If you need a good reason to buy your under 2 yo a seat on the plane...

[lindaso]

I agree with what many people have said...if we can't afford a seat for our baby, then we can't afford to go. I worked for an airline back in college (ages ago ) and back then the crash procedure was to put the infant on the floor in between your legs!! Don't know if that's still the case but scares me enough that I'll never have a lap baby on a plane!

I'll never understand why everything on a plane needs to be stowed securely except a baby under age 2!!

 

[disneyfanzz]

My husband and I are taking our almost 3 year old triplets and 7 year old son to Disney World. I don't know how we would carry three huge car seats and the kids and the carry ons. What is the smallest car seat you can get for a 3 year old? Is the seatbelt on the plane enough for a 30 pound kid?

Thanks,
Kerianne

 

[ReadyForDisney2003]

Bring your own carseats onto the plane. Even if you need to get a porter to help you to the gate. You will need the carseats when you get to the destination, right? You can look into getting a carrier with wheels. I visit a carseat board and they all talk about something called a 'smartmove' by samsonite. You can strap the seats together on the wheels and pull the other along.

I have also have had a gate pass to help my sister travel with her twins. She had 2 year old twins and a 4 year old she traveled with them. I could get a pass to go through security to help her with the seats and all that.

My DD is 4 1/2 years old and weighs 36 pounds. I still take her harnessed seat with me on the plane and in the rental car. I cannot imagine her in a regular seat belt on the plane. She looks so small.

There are smaller harnessed booster seats that will convert to a belt positioning booster later (after they are 40 pounds). They are usually easier to travel with than the 'full size' convertible. I'm guessing your 7 year old could be a big help with carring the younger ones carseats as long as they are attached to wheels. My DS is 7 and he is a big help when we travel.

Good luck. And, I hope you can manage with your seats.

 

[married2grumpy]

disneyfanzz-

As long as they have their own seats I would think just the seat belt would be fine. Just make sure they keep it on at all times. Our last flight was very bumpy and I was amazed at the amount of people who let their kids wander around the plane. The stewardess had to keep reminding people to please stay seated. I guess some people figure it's easier to let the kids out to run around rather than trying to keep them in their seats.

 

[dcfromva]

Originally posted by BibbidyBobbidyBoo
This makes sense- EXCEPT WHEN you think of the alternative. Unless they make it where you HAVE to purchase a seat for a young child- the alternative is going to be them either doing the same thing (severe contact with the back of the seat in front of them or crushed by the forward bending motion of the adult that is holding them) OR flying like a missile across the airplane when ripped from the parents hands.
See what I mean?

I think a lap baby becomes a projectile no matter where they are held. At this point it is left up to the family to decide whether to buy a seat or not. Here is something that caused me to form my own family policy when it comes to an infant under the age of 2 traveling with me.
I have always purchased a ticket for our son--there was never any debate about it. A while back, I read an account of an aircraft accident (in Iowa City in 1989 UAL 232) which more than cemented my opinion on this subject--one of the Moms who had a lap baby survived the crash, but her son did not. I cry everytime I think about it.
Apparently, the safest crash position for a lap baby is on the floor in front of the parent.
Exerpt from Congressional Testimony on the topic of Child Safety Seats in acft: (Warning--it is a bit graphic)
"Ms. BROWN-LOHR. My name is Jan Brown-Lohr. I have been a flight attendant with United Airlines and a member of the Association of Flight Attendants for 20 years. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, for allowing me to speak about my personal experience.
I was the chief flight attendant in the Sioux City, Iowa, DC–10 accident on July 19, 1989. A flight attendant's primary responsibility is passenger safety, and on that day I came to the full realization that passenger safety only applies to those over the age of 2 years old.
It was a golden July day when disaster struck. The number two engine exploded, severing all hydraulic lines and leaving the pilots with only the number one and number three wing engines to maneuver the airplane. I have never known such terror.
We had 40 minutes to clear the snack service, secure the cabin, and then, according to procedures, we prepared the passengers for the emergency landing.
As we waited for the brace signal from the cockpit, I mentally reviewed if everything had been covered and remembered that we had several lap children. I picked up the microphone again and instructed those parents to place their children on the floor, which would give some advance time to brace themselves, as well as their children.
What I had been taught in flight attendant emergency training class now became senseless in reality. I could hardly believe I was giving these absurd instructions, but that was all we had.
What followed has been viewed countless times—an unbelievable impact that mere words could never adequately describe—the plane breaking into three sections, being engulfed in a flash fire, and my section finally stopping upside down in a corn field.
I was finally forced to leave the wreckage due to prohibitive and deadly smoke. The first person I encountered was a mother of a 22-month-old boy—the same mother I had comforted and reassured right after the engine exploded. She was trying to return to the burning wreckage to find him, and I blocked her path, telling her she could not return. And when she insisted, I told her that helpers would find him.
Sylvia Tsao then looked up at me and said, ''You told me to put my baby on the floor, and I did, and he's gone.'' My first thought was, ''I'll have to live with this for the rest of my life.'' I then replied, ''That was the best thing to do.'' That was all we had. Evan was killed.
According to FAA regulations, we flight attendants must ensure that all carry-on bags are properly stored before the airplane door is closed, that all galley supplies are secured, and that all passengers 2 years old and older are wearing a seat belt for take-off, landing, and during flight when the captain deems it necessary. Even on-board pets are required to be safe and secured in pet carriers placed under a seat.
In addition, flight attendants are required to be harnessed in their side jump seats for taxi, take-off, landing, and during heavy turbulence.
U.S. laws across the country require young infants and children to be in car seats, yet, on planes traveling 500 miles an hour children under 2 years of age are allowed to fly free, with a potential to fly free through the cabin.
According to tests done at the FAA facility in Oklahoma City, the child's weight can multiply up to five times its normal weight in moderate to severe turbulence—far more in a crash. A 20-pound baby suddenly becomes 100 pounds, and not all the love in the world can hold him/her.
A plane traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago dropped 6,000 feet and two lap infants were wrenched from their parents' arms and hurled through the cabin. One infant was found underneath the pile of garment bags, which had fallen from the elevated closet. The flight attendant who witnessed this told me that at first it was feared the infant was under a liquor cart which had flown up into the air and landed upside down. Both infants were hospitalized. Sadly, only deaths, not injuries, are currently documented."
.

