Carseat for 2.5 year old (33 month old)?

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to plan out our trip to California for Christmas this year. We have a non-stop flight (so a little over 5 hours), and will be traveling with our baby (who will be 8 months) and our daughter who will be 2.5 (33 months, so closer to three). We need to get a new car seat for her out there because she's outgrown the one that we keep out there, I'm debating whether or not to buy a new car seat out there or bring her car seat for the flight. If we didn't buy a car seat, I would use the CARES harness, so either way she is going to be harnessed during the flight. I'm hesitant to bring the car seat because I'll already be carrying the baby in a carrier, so it will be really hard for my husband to manage both her and the car seat. The baby is flying as a lap child, if that makes any difference space wise. Any advice? The reviews of the CARES harness on Amazon make it seem like its a real hazard, there are all of these reviews saying that its a choking hazard and hard to install. Any advice from btdt parents?

[Anonymous]

I thought kids needed to be under 2 to be lap children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought kids needed to be under 2 to be lap children?

Never mind. I didn't read closely enough that you were talking about the 8 month old being a lap baby.

Why not gate check the car seat?

[Anonymous]

OP here, we would buy a car seat and ship it to the grandparents house if we didn't bring a car seat with us. We wouldn't want to gate check it because then my husband still needs to lug it around the airport and we would still want something to harness her in the seat.
I guess I have two questions --
1. Is it really necessary for her to be harnessed? She is a typical toddler (so pretty wriggly), but I don't think she would be able to sit still the entire flight either way.
2. Should we just suck it up and lug around her car seat or use the CARES harness?

[Anonymous]

I would use cares and ship. I like cares to keep my 2.5 yo from squirming out of his seatbelt (which he can easily do) on long flights. And I hate hauling on the car seat.

One caveat - if it's naptime on the plane for the toddler, I'd bring the carseat if he naps better in it. That's worth the lugging.

[Anonymous]

So you'd be buying the CARES?

I've used mine a half dozen times. It's not at all hard to install (and I'm sure it's easier than a car seat), and I'm not sure what your kid could choke on. It costs around $60, so I would not buy it for a one time flight, but we have no family locally and we get a lot of use out of it.

I love the CARES--it keeps the kid strapped in; more like being strapped in a stroller than a car seat, plus it's extremely small and lightweight. I just toss it in my purse and go.

[Anonymous]

We just flew with my almost 3 year old this past week and bought a Cosco Scenera ($40 at Walmart) specifically for the trip. He did fall asleep in the carseat on the plane, which is easily worth $40. I think it also prevented him from wanting to get up and we needed it in the rental car at our destination. The Scenera is pretty lightweight and narrow. We were able to put it in the umbrella stroller but then my 3 year old either needed to walk or be carried. Good luck!