Need advice on taking a 20month old!! Carseat wise

[justhat]

We have never taken our daughter on a flight without putting her in her carseat and now at 22 months there is no way I could imagine holding her the entire flight. (This goes for all 20+ of her flights from 2 months till last night.) My daughter hated her carseat as an infant so she would have been much happier to be held on the plane, but just like in the car, into the carseat she went. Since you're not driving, you have all the time in the world to amuse your kid so they usually tolerate it better in the plane than the car. Now that she's older, we just bring a DVD and a bag of gummy bears and she happily sits in her seat on the plane watching her movie and eating her snacks. This even worked on our trip to Hawaii when she just turned 20 months. We had to take her out of her seat to change her diaper and let her move around a bit since the flights were so long, but other than that she stayed in the seat without a problem.

The way I look at it is that she hated the carseat in the car and would have preferred to be held every drive (this kid literally screamed from the second she was put in the seat till the second she was removed), but I didn't do that and I assume most people don't. It's safest to keep her in the carseat in a car so I did, and same on the plane.

The other thing to consider is that even if your child will sit in your lap at home for an hour (which I know mine would never do at home cause she'd want to get down and play with her toys), it's harder when you only have about 3 inches of room in front of your lap. A 20 month old is going to be at an age where they'll want to move around amd will inevitably be large enough that her legs will be hitting hte seat in front of her, especially when the person reclines. I would think it would be pretty tough to keep her from kicking the seat in front of you the whole flight, unless you're lucky and she sleeps (but again, mine will not sleep in my arms very long anymore, she's just not comfortable, and she's a tiny one-only 24 lbs. at almost 2yo.).

Oh, and we've taken our seat on many different planes and have always gotten the seat in the bulkhead without a problem, but I agree with NotUrsula cause I know not all seats will fit there. We have a Britax Roundabout though so I just wanted to put that out there for anyone who has one and wants to sit in that row. The only problem we had was with her infant carseat in a bulkhead on Southwest cause their seatbelts in that row are different and it wouldn't secure because of the angle the buckle reached.

 

[kenny]

We flew from NYC to Fort Myers Fla in August with a 1 year old. We toyed with the idea of not getting a seat and saving the money. Aside from the safety,etc, it was nice to have a seat to put my daughter in so she was not on our lap the entire time. Yes we took her out and she sat on our lap, walked up and down the aisle, but it was also nice to sit her in her seat, give her a toy and let her amuse herself while we relaxed a bit. If the ticket is not a tremendous amount then I would spring for it just to make "your" flight a little more enjoyable.

 

[justhat]

Just wanted to add that many airlines give you a 50% discount for kids under age 2 in a seat.

 

[krdisneybound]

Just wanted to add that many airlines give you a 50% discount for kids under age 2 in a seat.

This is correct. We flew to Hawaii and paid 1/2 price for g/daughter that was under 2.