your expereinces in flying with a small child?

[Kahuna Burger]

The Kahuna Meatball will be making his first trip not as a lap baby in October, and I'm waffling radically on the car seat vs lap belt vs CARES system question. Part of the issue is that while we will be bringing a car seat to use in the rental car/sisters van/etc our current model is literally a good 3 inches wider than the airline seat, possibly too "deep" for coach class and would be a complete nightmare to deal with on our "2 layovers in one day" leg of the journey (the full trip involves 7 different flights over the course of 2 weeks). So if we want a car seat on the plane it will be a new one bought for this purpose.

So, for those who have flown with a child under say 5 and not a lap baby - what sort of seating arrangement did you use? How did it go? Important subset of the second question - did you encounter turbulence worth noting or have what you would consider a rough landing and how was your child during that?

Isn't there a guy around here who has a gaming group completely made up of flight attendants? Somebody get that guy in this thread.

Oh yeah, and I will be contracting with the IMO hating guy to kill a puppy every time someone tells me that if the plane goes down in a fiery crash, a car seat or it's lack won't matter either way.

 

[Fenris]

Check with the airline and see if they will provide a car seat. The rental company has to I know. Depending upon how long you are in a non-rental car this may be the best option. A number of rental companies will provide the seat and allow you to rent it for other days as well.

Other than that, just remember the childrens benadryl

 

[Aurora]

I flew from OH to CA in March with Kylee. We didn't bother to bring a seat. The belt goes tight enough for a 2 yr old. I planned in the case of extreme turbulence to belt her in with me on my lap and wrap my arms around her. Plus, because we had a long flight, I wanted her to be able to lay down on my lap and sleep (easier with no car seat). Of course, if he'll sleep in a car seat, then that would work too.

I wonder if, while in a car seat, he would be able to utilize the tray table for coloring, playing, etc? I really am not sure about that......

 

[Huw]

We've flown long-haul with our son. First time was easy - he was 1, and we used a flight cot. Second time, he was 4, and we used the standard plane seat. Main problem, which I'm sure you've anticipated, is boredom.

Regarding car seats, I'm with asking the rental company for one. You really don't want to be carting a car seat onto seven different aeroplanes.

 

[takyris]

I've flown with the Dude. In no particular order:

- Lap belt worked just fine. Given the number of toys and books we had to occupy him, a full car-seat thing would have been a pain.

- I don't remember if we hit lots of turbulence, but the kid has flown a lot, so I imagine we must have.

- The Damsel and I pretty much always got three seats, with the Dude in the middle. Anything else worked... much less well. (2 seats and a seat in the row behind, for example -- we had to do it on one leg, and wow, that sucked.)

- I don't know what your feelings on television are, but I can say that a miniature DVD player (one of the portable ones) or a laptop (with a DVD player) plus "kid's show of choice" will get you through the flight better than almost anything else. I know that television hypnotizes kids and reduces their activity level, and that's bad and all, but on an airplane, hypnotizing them and reducing their activity level is pretty much exactly what you want. The Dude didn't want to watch DVDs the whole time, but a mix of Backyardigans (even at such a low volume that he couldn't really hear them -- he didn't want headphones) and toy cars got us through the flights with minimal pain.

- Bring snacks. Food is a good distractor.

- Bring something for them to drink during takeoffs and landings, as the Meatball might not know how to do the ear-pop that gets your ears to stop hurting quite yet. Drinking something or eating something seemed to help the Dude.

- We always checked the car seat -- I recall that some rental places had 'em, but we weren't always renting a car (we were staying with parents or something), so it wasn't an option for us.

I'll ask my wife once she wakes up (she and the Little Bud are napping after an absurdly long and full weekend -- family in town, and the Damsel, mother of a six-week-old baby, just rowed in a dragonboat race four times over two days; I have married an Amazon Warrior Woman). I'm sure she'll have other things to toss out.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

We flew a couple of years back when my son was still in a car seat, but too old for sharing a seat on the plane. As with you, we were bringing a car seat to use in the rental car, but unlike you our seat fit fine in the airplane seat, so we used it on the plane. It was nice to have for the flight because he slept a decent portion of the time in his car seat. I'm not sure how comfortable he would have been in the airplane seat with his legs sticking straight out the entire time, since he wasn't tall enough for his knees to reach the edge of the seat.

In terms of turbulence, we have flown several times and have never hit anything severe, so I'm no help in terms of how that would be in a lap belt. I don't think it would be a big deal unless it was really severe, like flying into a tropical storm (did that once before kids - it wasn't fun).

Overall I think others have it right, if your car seat won't fit on the plane, look into renting one from the car rental agency and don't bother with the extra hassel of carting that thing around, or buying one just for the trip.

 

[billd91]

We've done car seats on the airplane three timesalready and are doing it again in October. It's not that much harder to manage one along with the other carry-ons and it gives the kid a familiar seat to deal with for the long flights.
We were very happy to have one when we hit the turbulence landing at Dulles. Having a toddler in a 5-point harness when bouncing from side to side was much better than just a lap belt. She actually fell asleep during it (probably her response to imminent air sickness).

 

[megamania]

About ten years ago we flew from Albany NY to Tampa Florida with my daughter (then nearing 2).

We used the standard seat belt. I think they may have provided a "booster" type of seat.

Keep in mind this was a looooong time ago.

The Dm with stewartress is Barsoomcore or something like that. Look in the storyhour section. He is very active there.

 

[Blood Jester]

...I planned in the case of extreme turbulence to belt her in with me on my lap and wrap my arms around her...

As a trained commercial pilot, I can tell you that that is the worst thing you could do.
In severe turbulence, your body mass would greatly increase her injuries, even potentially to the point of fatal injury.

Please do not do this.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

As a trained commercial pilot, I can tell you that that is the worst thing you could do.
In severe turbulence, your body mass would greatly increase her injuries, even potentially to the point of fatal injury.

Please do not do this.

do you have an opinion on carseat vs CARES vs lapbelt?