you think you could squeeze my mum into your suitcase on your return?
 
Carang - Went to Superstore for the first time today, holy %^$#! So big! And love the JOE baby clothes line, cheap and wearable. And I can get professional pictures taken of my son there for like ten bucks and enough prints. oh and sorry, i am busy trying to shove my own mommy in my suitcase to no avail...
KatelynnBB - I am east of TO, in Whitby/Oshawa - box store central.
If it were not for the husband going back to HK I would try to stay here longer... stupid hk....
 
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