About two weeks ago, our family arrived home from a wonderful vacation in Europe to the harsh reality of five whole days of jet lag. This is the first time we have been hit so badly. Every night was a crazy party at my house. We lived like vampires. Neither of the kids could sleep until about 5:00 am to 7:00 am in the morning, jumping up and down on their beds and eventually running out of their room to play. At least three nights, I cooked whole meals for them in the dead of night. My poor husband stayed up all night with us and then had to go to work as soon as the kids hit the sack. Liam, Clara and I slept until at least midday on each of these days.

The good news is that we all eventually recovered. Never wanting to experience that nightmare again, I did a little research on how to avoid such a bad bout of jet lag next time around. Here are some of the hints I found.

1. As with grownups, the thing that helps babies and kids adjust to the time change is sunlight. Get everyone up first thing in the morning (no matter how tired), try to get them as much daylight as possible, and attempt to have them outside at dusk as well. During night time, try to keep the lights out and the blackout drapes closed.

2. Offer your child food at local mealtimes and try to fill them up as much as possible. At night, do not offer full meals but just some milk or other light snack to fill their stomachs.
   

3. Encourage physical activity during the day. Find a playground and encourage your child to do a lot of walking.
   

4. Make sure you put yourself to bed early the first few nights so that you are alert when the children wake up in the middle of the night. Consider napping when your child naps.
   

5. Encourage your child to nap when it is naptime at your destination. It can be tempting to keep a child awake, hoping that they will crash at night, but that strategy rarely works well and can often run down your child’s immune system.
   

I definitely did everything wrong this time and will not do it again. Any other tips from experienced parents would be greatly appreciated.