3 hour flight with 15 month old to Orlando - car seat or on lap for the flight?

[MichiMomma]

While traveling with car seats was more of a hassle than going without, we always flew with our two children in car seats. We bought some more lightweight affordable seats for air travel. Make sure they’re FAA approved for use on an airplane. It will say somewhere on the seat. For us it was worth the hassle knowing if we hit turbulence or had a rare hard landing that our kids would be more safely restrained in their car seats.

 

[SirDuff]

Slightly off topic (but still related): I flew Turkish Airlines earlier this week. Their safety video talked about (and showed) something called a "loop belt." From the video, it looked like a little loop that would attach to an adult's seatbelt to have a little belt for a lap child. I fly quite a bit (and have with several different airlines) and had never seen/heard of that before. I'm sure it's not perfect, but I thought it was a great way to keep lap children a little bit safer.

These are illegal on Canadian and American airlines (and maybe other airlines flying to/from these countries). But required in some other countries.

One argument (made by countries that ban them) is that it essentially turns your lap child into your airbag.

The other argument (made by countries that require them) follows your thinking, that it keeps the lap child safer since you don't rely on your grip.

I haven't done research to have an opinion on which argument is the "right" one.

 

[Flossbolna]

These are illegal on Canadian and American airlines (and maybe other airlines flying to/from these countries). But required in some other countries.

One argument (made by countries that ban them) is that it essentially turns your lap child into your airbag.

The other argument (made by countries that require them) follows your thinking, that it keeps the lap child safer since you don't rely on your grip.

I haven't done research to have an opinion on which argument is the "right" one.

I think it comes down to:

Loop belt: prevents the baby from flying around in airplane and endangering others

Against loop belt: baby has a slightly better chance to survive.

Ultimately being a lap baby is highly dangerous for baby and really should not be done despite the cost savings.

 

[danceintherain]

I've done both, and vastly prefer having a seat for my child.