Hawaii with a 14 month old - lap child?

[Anonymous]

We're planning to go to HI when my son is 14 months. Trying to decide if we can bear to have him on our laps for the DC -> West coast then west coast -> Hawaii trip. Does anyone have experience with this? It seems like many just show up with a car seat and are lucky enough to get an extra seat. Is this usually the case? Any times when you've had to just carry the kid on your lap on crazy long trips?

[Anonymous]

Buy him a seat. We did here to west coast, west coast to Australia with a 14 month old, and there is no way in hell I could have held him that long. Not even here to LA. No way. Buy him a seat or you all will be miserable.

[Anonymous]

Just recently flew to LA with a very active 11 month old son. We got lucky and there were extra seats -- but we will never roll the dice again. For all flights that are over 2.5+ hours, we will purchase a third seat for our son.

FWIW, our son is very active and can't sleep when he's being held. Likes to lay down and sprawl out. He does sleep very well in his carseat though. Also, if you did get stuck on a full flight and there was a third person in your row - that makes fo a very tight squeeze.

[Anonymous]

I agree with PP - buy him a seat. I did the Hawaii flight when my daughter was around that age and it was hell.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and I've never been lucky to get an extra seat next to me. You can't count on it.

[Anonymous]

I've flown to Hawaii twice with a newborn, then toddler. Buy a seat. This is a very, very long flight.

[Anonymous]

I've flown numerous times with my kids when they were under two. Anything from short trips (Florida) to Asia, Arizona, Europe, etc. I never bought any of them their own seat until I had to. I also never once got lucky and had an empty seat that I could use. I never found it to be a big deal to hold them. It's easier with an aisle or window seat.

[Anonymous]

We took DD to HI when she was 16 months old. Buy her a seat! She was a squirmy, disastrous mess on the way there but at least we could get her to take a nice nap and settle down for a bit in her carseat.

Also, we flew back to DC during night time hours and she slept most of the way - except - and this is important and the main reason I'd say to buy a seat - we hit some MAJOR unexpected turbulence during the flight back that woke people up literally screaming and things were crashing all around the plane. It was wonderful that DD was safely strapped in her Britax.

[Anonymous]

This is one area where I just cannot figure people out. We spend thousands of dollars protecting our kds from every conceivable harm, but we are willing to have them sit unrestrained (except for our arms) on a plane.

One day, a baby is going to go flying during turbulence and die. Then we will all wonder how we could have allowed all of these kids to fly without being securely strapped into a car seat and the government will mandate that each passenger have a seat.

I take it that you don't want to be the parent of the child who becomes the catalyst for such a regulation. Buy your toddler a seat.

[Anonymous]

We flew to Europe with an 18 month old lap child. We were so fortunate to get the bulkhead and an extra seat next to us from DC to Europe leg, but were in a packed flight from Paris to our destination, which was about 3 hours. Even though our daughter slept the whole time, our legs went numb holding her. We couldn't get out to walk around if we needed to do that because they typically want the child to be seated in the window seat. Having to crawl over the person in the aisle seat would have been a nightmare. Knowing what I know today, I would always buy a seat for flights over 2 hours. Otherwise, be prepared for hell. Seats are so tight that there is no room for the child to stand up, esp if the person in front of you reclines.

[Anonymous]

The risk of your child dying b/c he/she was a lap child is pretty miniscule. Probably much smaller than the odds of her dying in a car crash because you decided to take her along on a trip to the supermarket instead of waiting until your DH could watch her at home and you could go alone. People get so militant about avoiding tiny risks and yet are cavalier about driving, which is the leading cause of death among children. I'll never understand it...

[Anonymous]

Agree with everyone who's said to buy a seat! We also typically stop for a night on the west coast on the way there and back -- we stay at a hotel close to the airport in LA or San Fran with a pool. It breaks up the trip and lets DS and us blow off some steam and regroup between flight legs.

[Anonymous]

One previous post on this topic used a description similar to "imagine stuffing a squirrel in a sack and holding it on your lap for xx hours" That phrase has stuck with me, and I've bought seats for my toddler for long flights. I highly recommend it.

[Anonymous]

Buy a seat. Trying to do this length of trip with a 14 month old lap child has a high likelihood of making your life hell as well as the surrounding passengers'.