questions re airplane with toddler

[Anonymous]

haven't flown since DD was a tiny infant (she's now 14 months), so have to some questions for all you experienced moms out there.

1. i am bringing out convertible car seat. do they fit rear facing or do we have to go forward facing? (I have a cosco scenera)
2. how do you install it in the plane? do you just strap it in with the airplane seatbelt?
3. one leg of the flight we couldn't get a seat for DD so we will probably have to check the carseat. what do you use in that instance? do you have a travel bag for it? or is it enough just to wrap it in a plastic bag?
4. can you gate check a stroller and a convertible carseat (without counting against your carry on restrictions?)
5. what do you carry your carseat around in when you're walking around the airport? we are not planning on getting one of those gogo babies things because we need a stroller at our location anyway, and am thinking a stroller, carseat and gogobaby might be a bit much.
6. can you bring whole milk and/or water for baby with you through security? i know formula and BM are allowed, but wasn't sure whether they make you buy the milk after security.

thanks.

[Anonymous]

anyone?

[Anonymous]

1. we face ours forward - never tried backwards (we have Safety 1st AirProtect)
2. yes, you install it. the flight attendants will not help. just follow the directions on side of the car seat --- essentially same as installing in rental car with seat belt. (flying with kids will buy you a little time to install. make sure the seat is the one closest to the window.)
3. just bring a trash bag to wrap it up if you're concerned about it getting dirty. we gate check ours if there isn't an extra seat available.
4. yes. car seats, strollers do not count as carryons. you could even check an extra car seat or stroller and it still wouldn't count as a carryon.
5. we bought the go-go babyz. best $100 ever spent. check the stroller if you have a case for it (we broke our bugaboo gate checking it on first trip) and use the gogo to wheel your kid through the airport.
6. yes and no. some airports/faa personnel are stricter than others. i always put milk in the bottle/sippy and bring an extra bottle (filled) just in case. once we didn't do that, had to throw away the unused milk not in a bottle, and couldn't find ANY milk during our layover in memphis until DH got the bright idea to stop into a bar.

GL. HTH.

[Anonymous]

My recent TSA experience was not a great one. We had milk and juice for our child. I pulled out the zip lock bag and showed them to the TSA Agent. They pulled me aside, asked me a lot of questions about the length of my flight, age of my child and then because one of his juices was not sealed they had to test each and every one of the liquids I had for him. Nothing had to be thrown out and thankfully we were not running late for the flight. It did mean that I was "separated" from my child during this. They asked him to sit in the seat while they pulled me aside. I could see him but they made it clear they did not want him near me. At the end of the experience they reminded me that I could buy whatever I needed in the airport after security (not in fact the case because my son can not drink regular cows milk) and that they had the right to confiscate my supplies. Needless to say I was a little shooken up from the experience and I'm not sure what I will plan to do the next long flight I have. They certainly don't like to make it easy for parents of young children. Since my son doesn't have an allergy just an intolerance I don't carry a doctors note but perhaps I should start doing this to make it less of an issue. Give yourself plenty of time, and if possible carry sealed containers of juice/liquid only buy water AFTER going through security.

There is not enough space to install the car seat backwards- an airplane a crash would not be like a car so its more important to keep the kids safe in turbulance.

[Anonymous]

Can you seriously not google or go to the TSA website? I'm a big fan of this site and it's great for help but do some research by yourself---your list of questions is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you seriously not google or go to the TSA website? I'm a big fan of this site and it's great for help but do some research by yourself---your list of questions is ridiculous.

Could you be a bigger bitch?! I looked at the TSA website and the airline's site. Both offered minimal info. Not the OP but I find asking for other's experiences to be more helpful than googling some random answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you seriously not google or go to the TSA website? I'm a big fan of this site and it's great for help but do some research by yourself---your list of questions is ridiculous.

If you don't want to help, don't. You don't need to be an asshole about it.

To the OP- I have always been able to get whole milk for my DC after we get through security. Starbucks or any coffee place will have it. I also bring an empty insulated thermos to put the milk in so we can have it on the airplane. Just to make things easier, I would bring empty sippy cups/thermos and just fill them after you go through security.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you seriously not google or go to the TSA website? I'm a big fan of this site and it's great for help but do some research by yourself---your list of questions is ridiculous.

can you seriously not refrain from being an a$$hole?

1. TSA's website refers to formula and breastmilk, not whole cows milk.
2. On the GP forum there seemed some disagreement as to whether you could/should rear face a convertible seat. no help on google or tsa website either.
3. please produce google results that show the best way to carry a carseat through the airport and the best thing to cover it in when gate checking it. if you can do this you probably never have to post anything here bc arguably all advice with respect to babies is google searchable.

i will give you question #4 -- I was able to confirm that after i posted my questions.

[Anonymous]

I recently flew solo with our toddler for the first time, and these suggestions are definitely helpful. I had the baby in an Ergo through security and used a collapsible luggage cart with a bungee cord to wheel the car seat through the airport. Contrary to PPs experiences, the flight attendants were actually really helpful in helping to get the car seat installed and uninstalled. My advice is to practice a few times using the seatbelt at home so that you know what to do. Some car seats (ours a Britax Roundabout) have sort of narrow passages through which the seatbelt must pass, so clipping it in was a little frustrating (hence my gratitude to the FAs).

Sippy cups with water and milk were allowed through TSA in both airports.

Bring plenty of snacks.

[Anonymous]

1. Review the info on your car seat's manual. We were able to install ours rear-facing (Britax Marathon), although it was a very tight fit.
2. Yes, you use the airplane seat belt. It can be tough threading it through and sometimes the buckle ends up in an awkward spot, but you'll get it. And the child has to be next to the window (or the center-most seat on a wide body) so aisle access is not blocked by the car seat.
3. Even if you weren't able to get a seat, take the car seat to the gate with you. Two benefits: there is always a chance a seat will be available and your child will get to use it (free!) and you won't have to pay any checked luggage fees.
4. yes.
5. We bought one of these: http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=363756 to tote the car seat around the airport.
6. No idea

[Anonymous]

op here. i'm back and wanted to report a few things.
1. cosco scenera fit rear facing! (plane was a 737-800 and we were in coach; person on front of us couldn't recline all the way but seemed to be ok with it)
2. seatbelt took a bit of maneuvering to get through but worked.
3. i bought a gate check carseat bag from diapers.com but in retrospect a garbage bag would have been fine too.
4. gate checked both stroller and carseat with no issues.
5. bungee cords attaching carseat to our suitcase worked well.
6. they let us bring whole milk (we had prepared 2 bottles worth). but they did test them. also, they also checked the mashed/pureed food I had prepared for my child as well. when i inquired (really, they are the same as regular food but just processed in a blender!), the TSA guy said "well, it's not a solid, is it!?" i bit my lip.

another thing to note: for one leg of the flight we didn't have an extra seat for my DD (Virgin America), the guy at the gate rudely informed me that the flight was "quite full" and anyways this isn't Southwest or some other open seating carrier where you can just grab any seat if its available and if I wanted to have a separate seat for my daughter I would have to pay for one, and if not then he said we had to check our carseat. meanwhile, once we got in, there were a couple of empty seats (one right on front of us which we could have used had we been able to bring the carseat in). i'm actually quite surprised, given that I had always thought of Virgin as one of the most passenger service oriented airlines. but apparently, for them, it is more important to incentivize people to buy an extra seat than worry about child safety. that said, our DD did much better on our laps than she did in her own seat.