I'm off on hols in august which is great BUT we have a 9hr flight and a big time difference to cope with. My LO is formula fed and on 3 meals a day and will be 9 months old when we travel. Does anyone have any advice on minimising the effects of the time difference? We leave at 17:10 and arrive at 18:35 so its a night flight and on the way back we leave at 1800 and arrive at 1100.
I know its going to be tricky for a few days when we get there and when we get back but I would be grateful if anyone has any top tips so we all survive the time difference and also any advice on keeping LO entertained on the plane - I'm hoping he will sleep for a good part of it but what to do when he's awake ?!

I think the general advice is to try to get yourself over to the new time zone as quickly as possible and to use the hours of the plane ride to help do that. Ie sleep on the plane if you can.
As for entertainment on the plane, you can walk them around the aisles when it's not busy so they can stretch their legs. Bring a few favourite toys? Learn nine hours' worth of nursery rhymes?

Holy crap - that's a lot of nursery rhymes. Funnily enough we're off to Canada - Vancouver. Best start hitting the nursery books now!

Any other suggestions?

Hey - Vancouver is great. You'll love it! Have a great trip!

We live in China and because a lot of things have happened this year, we have now flown back to Europe 3 times after LO was born. We've done so at 4, 7 and 9 months.

Every time he has surprised me how quickly he gets over the time difference --- much faster than the grown-ups!! Every time withing 2 days he has been perfectly in the local schedule. My guess is that you will be surpised how easily it will happen.

I think the key is just to switch the meals and naps and sleep over to the local schedule as much as possible, and keeping the baby exposed to daylight when it's time to stay up. So when we fly to to Europe, I tend to add one more meal in the evening and try to keep him up as long as possible. Then let him get up in the morning when he feels like it. Then again just do meals at local hours and usually by the second evening he is already going to bed at a normal time.

As far as being in the plane, I have to say that of all our flights the ones at 4 months were defo the easiest, as LO was quite happy to just lie and play in the baby cot they give you on the plane. Now he wants to move all the time so I just have to walk him around and play with him. Luckily he's a happy little thing and loves new places and people. So I just take a bunch of toys, let him read the magazines and the safety instructions (he loves those!!), and if the people sitting nearby are baby-friendly, he loves to play with everyone around. And then nap in the cot. For the take-off and landing I always have a bottle of water for him, so he can keep taking sips to avoid the pressure hurting his ears.

Hope it all works out fine, have a great trip!!