Special Needs
carseat on plane
I have a 2 year old and we are getting ready for a 2 day trip on 2 airplanes to Africa!!!! How do you travel with your little one on the plane? Do you use a carseat, no carseat, or the CARE aviation harnest?
I of course want to minimize what we'll be carrying with us since we will be spending 2 days on airplanes and airports. But most importantly, I want to be safe. We can rent a carseat when we get there, so I was thinking about the CARE aviation harnest. Anyone have experience with it or anyone recommend that I just suck it up and carry the carseat on board?
Any suggestions, please!!!!!This discussion has been closed.
Re: carseat on plane
I've done pretty much every variation... car seat, booster/no seat (for my 4.5 year old), cares harness, lap... it REALLY depends on your specific child and the length of the flight. DD#2 will only sleep on the plane if she's in her carseat, so for flights where we really wanted/needed her to sleep, we sucked it up and dragged the car seat on. The last time we flew, we tried the Cares Harness... she had a tough time acclimating to it at first (she's PDD-NOS and has some sensory issues, but nothing too extreme), but after about 5-10 minutes, she settled in. She didn't nap at all, but she was also well-contained and content, which was the best I could hope for.
Have you seen the Gogo Kids Travelmate?
https://www.gogobabyz.com/product-i14550-c26-gogo_Kidz_Travelmate_.aspx
It's an expensive option (which is why I never bought it) but it does seem to address the issue of lugging the car seat through multiple airports... if I had this, I'd probably just check the stroller and use the car seat as the stroller.
Good luck- I know it can be stressful to plan flights with little ones, but the good news is, it's a finite amount of time, and you'll most likely never see those people again.
I have an awesome and cheap alternative to the gogo travelmate. We have used this:
https://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Toddler-Seat-Travel-Accessory/dp/B000JHN3AS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1279983784&sr=8-1
And LOVE it! And you can't beat the price. It's actually better than the expensive travelmate b/c it minimizes the amount the you have to carry (luggage and car seat with one hand vs one in each hand as you would have to do with the travelmate).
OMG, that is awesome! I *so* wish I'd discovered that 2 years ago!
we have this too and i have to agree it is AWESOME!! we choose taking the carseat on since ds is able to sleep on the plane. plus it's easier for us to manage 2 kids if one is not able to get up and run away!
BFP 3/9/12 Natural M/C 4/11/12
We used to live overseas, so we've done something like 16 flights greater than 6 hours (about half were 10+ hours). I think I've tried everything including the CARES harness, the go-go wheelz, the strap thing, and we have a sit-n-stroll. I will say that strap thing that someone else posted didn't work well for us - I'm not sure if its our luggage, our carseat, or the weight of our kids, but it was really hard to maneuver compared to the other options. For long haul flights I preferred the CARES harness for take off and landings and then they could sleep easier in the seat with just a lap belt. I know some kids like to sleep in their carseats, but my kids do better laying down when the flight is 6+ hours. For shorter flights I don't mind the carseat, but don't find it necessary.
I will say that we usually bring our own carseats for the reasons Auntie mentioned but we check them if we are using the CARES harness. Alternately, renting them from a private baby supply company usually ensures better quality/cleanliness over the car rental company. If you do decide to bring your own carseats make sure that you have that little I-shaped metal thing that you use to manually lock the seatbelt. I've been in more than one car overseas that doesn't have the seatbelts that lock when you pull them all the way out and then you are doomed. I don't know where you are going in Africa, but LATCH is primarily a North American thing, so if the country primarily uses European imported/designed cares, the connectors will likely be different.