RE: overseas trips with kids-A

[Guest guest]

Ahhh.... the dreaded jet lag. Let me prefeace this a little: My wife is dutch. Her family lives in Holland and she used to be a flight attendant with KLM airlines (her sister too) and flew the world over many, many times. This included frequent trips to Portland , from Holland, when I was going to med school to visit when she was supposed to be "resting" from a long trip from places like Bejing. She lived and breathed major jet lag for over 7 long years. Now with 2 young children, we make a few trips to Europe each year to visit family and vica versa. We've pooled a nice consensus and have completed in-depth cohort study on the jet lag within the fam, and here are the stats:

With long trips over multiple time zones, jet lag is a given. If a mere mortal, there is no magic way to travel to the other side of the world and not get jet lagged. It is something to count on despite best interventions. With that said, treating traveling to a european destination (or return trip) can greatly accelerate the body's ability to respond and adjust to the new rythym, making a decent recovery happen in 3-5 days vs a normal 10-14. All the things Dr. Tufenkian mentioned make a difference and are good recommendations. The homeopathic "jet lag" is a nice product. We've relied on Sleepblend by Vitanica (sleepy herbs plus 1 mg melatonin) and begin dosing 1-2 hrs before the projected bedtime in the other country by 2 days prior to liftoff and taken till recovered from the lag. This is to mimic the new time zone. Personally, I'm reluctant using melatonin on young ones under 4 yrs, so used only sleepy herbs instead. Kids do great with sleepy herbs. Now that my youngest turned 4, I used the sleepblend on the last trip and he fared better than I. So the sleepblend works pretty darn good along with the homepathic "jet lag." We usually schedule the night flights with the little ones so they'll sleep on the crowded 7-8 hour flight. Lastly and oddly, it is unanimous that going ahead in time is more difficult than going back to the future. Punned? Me too. Flying TO Europe is harder and takes longer to recover from jet lag than flying back to the US ( as US mtn zone is 8-9 hrs behind Europe). With kids that little, the first 3-4 nights are really hard in adjusting. No way around it. It's the nature of radically displacing our circadian rythym, which is difficult for little ones but even more difficult on their burned out, already sleep deprived and now jet-lagged lactating mom's.

Kinda sleepy now- cheers,

Lemley, ND

Bozeman, MT**************Make your life easier with all your friends, email, and favorite sites in one place. Try it now. (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp & icid=aolcom40vanity & ncid=emlcntaolcom00000010)

[Guest guest]

Hello and there is a lovely product called No Jet Lag. It is sold by Whole Foods and I don't know who else and I'm sorry to say, I don't remember who makes it but I can find out soon enough. It is homeopathic, easy to dispense, and works like a charm for European trips, long trips across time zones etc. White ND

-----Original Message-----From: [mailto: ]On Behalf Of doclemley@...Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 5:18 PMTo: Subject: Re: overseas trips with kids-A

Ahhh.... the dreaded jet lag. Let me prefeace this a little: My wife is dutch. Her family lives in Holland and she used to be a flight attendant with KLM airlines (her sister too) and flew the world over many, many times. This included frequent trips to Portland , from Holland, when I was going to med school to visit when she was supposed to be "resting" from a long trip from places like Bejing. She lived and breathed major jet lag for over 7 long years. Now with 2 young children, we make a few trips to Europe each year to visit family and vica versa. We've pooled a nice consensus and have completed in-depth cohort study on the jet lag within the fam, and here are the stats:With long trips over multiple time zones, jet lag is a given. If a mere mortal, there is no magic way to travel to the other side of the world and not get jet lagged. It is something to count on despite best interventions. With that said, treating traveling to a european destination (or return trip) can greatly accelerate the body's ability to respond and adjust to the new rythym, making a decent recovery happen in 3-5 days vs a normal 10-14. All the things Dr. Tufenkian mentioned make a difference and are good recommendations. The homeopathic "jet lag" is a nice product. We've relied on Sleepblend by Vitanica (sleepy herbs plus 1 mg melatonin) and begin dosing 1-2 hrs before the projected bedtime in the other country by 2 days prior to liftoff and taken till recovered from the lag. This is to mimic the new time zone. Personally, I'm reluctant using melatonin on young ones under 4 yrs, so used only sleepy herbs instead. Kids do great with sleepy herbs. Now that my youngest turned 4, I used the sleepblend on the last trip and he fared better than I. So the sleepblend works pretty darn good along with the homepathic "jet lag." We usually schedule the night flights with the little ones so they'll sleep on the crowded 7-8 hour flight. Lastly and oddly, it is unanimous that going ahead in time is more difficult than going back to the future. Punned? Me too. Flying TO Europe is harder and takes longer to recover from jet lag than flying back to the US ( as US mtn zone is 8-9 hrs behind Europe). With kids that little, the first 3-4 nights are really hard in adjusting. No way around it. It's the nature of radically displacing our circadian rythym, which is difficult for little ones but even more difficult on their burned out, already sleep deprived and now jet-lagged lactating mom's.Kinda sleepy now- cheers, Lemley, NDBozeman, MT**************Make your life easier with all your friends, email, and favorite sites in one place. Try it now. (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp & icid=aolcom40vanity & ncid=emlcntaolcom00000010)