CARES harness for airplane?

[mickeymaker2003]

Has anyone used a CARES harness for their child? What did you think of it? Does anyone know of a store that carries them? I leave Thursday and just found out about them....

 

[cdrn1]

I used for DGD age 3.5. It was so great not having to lug a carseat through the airport and she loved feeling like a "big kid". She fell asleep right after takeoff since she was wearing a five-point harness like she is used to.
We rented one on Ebay for $25 including shipping. Very pleased.
I think Babies R Us may carry them.

 

[sbrotherton]

We, too, are renting from a seller on ebay. Just do an item search and you will come up with a handful of sellers that rent for between $15 and $25 for the week. I have heard great things about these, but we only fly about once a year with DD2 and I figure that it would be cheaper to rent than buy. The seller is shipping out the package (2 day delivery) 5 days before we go so I don't expect there to be a problem...

 

[Missin'Disney]

Sorry for the OT post, but can you guys confirm that age 2 is when a child is required to have his/her own seat by the FAA?

 

[SaraMc]

We bought one this week for our upcoming trip. We figured out the cost of renting it for one week, compared to buying it since we know of at least 4 trips DS will be on a plane for before he is 44lbs. Comes with a Dvd of instructions.
DS is two and yes we had to buy him his own seat. But really he wouldnt make it for 2 plus hours in either DH or my lap.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

I was able to find an ebay seller in my state who was willing to add a buy it now to their auction so it could be mailed on Monday and I'd have it by Wednesday at the latest (we leave Thursday at 6 am). I didn't have time to arrange a rental one (and since my daughter just hit 22 lbs, we'll get several trips out of it before she hits 44 lbs), so I figured I was just as well off to purchase one. They seem to hold their resale value very well, so I should be able to get a good chunk of my $75 investment back when we are done using it. I didn't buy a seat for my 18 month old this trip, but I know if there is an empty seat she will be allowed to use it and if we can't use it on a leg of the flight, it won't be bulky. Thanks for the info!

 

[JAM3]

Has anyone already used one on the plane? I was reading some reviews of it on other sites and some people were complaining that their children slid down in the seat a lot which in turn caused the harness to dig into their child's neck. Curious if anyone here has experienced any problems.

 

[Dannielle_1]

Has anyone already used one on the plane? I was reading some reviews of it on other sites and some people were complaining that their children slid down in the seat a lot which in turn caused the harness to dig into their child's neck. Curious if anyone here has experienced any problems.

I have one my DS used at 29 months. I had read about the sliding down thing as well, but had also read that having the child sit on shelf liner helps them "stick" to the seat. So I cut a peice of shelf liner (I used is the waffled looking kind) about the width of an airplane seat (17/18"). I just put it in the bag the harness comes in so I'll always have it with me.

This helps a ton, DS had no problems sliding on the flight down. I forgot to put the liner down initially on the flight home and DS was sliding down, so unbuckled him real quick and added the liner to the seat. Problem solved.

 

[cdrn1]

Also I forgot to mention that we upgraded to business class when we used it and had a heck of a time getting it around the larger seats but it did fit. I think the company has addressed that so that the newer ones are a bit longer. Just FYI; it did fit with some effort!

 

[snoopy5386]

I am thinking about buying one for our trip to seattle in october. We have decided just to check her carseat this time. My DD is 2.5 and my concern is she will throw a fit and won't wear it so the $$ will be wasted. She has flown in her carseat and in just the plane seat before and done fine both times. We don't want to use the carseat this time since we have a connection and since it is such a long flight we'd rather have the extra space. We do plan on having another one so we'd be able to use it with that kid, but I am just not sure....anyone have a kid who'd refuse to wear it?

 

[thepeach80]

Has anyone already used one on the plane? I was reading some reviews of it on other sites and some people were complaining that their children slid down in the seat a lot which in turn caused the harness to dig into their child's neck. Curious if anyone here has experienced any problems.

This is b/c it's more natural to sit w/ your knees bent at the end of the seat and obviously small children can't do that. We let my 4.5 yo ride one leg last time w/ no carseat and he asked for it back b/c he kept trying to slide forward and it was very uncomfortable. A carseat is more comfortable IMO than this would be.

 

[frtchr]

We used it with our 16 month old DD. She hates her car seat, and she loved using the CARES harness.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

There are a few reasons we are going with the CARES harness instead of a car seat. I didn't buy a ticket for her, but our flights aren't very full. I am hopeful, but it is not guaranteed that she will have a seat on every flight. I booked the aisle and window of a three row in the back of the plane, so the middle seat in the back of the plane in a row with a toddler won't be very attractive to another traveler (unless the plane is totally full, they'll likely prefer to sit somewhere else). If she can have a seat, great--we'll just pull the CARES harness out of the bag. If not, we won't have lugged a car seat for no reason. We are using Disney transportation, so we will have no use for the seat once we get there. We are staying in a value with three adults and an 18 month old--with a pack & play, fridge for meds, and all our luggage there will be very little space to move as it is and a car seat would take up considerable space. I'll post back once we've used it (if she gets a seat on some of our flights) and let you know how it goes. I am bringing some of the cushioned shelf liner for her to sit on to reduce the sliding.

 

[Dannielle_1]

I am thinking about buying one for our trip to seattle in october. We have decided just to check her carseat this time. My DD is 2.5 and my concern is she will throw a fit and won't wear it so the $$ will be wasted. She has flown in her carseat and in just the plane seat before and done fine both times. We don't want to use the carseat this time since we have a connection and since it is such a long flight we'd rather have the extra space. We do plan on having another one so we'd be able to use it with that kid, but I am just not sure....anyone have a kid who'd refuse to wear it?

