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Flying from Sydney to LA with children - tips needed

Australia
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Flying from Sydney to LA with children - tips needed
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We are taking a toddler and a preschooler to LA. The flight leaves from Sydney at 2pm and arrives in the morning about about 10am their time. I am trying to minimise jetlag and get the kids sleep on the plane for as long as possible. I am thinking of waking the kids up at 4am or 5am(instead of the usual 7am) on the day of our departure, then get them to nap at around 9am or 10am before we leave for the airport. I am hoping that by the time it's 5pm or 6pm Sydney time (about midnight LA time), the kids would be really tired and maybe sleep for 6+ hours on the plane, by the time they wake it'd be breakfast time. Am I nuts or is this do-able? Any other tips on travelling with young children would be appreciated.

South Pole
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1. Re: Flying from Sydney to LA with children - tips needed
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having flown with young kids on long haul for many years of their lives i would suggest you dont try to change their sleep patterns or make any allowance for jet lag. just treat the time in the air like a normal day for them. hopefully their dad will share the load and allow some "free time" for you. take some "entertainment" for them and a few favourite (noiseless)toys. and dont get tense when things aren't going to plan. they pick up on this and they can get restless. so u need to be adaptable. make sure you have something to make their ears comfortable on take off and landing. young kids dont know how to "clear" them and this can cause pain and distress. best of luck. it may sound daunting but it isn't.

Sydney, Australia
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for Sydney, Family Travel
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2. Re: Flying from Sydney to LA with children - tips needed
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I too would be inclined to just "go with the flow' rather than wake them so early & risk them being really tired & cranky (& parents also!) & still not sleeping...

Maybe have a chat with your GP about giving them something like an antihistamine to help with sleep on the flight... (always do a test run 1st as it can actually hype some kids up!)...

Do a search (or perhaps repeat this question) on the airlines forum for further info.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g1-i10702-Air_Travel.html

Sydney, Australia
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for Sydney, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Airlie Beach, Whitsunday Islands
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3. Re: Flying from Sydney to LA with children - tips needed
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Kids are often so set in routine it wont matter if you wake them early and then expect them to sleep early. all you will end up with is unbearable aggro children who are out of routine at the beginning of your holiday..

the only way your plan will work is if you start to implement it about a week before

Leaving at 2pm..they should go to sleep around 7pm which leaves you 5 hours to entertain...

DVD's

New toys..el cheap..wrapped up so takes a while to discover..small, inexpensive, playdough (aka bread dough with a mousemat to roll it and fold and fold it again layer uon layer....and then throw out

try to avoid electronic games for at least 2 hours before you want them to sleep

take a well known cuddly and dress the kids in jammies when you expect them to sleep..do the whole bedtime routine

always worked well for mine until they hit 8+ when they reach 15 all thay want to do is sleep

Brisbane, Australia
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4. Re: Flying from Sydney to LA with children - tips needed
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Hi Cheeky,

I have no children, but I would suggest getting them as tired as possible! Get them to use the onboard entertainment system, play games with them, give them a big meal, and they will eventually get very tired. Then you can enjoy the flight! They will be hard to make sleep, but eventually it'll happen.

Austin
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12 reviews
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5. Re: Flying from Sydney to LA with children - tips needed
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What we've learned from our travels:

1. No car seat if it's an overnight flight. Our daughter's first overnight, to Scotland, the man in front of her reclined his seat and our 26 month-old starting yelling "my legs, my legs are trapped." The man would not move up his seat and her carseat was rendered useless. Our daughter sleeps better sprawled between the two of us, head on mommy and feet on poor daddy. It breaks my heart, as a former USDOT employee, to say dump the carseat, but heck, if the seats are too close together, then that's that.

2. Lollipops for the ears. Pass one out taking off and one landing. No ear pressure problems. Since our kid doesn't get much candy at home, getting a lollipop while flying makes airplane rides extra special.

3. Small/tiny backpack with lots of pockets. We bought a small Kippling backpack, just her size. I only bring it out for airplane travel, loaded with stuff from the Dollar Store.

4. Dollar Store! Favorite items: Pipecleaners (to twist into bracelets, animals, etc.), card games, beads for stringing, toys, glow bracelets (for evening flights), bendy animals, digital watch w/ stopwatch. I once bought a mini "aquarium" to fill with water and watch the "fish" grow. Big hit, my daughter monitored it all the way to Australia.

