Can I hold my 1 year old on my lap on a plane?

[jodifla]

Actually it has a lot to do with what's safest for your child. Mile per mile, an unrestrained child in an airplane is significantly safer than a child in a carseat in the family car.

If you can afford the extra seat, it's undoubtedly the safest place for your child. But if the realistic choices are to fly holding your child, or to drive, flying is still the better bet.

Well reasoned argument, well said.

Here's another view on the subject:

http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-011.html

 

[Pinnie]

I can speak from a personal experience I had last summer on a flight from BNA to MDW. We encountered some very severe turbulance and a lap child smacked his head on a tray table and raised a very large bump. Had that child been belted in a seat, he wouldn't have suffered.

pinnie

 

[jodifla]

I can speak from a personal experience I had last summer on a flight from BNA to MDW. We encountered some very severe turbulance and a lap child smacked his head on a tray table and raised a very large bump. Had that child been belted in a seat, he wouldn't have suffered.

pinnie

Very severe turbulence, and he didn't die?

 

[tlbwriter]

It's your judgmental attitude on the subject I find so offensive, trying to jump on every parent who deems to even ask the question about not using a car seat on a plane, and suggesting they are cheap if they choose not to buy a seat. You also twist the fact to suit your point of view.

Actually, this thread was pretty neutral until YOU felt compelled to make a rude, sarcastic remark to me.

The whole things reminds me of the saying "Never argue with a pig. You waste your time and annoy the pig." Your snippy remarks and argumentative defensiveness are a waste of my time, and they obscure the information the OP wants. I'm unsubbing from this one, and I suggest you do the same. The question has been answered, so just let it go.

 

[jodifla]

Actually, this thread was pretty neutral until YOU felt compelled to make a rude, sarcastic remark to me.

The whole things reminds me of the saying "Never argue with a pig. You waste your time and annoy the pig." Your snippy remarks and argumentative defensiveness are a waste of my time, and they obscure the information the OP wants. I'm unsubbing from this one, and I suggest you do the same. The question has been answered, so just let it go.

Well, I'll skip the part where you call me a pig, and say this:

The poster just wanted to know if they could have their child in their lap. And the answer, of course, is yes. And stastically, it's probably one of the safest activities they could do, with or without a car seat, the fearmongering on this board not withstanding.

 

[debster812]

edited because my reply to someone was just as snarky as they are being on this thread.

 

[jodifla]

edited because my reply to someone was just as snarky as they are being on this thread.

Well, not quite like calling someone a pig, but I do take your point.

But my point remains that the fearmongering that goes on with this subject is out of proportion to the facts.

The person stated there was SEVERE Turbulence on her flight, and yet, the child did not fly out of the adult's arms, which is stated over and over on these boards.

 

[graygables]

Can you? Yes.

Should you? Only you can make that decision about your child.

Consider purchasing the seat as life/safety insurance for your child. My dad is retired from American, so I have flown more times than I can count with babies as young as 4 weeks. I have been on an airplane that was delayed in the air for several hours, dumping fuel as the landing gear would not function properly and the pilots were anticipating a crash landing. My children were old enough for their own seats by then, but there were lap children that the FAs were trying to figure out what to do. Our shoes, glasses, anything that could become a projectile were removed and stowed away. The pilots wound up doing a maneuver that was several Gs (caused many passengers to pass out) and got the landing gear down. Children had been padded into available seats with pillows and blankets, so everyone knew the importance of not using them as "human airbags". Fortunately, there WERE seats available or it could have been MUCH worse, and that according to the FAs.

I have been on flights where there was sudden turbulence and have seen lap babies literally fly out of their mother's arms, some even injured. I've seen adults not buckled in fly out and injure themselves. Aside from comfort for you, your child, and your fellow passengers, please consider the safety issues. If you shouldn't fly unbuckled, why should they? Like I said, please think of it as Flight Safety Insurance and buy the seat.

 

[TammyJ]

So, I'm just wondering if we scared the OP away. Do you have any thoughts OP or would you rather not jump into this argument?

Good luck on your travels.

 

[stacy6552]

OMG! buy your precious baby a seat and secure her into an FAA approved carseat. God forbid there is an emergency or even severe turbulence, you won't be able to hold your child. Imagine being told to put your child on the floor for a crash landing....
Remember the Souix City crash? There were 3 lap babies, all were thrown from their parents grasp upon impact. One died from blunt force trauma and one suffocated. Only one was rescued from an overhead bin.

 

[jodifla]

OMG! buy your precious baby a seat and secure her into an FAA approved carseat. God forbid there is an emergency or even severe turbulence, you won't be able to hold your child. Imagine being told to put your child on the floor for a crash landing....
Remember the Souix City crash? There were 3 lap babies, all were thrown from their parents grasp upon impact. One died from blunt force trauma and one suffocated. Only one was rescued from an overhead bin.

And people think I'm overstating the hysteria quotient!

 

[Adrienne]

I was on a transatlantic flight, so maybe the rules are different?
But it was offered on both the outgoing and return flight, so it was apparently standard practice on this airline (Scandanavian).

The US is one of the only countries to have done the research on flying with children strapped onto your lap, therefore they banned it when (as another poster has mentioned) they found out that a strapped in infant on a adult lap acts like a air bag. Many of the european airlines still allow it, however. Many euro airlines also still allow a bassinet to be used at the feet of the parents on ceratin aircraft types also.

For more info i would recommend looking at airsafe.com
or flyertalk and search for lap children

Adrienne

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

I apologize to the OP, because everytime I see this question, I cringe. Everyone starts pulling statistics out of the wall.

