Sorry-Didn't see the other post...airplane with 14 month old - buy him a seat or no?
Mustardseed2007
member
We are going to Walt Disney World in 2 weeks with DS who will be 14 months.
The flight will be 3 hours, we will be flying Southwest Airlines.
We will be staying in a resort on property and will not use the car seat at all during the trip.
Originally when I booked the flights I did not buy a seat for him. DH has decided that he thinks we should and did go ahead and book him a flight. It is refundable if we decide we don't want to use it.
Typically he is pretty good in his car seat as long as the car is moving and/or someone is sitting next to him. Usually on long car rides he even falls asleep. I don't know what this will be like on the plane, though.
The cost is 560 dollars. It doesn't break our bank but I'm pretty frugal and this whole trip is expensive.
I don't know. I've been wondering if we should or shouldn't do it and what sold me on not getting it was 1) the price, 2) the hassle involved in figuring out getting him a boarding pass (which DH has taken over figuring out so I'm fine with that part), 3) the fact that we don't need the car seat for the rest of the trip.
DH is considering safety and having to hold DS for 3 hours, which I agree is going to be very unpredictable and probably kind of difficult.
WDYT?
Re: Sorry-Didn't see the other post...airplane with 14 month old - buy him a seat or no?
Buy a seat. It's the safest option. I know many families do the lap thing and everything is fine, but you really want to risk it?
I would go to Walmart, buy a cosco scenera for 30 and use it on the plane. It is safer for your child to be in a seat on the plane.
This was us exactly one month ago! Flying to Disney with our 14 month old.
We didn't buy him a ticket and I have absolutely zero regrets! If we did, he would have been trying to climb in one of our laps anyway and that would have been a big junk of money wasted. He actually surprised me and slept on every plane (the trip was about 3 hours but we took 2 separate planes since we didn't have a direct flight. Each flight was about an hour and a half.)
Also, you can always look at the seating online and try and get your seats next to an empty one. Of course, it may get booked but it might not. My husband did that and we did end up with an empty seat on one of the flights.
FWIW, I certainly don't judge anyone who buys a seat or uses a car seat, but I do think it's silly when people do it because they think it's safer. I hate to break it to you, but if something goes down/wrong with that plane.. a car seat or your baby's own seat won't help one bit.
ETA: We also stayed at a resort at Disney and since we had the Magical Express shuttle pick us up, we didn't need a car seat at all. I'm so thankful we didn't have to haul it around.
The bolded part above is also my opinion. I might get flamed for this, but yeah if the plane goes down you're pretty much dead. I do understand that in the case of severe turbulence being in a seat would be safer but how long is your kid actually going to sit in the car seat during a flight? I've seen families who buy a seat for the kid and then the kid spends 1/2 the time on their laps anyway.
Obviously if you can afford it and you think your child will sit the whole time quietly in the chair then great, but when we went on a trip to PR when DD was 15 months old, she was so squirmy she wouldn't have sat in the chair for long anyway.
http://balletandbabies.blogspot.com
The concern isn't about the plane going down, I agree that it really wouldn't make a difference. THe problem is if there is a ground collision, then having your child in the seat would be a benefit. It is also important if there is turbulance, your child would become a projectile and may be thrown from your arms and injured or may act as your airbag as you are thrown forward. The only thing not secured in an airplane during turbulance is a lap baby, everything else, even the coffee pots are tied down so that they don't become dangerous projectiles.
The FAA recommends that children have their own seat and ride in a car seat.
After the comments on the other thread that "if you really cared about your kid, you'd buy a seat" I didn't comment there, but I fall into the "we don't buy a seat" camp. DD doesn't like her seat as it is, we fly 4-7 times a year to places that are not cheap, and it just seems like wasted money for us. When we flew over Christmas she was 14 months and she did fine on our laps. Food and things to keep her busy are key. The iPad is pretty awesome at that. Was she perfect? No. She was a squirmy 14 month old, but she did pretty well, and on the way home slept almost the entire way. There was turbulence, and you better believe I held on tight, but we were all fine. Sure the coffee pots are secured...because no one is actively holding on to them. I held DD the entire time. I'll also note that every turbulence I've experienced (a lot) is a sudden drop with a subsequent rise back up. Never thrusting me forward so that my child would be an "air bag." If the plane goes down, I'm not convinced the car seat would matter. I'm not flaming anyone for buying a seat. It's your choice. I just don't like being told I'm a bad mom for having a lap baby. If the risk were truly significant, they would mandate a seat, but it's not, and they don't. We leave for another trip on Saturday and she'll be a lap baby then as well.
As a side note, we were on Southwest at christmas and we had been informed the flight was not full. We family boarded, took a row near the back, left the window seat open, and to no surprise, no one decided to fill it. :-)
Baby Girl #2 is on her way!
Makes sense.
I'm still glad we didn't have to deal with the car seat/buying an extra seat just for the plane ride though (since we didn't need it on our trip). But then again, I have a horrible, horrible, horrible car seat rider and the thought of him actually staying in it for a plane ride is unimaginable!