Those who have travelled with a baby...
 

Do you stick to their usual bed time on the flight or go with the flow? I know it’ll take a few dats to adjust anyway but do I get her changed at her U.K. bedtime on the plane or just let her nap when she wants and try and do usual bed time when we get to accommodation. She’ll be 11.5 months. Our flight doesn’t land until 17.55

We desperately tried to get our 1 year old to sleep/nap on the way to Florida but no joy - we then swapped to US time and put aside time in the afternoon to relax/nap. On the way back he passed out before we took off. When we took him back this year (2y 4 m) he managed a 30 min nap on the way out and maybe 4 h on the way back. We didn't plan what we would do, and I think we landed around 1700 as well. Can you start to shift night and nap times before you go so you are closer to US time?

If your daughter is in nursery I highly recommend taking her in the day that you land (if you can) and using that time to do the washing and have a nap.

We took our 9 month old and just went with the flow, I tried to work out when she should be asleep but she didn’t play ball and would only sleep for take off and landing and nothing in between! We arrived a couple of hours earlier than you and she managed to stay awake until we got to the villa and set up her bed etc. I found it far too difficult to try and stick to a routine on holiday and it seemed to work ok as she still generally slept through and adjusted really quickly. Good luck!

Go with flow, you probably won’t be able to control bedtimes even if you wanted to. We have been with are children at 11 weeks, 16 months, 3 and 6.
Thankfully when they were younger they both slept most of the way there and back.

Coming back I got them changed into pj’s and put them in a growbag. This definitely helped make it more like usual bedtime.

After a few days we then try to get them to bed at normal time /early. But usually as need to be up early the next day.

We did Florida with our first as a 9 month old, and our second at 11months. We took the logic that their sleep was going to be messed up over the holiday so didn't worry about the flights impacting it. Our approach was to try and keep them awake as long as possible and to let them sleep as much as possible while we were in the air.

Thanks all. We will see what happens. She doesn’t go to nursery so that’s not an option on return.

She still has 2 naps a day and I don’t see this changing before we go so we will just see how we go!

DD Was 4 months when we last went, we had a bassinette for her and so we left her in that with toys when she appeared tired and took turns with her when she was awake. We did have a mixed experience with cabin crew, on the way out we asked to stagger our meals and were told if we did we (well SWMBO) would only be able to have what was left of the meal service. On the way back however they took our meal choices and asked who wanted to eat first

Just go with the flow. We found with both of ours that the noise of the aircraft often sent them to sleep. Just chill and enjoy the flight the more relaxed you are the more relaxed they will be