link to a transcript--Capt describing the accident ) Here is an exerpt from that link:
"There was an infant, that was separated from her parents. And one of our survivors, Gary (Schimel ??), was just leaving the airplane, getting out of that thing, full of smoke, fire ?? and he hard the baby crying. And he went back into the airplane, searching for the baby, found her in an overhead bin, she'd actually been thrown up into an overhead bin, and took her out."
In the over all scheme of things, your risk of getting into an accident is very, very, very low--but, after reading about that accident, a ticket for an infant at whatever price didn't seem too expensive to me. ( And even though the risk is so low of anything happening on a flight, I am dumbfounded that the same reasoning is not used about the requirement for everybody else above the age of 2 to be belted up during take-off and landing and during turbulence. )

Link to American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations


-DC

 

[lindaso]

dcfromva...great post...once again, if we can't afford a seat for our baby, we don't go. It's really very simple.

Thank you for posting this.

 

[Cindyluwho]

One important thing to remember is that minor accidents happen on the runway more often than we'd like to think about. THAT is when lap infants are in the most danger. Any flight attendant can tell you that close calls and slamming brakes happen quite frequently and people do get injured, especially little ones.

Another thing to keep in mind is not to put heavy items in the overhead bin. It says it right on the bin and the flight attendants announce it over the intercom. It just steams me when I see some imbecile put a huge, heavy bag over MY head. I've seen those compartment doors come open in heavy turbulance and seen bags come out and I don't want one coming my way. Put it under the seat in front of you and if it won't fit, check it!

 

[mcnuss]

It just steams me when I see some imbecile put a huge, heavy bag over MY head.

For this exact reason, I will not ever take an aisle seat anymore. I used to, and between the idiots who hit you on their way thru the cabin "Oh gosh, did my 75 lb. backpack hit you in the head, so sorry <tee hee>" and the enormous bags that most of these people cannot even lift on their own up in the overhead, it's just not worth the risk.

My DH got really aggravated a couple of years ago when we were flying into PBI and this older lady was ahead of us at Security with a bag that looked to be loaded with bricks. She could not even get the bag up on the belt herself, so DH helped her. Lo and behold, there she is on our flight, smiling at DH and asking for his help. He said to her very nicely that he thought there should be a rule that if you can't lift the bag, you can't carry it on!

 

[peg2001]

Originally posted by Cindyluwho
Put it under the seat in front of you and if it won't fit, check it!

Yes. PLEASE! I almost never have anything to put in the overhead bin. I check everything but one small carry-on bag that fits under the seat in front of me, even when traveling with children.

Peggy

 

[CEDmom]

I agree that children should be in appropriate restraints. I just wanted to give my personal experience with the safety vest MADCOCO showed in her post. We used it when we brought our DD home from China at 10 months. We really didn't have the option of bringing a safety seat because of severe lugguage restrictions placed on us by our adoption agency. However, I wanted to do everything possible to ensure our DD's safety. It really is a great product and costs about $25. It comes in 2 sizes for newborn to age 2. DD was able to sleep in my lap while secured into my lapbelt. I also had my hands free to read or whatever during our 16hr flight.