My son was fine with it. But I did do a test run one day at home to get him excited about it. I put it on one of our chairs and first let his stuffed Pooh give it a go and told him about "his" airplane seatbelt. Then I let him try it out. We went back and forth through out the day. I also had picked up several story books about flying and told him we had to have our seatbelts buckeled all the time. He got on the plane and sat down and was excited to get belted in!

 

[FunkyDuck]

There are a few reasons we are going with the CARES harness instead of a car seat. I didn't buy a ticket for her, but our flights aren't very full. I am hopeful, but it is not guaranteed that she will have a seat on every flight. I booked the aisle and window of a three row in the back of the plane, so the middle seat in the back of the plane in a row with a toddler won't be very attractive to another traveler (unless the plane is totally full, they'll likely prefer to sit somewhere else). If she can have a seat, great--we'll just pull the CARES harness out of the bag. If not, we won't have lugged a car seat for no reason. We are using Disney transportation, so we will have no use for the seat once we get there. We are staying in a value with three adults and an 18 month old--with a pack & play, fridge for meds, and all our luggage there will be very little space to move as it is and a car seat would take up considerable space. I'll post back once we've used it (if she gets a seat on some of our flights) and let you know how it goes. I am bringing some of the cushioned shelf liner for her to sit on to reduce the sliding.

I definitely would love to hear back from you...mine will be 18mos. in Nov. during our trip to WDW. Please let me know how your little one does.
Thanks!

 

[clori]

I am probably the only one that the harness didn't work well for. I used it for a just turned 3 year old. At that time she was 27lbs and 36inches and it fit fine. I had no problems with her sliding or anything like that. However since the seatbelt is used for the harness the problem I had is that dd could easily unbuckle the seatbelt. It would have been a much easier flight for us had we just used our carseat. Now at age 4 we tried again and it worked well since dd didn't play with the seatbelt. Next time we fly though I think she will be okay with just the seatbelt so my harness days are over.

 

[JAM3]

Hmm, such choices. I would love to not have to carseat but not if we have miserable flights.

Do anyone of you that have used find that the straps bother your child's neck? I know they sell those cushions to put around carseat straps for infants if that is an issue. We never used them. But if this was a problem I thought they might be good to pick up.

 

[lezammer]

FYI you can rent the CARES harness ofn Ebay for $15 plus S & H. I think the companies that rent them are located in FL. I too thought about buying them but we don't really fly enough to get our money's worth. Plus my DS (30mos) who can't sit still won't want to wear it if my other kids (DD 5yo & DS 3yo) aren't in one. The older ones are very good about keeping their belts on so not really a concern for me. Hope this info helps!

 

[Ducky4Disney]

Also I forgot to mention that we upgraded to business class when we used it and had a heck of a time getting it around the larger seats but it did fit. I think the company has addressed that so that the newer ones are a bit longer. Just FYI; it did fit with some effort!

We had a TERRIBLE time with this on our last flight to MCO! We bought 3 tickets, me, DH, and DS 21 months at the time. We upgraded to business class (AirTran) and when we got on the plane we wrestled the CARES harness onto the bigger seat, tight fit, but it fit. THEN a flight attendant came up and said after checking their manual, we weren't allowed to use it! He was under 2 years old so we could hold him - but not only did we have to hold him for takeoff/landing, but becasue he was under 2 he couldn't sit in a seat during the flight without a carseat!

I was F U R I O U S!

I wanted my money back for the seat and the upgrade, but they only gave us the money back for the seat and gave us a credit for the upgrade on our flight back (I told DH demand the money back, but he didn't). So we call 24 hours prior to departure to discuss options, don't want to upgrade one ticket then get to MCO and not be able to upgrade all of us "oh no problem, the flights really open in business class, you won't have a problem upgrading when you get there"..... WRONG! (and we get there really early thanks to DH)

We pack the CARES harness and bring his carseat expecting to upgrade to business class and guess what... it's full! Now we have a carseat, which we could have checked, in coach, where we could have used the harness, which is packed!

They gave us 3 rount trip tickets, good for a year, with upgrades. We were able to use 2 - the third one we wanted to use for this Oct trip but the flights that we could use it on were crappy - besides, we still can't use his CARES on business class, so what's the point of having all three tickets upgraded?

Anyway.... that's my rant. Check with your airline about whether you can use the CARES harness in business class!!!

I have traveled with DS in his CARES harness when he was 14 months old and he did great! Didn't slide down, didn't fuss at all, fell asleep soon after takeoff.

Here he is - sorry the pic isn't great, but taking a picture in a tight space like that is hard!

D4D

 

[Vickibean]

FYI you can rent the CARES harness ofn Ebay for $15 plus S & H. I think the companies that rent them are located in FL. I too thought about buying them but we don't really fly enough to get our money's worth. Plus my DS (30mos) who can't sit still won't want to wear it if my other kids (DD 5yo & DS 3yo) aren't in one. The older ones are very good about keeping their belts on so not really a concern for me. Hope this info helps!

Thanks for the tip! I just rented one for our trip in 19 days.

I am flying solo with a 3-year old and was dreading dragging the car seat along. The ebay seller just ships it to you in time for your trip, then you ship it back when you are done.