Time zone change tips for toddlers?

[TeamSy]

Does anyone have any tips on dealing with time zone changes and a 20 month old?! Trip is 6 nights, 3 of which are going to be spent at a theme park. Do you try to adjust to new time, attempt to keep old time? Meet somewhere in the middle?! What has worked for you? We have ADR’s coming up and I’m so lost on what time to actually make them for!

 

[sponica]

How many hours are we talking? Are you traveling forwards in time or backwards in time?

 

[happymommy]

I took my 6 month old from Hawaii to Missouri, and then we moved to the mainland (East Coast) & started taking both kids back to Hawaii when they were in preschool. As a baby, I had no problems at all.

We just try to adjust our minds the minute we get on a plane. Keep them up late as we can for a couple nights (6 hour time difference). The challenge was always when we'd go home, they were still on Hawaii time no matter what I'd do for a few days. They wouldn't wake up in the morning, and wanted to stay up too late at night! I just woke them up and kept them awake best I could.

Understand you may have tired or cranky travellers coming home, depending on how many hours difference you're talking about.

 

[TeamSy]

How many hours are we talking? Are you traveling forwards in time or backwards in time?

3 hours back! Live in NY and headed to California.

 

[Helene_C]

I think some kids are more flexible about time zones and schedules than others - how did your kid react to the spring time change or to days when bedtime is delayed? I took my 2.5 yo to DL last year from the East coast and it wasn't a big deal. I kept him up until closer to a CA bedtime the first night, he "slept in" a bit the next morning (so woke up at 5 Pacific/8 Eastern when he would usually wake at 7 Eastern), we rope dropped DL and he passed out in the stroller by 11am and took a very long nap while his brother and I had lunch. After that he was more or less on California time.

If your kid needs a very long time to adjust to schedule changes, then I would plan on shifting him only an hour or two, and making the most of early mornings at the parks but giving up on evening shows. It's easy to rope drop when you're on Eastern time!

 

[KrazeeK120]

One trick I was told when traveling to Europe is to go to bed at whatever “bedtime” is the first day you’re there, and it will help reset your body clock.

We’ve only traveled 1 hour time difference with our son, but we applied this principal to our trip and he did fine. The first day will probably be hard, but should get easier after that.

Good luck!

 

[TeamSy]

I think some kids are more flexible about time zones and schedules than others - how did your kid react to the spring time change or to days when bedtime is delayed? I took my 2.5 yo to DL last year from the East coast and it wasn't a big deal. I kept him up until closer to a CA bedtime the first night, he "slept in" a bit the next morning (so woke up at 5 Pacific/8 Eastern when he would usually wake at 7 Eastern), we rope dropped DL and he passed out in the stroller by 11am and took a very long nap while his brother and I had lunch. After that he was more or less on California time.

If your kid needs a very long time to adjust to schedule changes, then I would plan on shifting him only an hour or two, and making the most of early mornings at the parks but giving up on evening shows. It's easy to rope drop when you're on Eastern time!

Did you make any dinner ADR’s? Baby usually eats dinner around 5:30 eastern but 2:30 seems insane lol. Thinking of making ADRs for like 4 western which is 7 eastern and seeing what happens. I’m not going to make any the first day and just see how it goes. She’s usually a really good traveler but we’ve never done a time zone change with her before! I don’t think rope drop will be an issue haha but dinner and bedtime have me a little nervous!

 

[2019TripIdeas]

We've had good luck both ways (East Coast to West, and reverse, haven't yet done Europe with them). I think the advice given is wise-- try to keep them up until that time zone's bedtime on Day 1. Meals may be a little trickier, so just maybe be prepared to stop for a snack.

Are you doing a redeye back? We like doing that when we take our 3 little ones to the East coast from the West Coast. If we get a flight that leaves around 9 or 10 and arrive at the airport around 8 with kids already in their PJs, we get to wherever we're going around 5 or 6 a.m. EST and our kids have slept on the plane as if it was a night of sleep, for the most part. It's exhausting for us as adults if WE don't sleep as much (and it's scary getting on the plane because what if they don't fall asleep or they cry? But luckily it's always panned out totally fine).

 

[MickeyWaffles]

When we went to Disneyland with a 15 month old we had a 2 hour earlier time change. We tried to adjust to the new time right away.

Our flight arrived at 4:00pm California time, 6:00 at home. DD napped most of the flight. My friend who we were visiting had booked a 6:30pm ADR at Goofy’s Kitchen. I was nervous about this when she booked it because it was going to be 8:30 our time - an hour after normal bedtime. DD did awesome - stuffed her face, ran around Downtown Disney afterwards. Because she had napped late on the plane, it worked out for us. After dinner and running around, we put her down and by the next morning she was on CA time.

It is really hard to predict how they will do. We tried to adjust to the new time right away and it worked great - but maybe only due to the late nap on the plane.

 

[WonderlandisReality]

When went from Eastern Europe to New England I kept pushing bedtime later and later each night until we left. Made it to 2 am (7pm) a couple of days before the transition. Bedtime was 8 pm in each time zone. Took weeks but was worth it. On the flip side going east just went with it. Kiddos so excited they barely slept on plane. Immediately did normal bedtime when we arrived. Going east was easier for our family. Westward felt like we had mono for weeks. No matter what we did.

 

[glk2009]

We fly with the kids MA to CA once or twice a year. We usually just join the local time zone once we've landed in terms of sleep. With meals, I try to match our local time zone, but it's not always possible the first day.

Our usual MO is to fly out on the first flight around 6 am and we hit the ground running in CA. Usually the kids will nap a little on the plane (less now that they are older at 6 and 10).

We get to bed around our usual time, maybe a little earlier (still based on the local time, so if bedtime is 9 pm at home, it's 9 pm in CA) and inevitably someone or all of us wake up super early the next morning. But then we are adjusted.

I have found that for our family, it's much easier to adjust flying west.

Going home, we've been flying the redeye. And I just plan for a day or two where we are functioning zombies. When the kids were younger, I would sacrifice the whole day and fly during the day, even though I hated wasting the day on a plane.

We just got home from a redeye and both girls stayed up the entire 5+ hour flight. Darn JetBlue and those movies! But we just slept for a few hours once we got home and we were ok. I won't lie and say we were great. But it worked.

To answer your question re ADR times, I'd go easy on the first day, maybe plan an earlier dinner so that you can be back at the hotel, if needed. But for your other days, I would just go by local time. And it's Disney, so knows what it will do to your schedule!

HTH!