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Pre-School and Daycare
roseroseroseroserose
member
If your toddler has been on a plane...
roseroseroseroserose
member
Why did I think her carseat would fit on the plane?
ACK. Grandma is flying with Katie early Thursday morning and I don't have an approved "child restraint device."
Ummm...it's just recommended, not required...but will they survive without it? It's two adults and Katie flying.
I am so stressed only because it's the busiest part of the school year and I have not prepped for this like I would have if I was not exhausted.
Help.
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Re: If your toddler has been on a plane...
We've done it twice. In December, we took the carseat on the plane (Britax). It was bulky but it was fine.
In March, we checked the carseat. She did SO much better without it and was a lot happier. So were we because we weren't lugging that thing through the airport.
DO NOT BRING THE CARSEAT. That was the worst parenting mistake I've ever made. It made our 4 hour flight a little slice of hell for the whole plane. The tray table doesn't fold down and so all of our activities didn't work. She kicked and screamed and threw massive temper tantrums until I finally managed to remove her seat and shove the carseat under it. Mind you I took an evening flight so she would fall asleep on the way there. Yeah right! She kept everyone on the plane up until I got the carseat under the row.
On the return flight I checked the carseat and all was well with the world. She sat nicely in her seat and played with all the things I had brought for her. She napped a lot of the time and I even fell asleep too. The difference was night and day.
Okay, thanks ladies. I will try to talk my mom into checking it. She is not checking anything (since DH and I are driving down that day after work with all luggage.)
It's only a ONE hour flight, so I may be over-thinking this. :P
I always just check the carseat with baggage (in a carseat bag).
Maybe this is pessimistic of me, but I honestly don't think that a carseat is going to save DD's life if the plane crashes.
I just put her in the seat buckle and we do activities on the tray the entire time. Also, I've always had to fly alone with her and it would just be physically too much to carry her, carseat, carryons through an airport, down the narrow aisle of the airplane, install the carseat .... blahblahblah. Too much.
Bright, I said the same thing to DH about buying CARES.... "If the plane is going down, I don't think a harness will do much."
Carseats don't cost anything to be checked.
Huh - This is so different from my experience.Both boys had their first plane trip at age 4 months. I started buying seats for them as soon as they were a year old, and I always took along their car seats. They would settle down in the car seat happily because it was familiar, sleep in it, calmly play while strapped in. Because they are strapped in, they can't kick the seat ahead of them.
We have Graco car seats, and we had no problem getting them on economy seats.
We used it internationally, too. I am sure they could've flown just fine without it, but they did so well with it.
DS1 is 2.5 and he has flown over 6 times on a plane. We have NEVER once used the carseat or those CARES things....ever.
In fact (GASP!), there were a couple time when he was on the floor having a tantrum during landing! eek!
I am with bright....again, this is horrifying to think of....but, if the plane goes down, they are going down as well......carseat, CARES or nothing.
I have never seen anyone bring a carseat on the plane now that I think of it.
It is so much easier to do without it and she will be much more comfortable!
the last time, we took her carseat. It worked OK for the ride there - she napped in it, and we bought a little thing that turned the seat into a stroller. Since I was by myself the seat was both good and bad - it was hard to get into the plane (Britax Roundabout), but was great for getting her to sleep and around the airport.
next time we will probably use the CARES system. Apparently you can rent it on ebay.
The issue with the car seat or the CARES system is not that the plane is going down and they are going with it. There are a lot of other issues that can happen in a plane - turbulance, mainly - that you would need a seat belt for.