Should we take the red eye flight with our 17 month old baby, or take a day time flight?

Question

Most of the cheap flights leave at 1:30am and get to where we are going at 6am. Our baby usually sleeps from 10pm to 8am. What do you think and do you have experience with this? thanks.

The day time flight leaves at 7am and gets there at around noon.

Answer 1

My baby has only taken red eyes so far, and he has been wonderful on them. He falls right asleep, and stays asleep for most of the flight.

Of course, every child is different.

But my experience has been great. He's been on about nine 5+ hour flights in his short 2 years, but has been awesome on all of them.

Answer 2

If the baby is sensative take the day, that way he is calmed down and will sleep by the time you get to the place you are staying, If the baby is easy going take the night one that way he/she sleeps the entire flight.

Answer 3

That would really depend on your child. Do you think he would sleep the whole time? If so, then I would take the red eye flight. MY child would be up the whole time, screaming and laughing, and pretty much keep everyone up...LOL. Therefore, I would have to take a morning flight.

Answer 4

Well, I can't sleep if I'm not laying down on a bed or other similar horizontal surface.  So, we'd never take a red-eye flight, because I don't do well with little to no sleep.  But, my brother and sister-in-law traveled by car overnight when their oldest was that age, and they seemed pretty happy with it.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, under 2 you don't have to buy a separate seat, but they have to be on your lap.  So, you'd either buy a 3rd seat or have to hold her the entire time she sleeps.  Which I would think would hinder your own sleeping.  During the day, it would be less of a big deal to be holding her.

Answer 5

Hi,

I think the most important thing to start with is to get your baby into a good sleep routine.  I had massive problems with getting my 4 month old son to sleep.  He would just lie awake and cry for hours, then when he finally went to sleep he would wake every hour or two hours through the night and cry again!  Talk about pulling our hair out .... we were absolutely desperate for sleep!

It was a baby sleep audio program recommended by a friend that finally saved us. We followed the advice and began by creating a baby sleep routine which included bathtime, dimming of the lights, putting James into his crib, final nappy change and then lullabies. We also made recommended changes to his naps during the day and used some of the other recommended techniques. Within two weeks he was sleeping through the night most nights with just the odd night where he would just wake once!

Definitely start by creating a good baby sleep routine though and you could find that solves most of your baby sleep problems.

Good luck!

If you want to take a look, the audio program is at http://www.babysleepsolution.com