If I bring a car seat on the plane, can I only use it for part of the time?

[Anonymous]

Travelling to Spain this summer with our son, who will be 20 months at the time. He has traveled quite a bit so far as a lap child (30 plus flights), and we have that routine down pretty well. I will hold him for a bit, my husband will hold him for a bit, we will let him stand on the floor in front of us, let him look out the window, we will take him to walk to the back of the plane, one of us will get up so he can sit in the empty seat, etc. Seems to work pretty well if we change up his position every so often. For the Europe flight, we have a seat for him and that is throwing me off! Should we do all the things we normally do for flights, and just have a little more space to do it? Or should we bring his car seat on board with us and strap him in? I worry that may actually be worse, as he will be confined in one place for hours at a time and won't have all the options to move around. We went to France last summer when he was 9 months and actually ended up with a free seat between us (lucky!!) so once he fell asleep we laid him there between us and he slept for a few hours overnight. But, he was a lot smaller then. Is there a way to bring the car seat on but only have him sit in it part time, for sleeping? What about those blow up cushions that fit into the floor in front of the seat and turn a plane seat into a little bed? Do you install car seats rear facing or front facing in planes? Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

Like any passenger he is safer when buckled in. Sounds like you could do your normal routine and just add the carseat to it.

[Anonymous]

At 20 months I would gate check the car seat and use a CARES harness during the flight. The car seat will take up too much room. His feet will kick the seat in front of him. Sleeping will be harder without a car seat, but not impossible.

[Anonymous]

Put him in the car seat - it is safest. I know a child who was injured in turbulence.

[Anonymous]

I would take the car seat. I found that my daughter was much calmer in it since it was familiar. How is he in the car? If he doesn't fight it then he won't fight it in the plane. He can of course get out and walk around but there's not going to be a place to put the car seat for him to sit in his seat regular once you carry it on board. We found car seats on planes were much much easier for naps and sleeping. You put it forward facing and just the the belt to strap it on.

[Anonymous]

I was told if you use the seat, the must be in it for takeoff and landing. This was years ago - don’t know if it’s still true or airline dependent.

[Anonymous]

The Diono Radian car seat folds and can be placed in an overhead bin. Might be an option, though I'm not sure it's worth buying a brand new car seat for this trip. We've put ours in the overhead when we wanted it at our destination, but I've never used it for part of a flight and stored it for another part. You would also have to be sure you were able to secure overhead bin space, unused, so that it was available when you wanted to store the seat.

[Anonymous]

My experience especially in Europe is that if you bring a car seat on board they expect child to stay in it for the first and last 30 min of the flight. You also cannot just use car seat when you want. It must go in window seat. And it will stay there.

I was nursing 13mo and was told to put baby back a few times. It is nicer when baby falls asleep in car seat for overnight flights, but not great when they want to nurse in your arms.

I found it much easier to not use a car seat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My experience especially in Europe is that if you bring a car seat on board they expect child to stay in it for the first and last 30 min of the flight. You also cannot just use car seat when you want. It must go in window seat. And it will stay there.

I was nursing 13mo and was told to put baby back a few times. It is nicer when baby falls asleep in car seat for overnight flights, but not great when they want to nurse in your arms.

I found it much easier to not use a car seat.

This. If you have a car seat, it has to go in the window seat, and the flight attendants don't have anywhere to put it if you're not using it. Your child will have to be in there during takeoff and landing and when the seatbelt sign is illuminated for turbulence, probably.

[Anonymous]

Read the turbulence thread.

[Anonymous]

Its very irritating having kids walk up and down, especially if you are trying to sleep. Be considerate. No one wants you and your kid walking up and down. Kid should be in a car seat.

[Anonymous]

We have taken our toddler’s car seat (in his own seat) on a plane multiple times, and we’ve never had problems having him sit on our laps during the flight, although we buckle him into the seat in the event of turbulence. I have never tried to fit a car seat into the overhead compartment; we just keep the car seat buckled into the airplane seat. In my experience, rear facing does not work with an airplane seat so we’ve always done from facing although he’s still rear facing in the car. Caveat is that we haven’t done international travel!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its very irritating having kids walk up and down, especially if you are trying to sleep. Be considerate. No one wants you and your kid walking up and down. Kid should be in a car seat.

You sound like someone without kids.

You know what's more annoying than kids walking during a flight? Kids who are yelling or bothering their neighbors because they're restless,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Travelling to Spain this summer with our son, who will be 20 months at the time. He has traveled quite a bit so far as a lap child (30 plus flights), and we have that routine down pretty well. I will hold him for a bit, my husband will hold him for a bit, we will let him stand on the floor in front of us, let him look out the window, we will take him to walk to the back of the plane, one of us will get up so he can sit in the empty seat, etc. Seems to work pretty well if we change up his position every so often. For the Europe flight, we have a seat for him and that is throwing me off! Should we do all the things we normally do for flights, and just have a little more space to do it? Or should we bring his car seat on board with us and strap him in? I worry that may actually be worse, as he will be confined in one place for hours at a time and won't have all the options to move around. We went to France last summer when he was 9 months and actually ended up with a free seat between us (lucky!!) so once he fell asleep we laid him there between us and he slept for a few hours overnight. But, he was a lot smaller then. Is there a way to bring the car seat on but only have him sit in it part time, for sleeping? What about those blow up cushions that fit into the floor in front of the seat and turn a plane seat into a little bed? Do you install car seats rear facing or front facing in planes? Thanks in advance!

Yes! Don't bring the car seat on the plane. It's enormous, it's a pain to schlep around and it will be much easier for you to tend to your child and keep them placid if you don't have one extra giant obstruction to deal with. I agree with PP that the CARES would work well for this age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its very irritating having kids walk up and down, especially if you are trying to sleep. Be considerate. No one wants you and your kid walking up and down. Kid should be in a car seat.

Oh listen to you... shameful