5. Sticker book. Bought a mega one on Amazon and only bring it out on plane rides.

6. Change of clothes and plastic bags. Also jammies for night time flights. Tooth brush, too, for night time routine.

7. Empty sippy cup. Fill with water later.

8. Stuff inside of stuff. A necklace inside of a pretty cloth bag inside of a small box.

9. Travel tissues. Our daughter loves to open packages of travel tissues and cover her doll, make a tablecloth, or make a toddler attempt at creating "art." Weird, but it works.

10. Stuff for drawing. One or two coloring books, notebook (sometimes with graph paper), two sets of crayons (in case one gets lost).

11. Small doll with long hair. Bring also small hair baubles, combs, etc. for "stylin'" as my daughter likes to say.

12. Books.

13. Snacks.

14. Wipes. Last time my daughter was grossed out by her tray table and wanted to clean it. Other times we've needed to clean our daughter.

Seems like a lot of stuff above, but if you bring small of everything, it isn't much. For instance, we bring only thin paperback books. There's never "too much" stuff to entertain a kid. Luckily, Qantas has personal entertainment systems, which worked like a charm. When my daughter woke, she would watch a little bit of Bindi or The Wiggles, then fall back asleep.

Sydney, Australia
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6. Re: Flying from Sydney to LA with children - tips needed
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Don't change their routine. Kids can adjust much more quickly than adults and are very resilient.

How about giving them some childrens gravol to help them sleep I know a doctor who does this with his kids.

Take some toys with you and perhaps some kid friendly food in case they don't like what the airline serves.

West Chester...
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2,638 posts
190 reviews
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7. Re: Flying from Sydney to LA with children - tips needed
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I know what you mean about being squashed by a reclining seat, on the way back from Australia, the huge woman in front of me reclined her seat and the extra weight made her seat back come down almost 6 inches more tha normal, so I could not even put my trya down. Luckily, we had an empty seat and shifted over one.

Try as hard as you can to get a bulkhead seat, then you don't have to worry about reclining seats so the car seat would be useable. We had those on the way to Bris and there was so much room that you could get out of the aisle w/o bothering the others.

Parramatta...
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8. Re: Flying from Sydney to LA with children - tips needed
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You had some great advice cheekyson, especially from Jojoko.

I wouldn't mess up their routine by getting them up extra early - it never seems to work and from my experience I've only found jetlag a problem on the way back (too excited, too busy on holiday when you arrive).

Don't assume that the airline will have entertainment packs suitable/available for your kids. On a flight to Europe, the airline had none available at all This was no big problem as I had done similar to Jojoko, although having 4 yr old boys didn't need the dolls & hair stuff.

I even ended up giving out lollipops to kids nearby who were suffering from earache - I couldn't believe how some people expect their children to sit quietly all the way to Europe with no toys/amusements, no food they like or a lollipop or two.

But maybe that's just me and my kids ........... ummm

West Chester...
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2,638 posts
190 reviews
86 helpful votes
9. Re: Flying from Sydney to LA with children - tips needed
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P.S. (3) think twice about kid's bags with many pockets, our kids were completely searched once leaving Heathrow and it took forever to empty out all the little pockets.

(13) if you are flying Quantas don't worry about snacks, in between 2 meals and special treat (like ice cream) they give out big snack packs, walk around with apples, and keep the galleys open for obtaining snacks the whole flight.

australia
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136 reviews
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10. Re: Flying from Sydney to LA with children - tips needed
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You are better off to try and get three seats in a row of four down the back somewhere. Get two aisles and one other and if the flight is not full you will end up with the four seats. If it's full, then one of the adults on the aisle will have to swap.

From memory, the armrests don't come up in the bulhead seats so the kids can't lie on your lap.

Don't give the kids anything to make them sleep, they need to be active as do adults. We are lucky enough to travel business class now and my doctor said to me it's best to be getting up and going for walks and going to the toilet to get your blood circulating.

Don't rely on the snacks on the plane, use them as a backup. Take something that you know the kids will really like but don't go overboard because when you arrive in LAX if the food is not sealed, it goes in the bin.

The lollipops are the best idea. When you feel pressure on your ears, you can bet the kids will be feeling it too.

It's like labour, but eventually it passes!!

Enjoy Disneyland!!

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