International Travel/massive Time Change with a Toddler

Hi. My husband and I went to visit my family in Kenya over Christmas with our 11 month son (he is now 15 months old). The time difference is 8 hours and the trip was not as bad as we thought. I let my son sleep when he needed to and his jet-lag resolved itself within 5-7 days. The first three days were hard because he was up for most of the night/morning. We then started shortening his daytime naps and he slowly corrected his sleep pattern.

My son has NEVER slept through the night and he still wakes up 3-4 times a night to nurse... so I was not hopeful for a quick solution to the jet-lag (my expectations were already really low). I have to emphasize that all children are different and your son may do wonderfully.

I have read that it takes a day for every hour of time difference for sleep to match the new time-zone.

Your trip sounds amazing. How many wonderful memories will you have traveling to Mongolia with your son? I hope you have a wonderful trip.

I would talk to your doctor about trying Melatonin. Although it is over the counter, you could discuss what level is safe for your child. Melatonin works great for helping adjust for time differences. I used it after I brought my 3 boys home from Russia (similar time difference) to get them on schedule.

As far as the food goes, I would bring some snacks and prepackaged toddler foods with (check with airline regarding policies surrounding this) in your suitcase/carry on for those times that he needs them - if nothing else, for comfort. When I was abroad for a couple of weeks, I brought a jar of peanut butter (hard to find in many countries) so I could have a peanut butter sandwich once in awhile because I missed my "home food" after awhile. You will be surprised how many "americanized" places there are to eat abroad. I think the one thing I will be careful of is letting Grandfather introduce him to too many "new" foods while he is there. While your son may LOVE the new food, it will be a change for his digestive tract which could cause an upset tummy. If you guys haven't tried a Mongolian or Chinese resturant recently, maybe go a few times to find a few things you know he likes. I know that those foods prepared here always taste different than in the originating country, but once in awhile you can find a "real" place here. Tell them that you are traveling soon and would like to ease your son into new foods.

Good luck!

I haven't traveled to Asia with my kids, BUT I have traveled to Asia as an adult and a child AND traveled internationally quite a bit as a child. In my memory, the time change thing wasn't a huge deal. There would be a little adjustment time, but nothing horrible. I think kids can adapt to that pretty easily. Now as a parent I would bring some herbal remedies to encourage relaxation and sleep. Possibly chamomile, wild lettuce, etc.

As for food, I would suggest continuing nursing if you are still nursing. Trust me, no one in Mongolia will bat an eyelash at nursing a toddler. They nurse for much longer. I would also highly recommend eating lots of probiotics before your trip and during. Probiotics will prepare your guts for possible "invaders." They're not really invaders, just foreign to your system. I also know people whose mantra during foreign travel is "coke kills everything." And if your main worry is pickiness, I wouldn't worry. When your child sees YOU eating, he will eat. And he won't starve himself. If he doesn't feel like eating sometimes, don't force it. He'll let you know when he's ready.

My son has gone to India two times and we'll be going again this July. The last time we went he was 20 months old. I just let him sleep as much as he wanted the first day, which turned out to be a couple of 3 hour naps. It wasn't bad because we had a day long train ride to our final city. After that I tried to keep him as awake as possible and put him to bed as late as possible. It only took me a couple of days to get him back on his normal schedule.

For the food, I packed in our checked luggage a few cans of Spaghetti O's, a loaf of bread, jar of peanut butter, jar of jelly, and some cans of fruit. This year I'm taking some cereal bars and a bunch of crackers. I am not going to bring as much other stuff as my son did pretty well with the food. He wouldn't try too much, but I'm sure you can find some basics that he will eat, such as fruit, toast, cereal, milk, etc. I ended up eating the majority of the food we brought and I left a lot of it there for the people we were visiting. I'm sure you'll be fine with just a few things for the flights. Good luck!

Hi there! We travel a lot with my little girl (14 months) because my family is in the US, we live in Jordan, and my husband's family is in Ireland. the good news is that it isn't that bad! for the most recent trip, she didn't sleep much on the plane because it was all so exciting which was good in a way because then she slept on arrival and we arrived in the evening - she woke up at 4 am the first few nights and then went back to sleep from about 7-10 and then was pretty normal for the day. the good thing is that you are also jetlagged and so waking up when they wake up isn't as dreadful as it sounds! I don't do anything in particular to get her over the jetlag besides trying to do fun things with her in the day so that she stays awake. I've never tried any sort of medication - I know some people give children's benadryl for the flight but I prefer her to stay awake some of the time so she sleeps on arrival). I like the suggestion a lot of going to a restaurant before you go to try out new foods. Overall though, children love to play with rice (and the rice in Asia is sticky rice so even more fun to eat) and tofu is great for them also. Main concern would be that they are getting enough to drink. If you're concerned about whether the water is clean enough, there's always canned juices available. yes they are sugary but better than unclean water. Enjoy the trip!

We traveled to Hawaii and our friends came along and had a 1 year old. They came from the east coast and had a 6 hour time difference. The toddler had adjusted very well to the 6 hours and loved trying lots of fish, rice and fresh fruits. Good luck and take lots of pictures!