Preventing Jet Lag For You and Kids

The holiday season is coming up and since my folks live across the ocean it looks like we are all going to be dealing with some jet lag. However over the years I have practiced a few tips which have helped prevent it from getting too bad.
Before you get on the plane …
Make sure that you and your kids drink drink plenty of water whilst flying – at least 8 – 12 fluid ounces every hour, preferably mineral water.
Avoid coffee and alcohol on the plane, as both are diuretics and they can therefore cause you a dehydration problem.
If you are due to arrive at your destination in the morning, try to sleep on the plane. Use a mask, earplugs and an inflatable neck support if these things help to induce a sleepy condition or increase your comfort so that it is more likely that you can sleep.
If on the other hand you are due to arrive in the evening, try to stay awake on the plane. Keep yourself busy by watching the in-flight movies, listening to music or doing something reasonably active like puzzle solving. Give the kids coloring books or let them play with a Sony PSP.
Avoid taking sleeping tablets if you have kids with you. They need looking after!
After you arrive…
•If at all possible, try not to go to bed until the nighttime after you have arrived. Do this and it really does minimize your jetlag problems, probably the single most effective step for doing so.
In the arrival airport, use the stairs and walk about as much as possible to get your body moving and back to normality as quickly as possible.
Your body has a natural electromagnetic system which will have been thrown out of synch by flying. Try to swim in the ocean (for the salt water), take a warm Epsom salts bath or walk barefoot on the ground in an effort to return your system to its normal state.
Get outside and go for a walk, especially if you can do so in the sunshine. Both the sunshine and the exercise help to reinvigorate you, meaning that you will feel less tired or jaded.
Take a nice long relaxing shower or bath as a way of rehydrating your body, and keep drinking plenty of water. In the first few hours after arriving, it will probably help if you can avoid coffee, tea and alcohol for exactly the same reasons as highlighted previously.
These tips are both for adults and kids and can go a long way towards preventing the terrible fatigue of jet lag.

Parenting Tips
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Natural Treatments for Air and Motion Sickness

There are various homoeopathic treatments for motion sickness that you might consider using as an alternative to the medical drugs highlighted earlier. After all if they are good enough for the royal family they are good enough for me!
The most common of these homoeopathic treatments are as follows:
Cocculus Indicus: This is probably the most common homoeopathic remedy for motion sickness, especially for sufferers who experience nausea which gets worse when they see or smell food. It is common for Cocculus to be given to travelers who commonly feel weak and experience a hollow or empty feeling in their stomach as a result of suffering airsickness. This is a remedy that is also very well suited to people whose condition is made worse by feeling cold, from moving about or from a lack of sleep.
Rhus Toxicodendron: Is probably better known by the more common name poison ivy but fortunately, in very small doses, it is not going to kill you! However, what it can do for anyone whose airsickness usually exhibits itself through nausea and vomiting (whilst there is also a lack of appetite at the same time) is help calm their condition down.
Often people who suffer these kinds of symptoms will feel weak and lightheaded because there is a distinct lack of nutrition inside them, so they might feel dizzy when standing. Sometime this feeling will be accompanied by an intense headache and your child might feel like their 'hair hurts!'
Tabacum: This solution would be a suitable homoeopathic remedy for anyone whose airsickness is most commonly identified by them feeling nauseous and faint, with a green tinge or extremely pale color to their skin. Most commonly, these obvious symptoms would be accompanied by a sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach and possibly a severe headache that feels as if there is a very tight band wrapped around the head.
There are also a number of herbs that can help motion sickness and air sickness. Many studies have indicated that ginger appears to be more effective than a placebo in reducing the adverse effects of motion sickness. For example, in one study, a group who were given ginger extracts reported significant reduction in nausea, vomiting and cold sweating when compared with the control group who were taking a placebo.
Therefore dosing your kid or yourself up with ginger capsules before and during your flight might help to reduce the severity of the motion sickness problem if it does not get rid of it completely.
A combination of peppermint and black horehound has been used by some herbalists as an effective method of treating nausea, so whilst it is not specifically used as a treatment for motion sickness, it can certainly offset some of the worst effects of having your kid or yourself feel violently ill on a plane.

Parenting Tips
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