carseat on plane for toddler

[TammyC]

At what age and weight have you stopped using a carseat on the airplane (and just used the regular seatbelt)? The towncar transportation can have one for us to use on the trip to the hotel, so I'd love to leave the carseat at home. The airline doesn't have much to say about this. It seems like I read somewhere that you should use the seat until 40lbs, but a friend took her 3 year old, very light 27lb without one and did fine. Opinions please...

 

[beattyfamily]

I will not be bringing a car seat for the plane ride for our DD who's turning 4 in October for our December trip this year.

I am, however, bringing booster seats for both my Dd's ages 7 and 4 for the rental car. I bought a car seat bag and they will both fit and I will check the bag...

I did do a car seat last year when she was 3 and she did complain a bit to get out but it worked out ok as she did fall asleep for a bit both ways.

IMHO, at about 4 years old is my car seat cut off for planes...but every child is different so you have to decide how your toddler will do.

Good luck!

 

[stacy6552]

we just flew with a 3 year old without the seat.

 

[NotUrsula]

The FAA recommendation is that children use a carseat on aircraft until they weigh 40 lbs. At that point, they should be large enough that the plane's belt will keep them in the seat if there is turbulence.

Here is the FAA webpage on child safety and aircraft:

http://www1.faa.gov/index.cfm/apa/1329

 

[CEDmom]

I think it really depends on the size of your child not his/her age. Our DD is tiny (she's 7 wks shy of her 4th b'day and is 3'/28lb). She's still using the 5-pt harness with her booster seat in the car so she's still using that seat on plane rides. When she reaches the 40lb mark and is using the booster w/the car seatbelt then we won't take it on a plane. At the rate she's growing we don't imagine that day to be much past her 7th b'day

 

[TammyC]

Thanks to all for the info! Also, sorry this got posted twice originally.. I'm not so computer literate and used my back button, went too far back then forwards again. Oops!

 

[Belle97]

Last October, we flew with my son who was 21 months old and took his carseat for him to use on the plane. Turned out to be a very big mistake. He has long legs and was able to reach the seat in front of him. Fortunately another child was sitting in front off him but we were constantly telling him not to touch or kick the seat in front off him. (Of course he had to make a game out of it.) On the way home, we decided to check the carseat and he slept the whole way home. We plan on flying in a couple of months without the carseat this time. Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

[Hillbeans]

Belle, I was just going to say the same thing. My 2 1/2 yo is big and we didn't bring ours on the plane, we checked it. He was already trying to kick the seat the whole plane ride, and some older woman was not thrilled with him fussing. If we had him in his carseat he would have kicked the seat in front the whole flight.

 

[NotUrsula]

If you have a kicker, remove his/her shoes as soon as you strap him/her in. That makes seat-kicking more painful than not. We also borrowed pillows and put them in the seatback pocket to block his swing. Most kids will try to kick with or without a carseat, so it wasn't relative to the carseat question, as far as I'm concerned.

We found that it wasn't that difficult to train DS not to kick the seat in front of him, as he discovered quite quickly that he would be punished and made to apologize to a stranger if he did. He doesn't like speaking to strangers, so that was an effective deterrent in his case.

 

[swilphil]

Our 3 year old is about 28 lbs, but we did fine without the car seat on the plane. We did have a car service provide one when they picked us up at the airport.

We had no problems with son kicking, although I could have seen that if he had been higher and closer in a car seat. He slept well on the plane, too.

 

[Disneyolic]

We'll be bringing both a 4-yo and and 2½-yo. We will not be bringing the car seats. There is just to too much luggage to bring and our luxury van transport provides the car seats. When we flew last November (then 3 and 1½) we had no problem with them being strapped into seats.

 

[kiddoc]

We traveled in May with my 3 1/2 year old (30lbs) and my 15 mo old (20lbs). We did not take car seats on the airplane for either of them. Both of them sat in seats with seatbelts for takeoff/landing. While in the air, both ended up laying down in our laps and sleeping. That worked out fine.
I did take travel car seats, which fit in a suitcase, for the rental car. These are not ideal and I would definitely not use them for everyday, but they are great for travel and safe. I am a pediatrician and an adamant car seat advocate. I pass on the airplane because I don't see that a car seat will do much good in a plane crash, unlike the lifesaving protection it provides in a car crash.