Can you hold your 1 year old on your lap? yes , you can.
Did I? yes, I did. We flew with DD a few times before she turned 2. Twice I held her, then after that tried buying a seat. None of the above went well. She is a very busy child, so makes no difference if she has her own seat or is on my lap.
And even when she had her own seat, she was on my lap(only way to keep her quiet) so if we hit turbulance, her own seat wouldn't have made a bit of difference. Do what you feel is right. And what is best for you and your child. Have fun on your trip!

 

[TammyJ]

OK, just a couple more thoughts because I don't think anyone who's already made up their mind is going to change it due to this board. It seems it can be summed up that in general flying is safer than driving. If your choice is between driving or flying without your baby in her own seat, flying is statistically the safer choice. But if you can afford to buy your child a seat on the plane by all means do it. This may not be what makes your baby happiest but I don't think that's a good thing to base your decision on. My DD screamed in her carseat until she was almost 2. And you need to understand my daughter's tempermant. She was one of the easiest babies ever, she rarely fussed or cried otherwise, very mild mannered. But when it came to the car... I don't mean she cried or protested, I mean she wailed in what sounded like agony until she would often gag. Sometimes she'd get to that point where she couldn't breath for a moment she had cried so hard. I had friends assure me that she would get used to being in her carseat and she just needed to tough it out. Then they would ride with me. I had one friend actually start crying herself it was so bad (I of course had cried many times listening to my daughter). My DD would start crying and clinging to me as soon as we got near her cardoor. It did not matter if we were driving five minutes or five hours, and she would not cry herself to sleep. Driving anywhere was the most difficult thing I had to do that first year and a half. But I was more concerned about her safetly than my sanity.

While there is surprise turbulance that can catch you off guard, the pilots are able to warn you ahead of time before most turbulance. So, even if you take your daughter out of her seat for a while during the flight, it is safest to have the option to buckle her up when there is a warning.

The same goes for hard landings. Most of the time the pilots are aware of problems before they actually land and you will be warned to take precautions (been there before and I was so grateful my daughter was secure...it turned out to my an instrument problem so we landed without incidence). You would certainly be thankful at that point to be able to secure your baby as best you can.

Again, happy and safe travels whatever you decide.

 

[TinkerbellMama]

Hi, saw this thread and wanted to add our recent (yesterday!) experience. We traveled 10 months ago with a 2 month old, and used the Baby B'Air air travel harness vest thingy. I thought it was the perfect solution, since our son nursed almost constantly at home and continued to do so on the plane. He was comfortable and happy (and quiet!) the whole way. I had done a lot of research about the safety of this vest, and thought it addressed the crush zone concerns, etc. We did not buy a ticket for our 12 month old son on yesterday's flight, but we DID select a flight that doesn't usually sell out. There were 90 seats sold for a 137-seat capacity plane...so we knew we'd be able to use our car seat for free! This works best on Southwest since there is no assigned seating and it's very easy to just select an area where the extra seat will fit, especially if you pre-board with your small children. I took both the car seat and the Baby B'Air. I kept him in the car seat at all times except when he needed to nurse. Then he was in the Baby B'Air. I had a lengthy conversation with a flight attendant that said she thought my compromise was perfect. He wasn't in danger of being crushed during takeoff or landing (the usual times for sudden impacts) since he was in the seat, nor was he just loose in my arms while nursing. She said she has personally SEEN a baby hit the ceiling during a flight, and he was terribly injured. She said that the Baby B'Air harnesses are very common on European flights, but the FAA rules are stricter so that's why they aren't allowed for takeoff or landing here. So that's my compromise after a lot of research and thought...take both and use both, NEVER leaving him unsecured unless we have to go to the lavatory for a diaper change. We also sat in the very back row near the lavatory and that worked out great! Hope this helps someone!

 

[TammyJ]

Tinkerbellmama,

What a great compromise! It sounds like you did what was best for your baby. Just a warning though, it's not always possible to know ahead of time if a flight is sold out or not. Just to keep that in mind. But I really liked your solution.

 

[TinkerbellMama]

Hi, I agree that sometimes it's hard to know which flights are sold out, but in our market, there are definitely flights that are pretty much *never sold out on certain days, if that makes sense? Like flights that are not more than 2/3 full on any given day. We won't fly Tuesdays on Southwest because they have promotional fares on Tuesdays and the flights are usually packed! I feel pretty confident booking one of these, but I agree that it might not work well for people in certain areas or who are taking different airlines or flights each time.

 

[jodifla]

The other thing we often did is book the aisle and window seat, leaving the middle seat open. More than half the time that seat did not end up getting booked, so we were able to use that seat for the car seat.

For us, though, it wasn't practical to keep him in it the whole time. Once he hit a year old, he needed to get out and move and least part of the time. Especially on the longer flights.

 

[TammyJ]

Boy, I wish I flew where you guys do. My flights are almost always fully booked! What am I doing wrong???? When my DD (now 5 1/2) was a baby the flights almost always had extra seats (sometimes traveling transatlantic we'd have a row of 5 seats tourselves) but now they always seem to be booked full! I let my son out to stretch his legs too. I keep him in his seat as much as possible and always during turbulance warnings, take-off and landings.

 

[iluvvacay]

I have to agree with many posters just offering some friendly parental advice. First ask yourself this question? Would you hold your child on your lap in your car even if it were legal?? Your answer is probably no, so why would you want to do this on a plane. In most plane accidents people survive and many don't get injured at all- a seat belt is always your best protection. The safety of your child is worth the price of a plane ticket, if money is an issue , buy the seat and cut your vacation short by 1 day to pay for it-the money saved on hotel and food for 1 day will pay for it, you'll be able to relax thru the flight knowing you did the right thing