How Parents Help Their Children to Overcome Jet Lag?

Lisa is a 6-year-old girl, and she lives with her parents in Eastern Canada in the city of Toronto. After flying to Edmonton with her parents two days ago, she becomes irritable and impatiently about a lot of things, and she also doesn’t like to eat. Lisa’s parents take Lisa to see their family doctor. Knowing Lisa’s symptoms and making a physical examination for Lisa, the doctor tells them that Lisa is healthy, but Lisa has the symptoms of Jet Lag. Since babies and young children always can not express their feeling of uncomfortable clearly, so it is very important for young parents to understand the children’ symptoms of Jet Lag and help them to deal with it. Understanding it will not only help them to travel smoothly but also it will help them to have a good life in a new country or in a new place.

Jet lag is a result of flying cross time zones. The reason is when traveling to a new time zone, our bodies’ circadian rhythms (Our body clock) remain on their original biological time schedule, and they are slow to adjust for several days. This results in that our bodies tell us it is time to sleep when it's actually the middle of the afternoon, or it makes us want to stay awake or when it is late at night. This also results in our bodies biological system is disrupted temporarily.

The symptoms of jet lag are easy to be recognized. Some symptoms are fatigue, loss of appetite, loss of concentration, and memory problems. (Bupa, n.d & Better health channel & Reilly T, 1998) “Although children and babies are less like to show symptoms because they can usually sleep at any time.” (Bupa. n.d) But for the children between the ages from 4 to12, irritable is the leading symptom for them. (No jet lag, n.d) It could be explained that children are not like adult who can control their own feeling easily. If children suffer from the tiredness, he or she will be irritable suddenly because they are not able to adjust themselves very quickly. The severity of symptoms of jet lag is based on the traveling direction and the traveling speed. This means flying in eastward direction and in low speed are easier to dealing with than in westward and in high speed. (Bupa n.d)

After knowing the jet lag symptoms of children’s, parents also should know how to help their children to deal with it. It is a good idea to let their children adopt body to the new time zone before two or three days of flying. After a long distance trip, one of the most effective ways is to have enough sleep. Another good way is to go outside in the sunlight whenever it is possible. Daylight is a powerful and effective stimulant for regulating the biological clock. (Bupa. n.d)

Having understanding Lisa’s symptoms are caused by jet lag, Lisa’s parents take advantage of the doctor’s suggestions. They take Lisa outside during the daytime, and they also make sure Lisa has enough sleep over the night. After 4 days, Lisa’s symptoms of jet lag disappear completely, and again she becomes a lively girl.

References

Better Health Channel. (n.d). Jet lag. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from

http://www.better health.vic.gov.au/bhartickles.nsf/pages/jet lag

Bupa. (n.d). Jet lag. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from http://www.hcd2.bupa.cd.uk/fact_sheets/html/jetlag.html

Reilly, T. (1998). Jet lag: Symptoms and Treatment. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from http://www.sportsci.org/encyc.jetlag.html

No Jet Lag. (n.d). No-Jet-Lag: Product Specification, Retrieved April 16, 2009, from http://www.nojetlag.com/jetlag7.html