Hellobee Boards

Yes to the car seat. When my LO gets squirmy after takeoff, I unstrap him and let him move around. But it's a lifesaver for naps!

For us, he napped so much better in his car seat on the plane.

No. Based on my kids, who aren't used to riding in car seats, they definitely don't want to be strapped in, and at that age my son was happier when he could move around.

First time we took Wagon Jr. on a plane we didn't take the carseat and borrowed a CARES harness. Big mistake. He slouched further and further down in his seat until the harness was cutting off his air supply at his neck and he wouldn't stop whining/crying. Finally when the seatbelt sign went off I unstrapped him and ditched the harness. The second time we brought a carseat and he happily sat in it and watched videos for the 2 hour flight.

@JoJoGirl: hehe. Sorry!! Honestly though we're about to go on our third flight and we were thinking about not bringing it, again... but now that we have 2, it's kind of a no brainer... it should be good for at least one of them, and then we only have to rent one carseat when we get there. Plus we can connect it to our gogobabyz travelmate to lug one of them in while the other sits in the umbrella stroller, so we don't have to take a double stroller.

@JoJoGirl: Do you need the seat at your destination?

We took a 2.5 hour flight when she was around 23 months and the seat was a necessity. My kid is wild though and would never ever sit still in our laps or not strapped in. She would be going insane. Being strapped in felt more like a long car trip and it worked well. No screaming!

@JoJoGirl: Then I'd gate check...remind me how old your LO is?

I flew with LO at 18 months with no car seat. She did well and napped while I held her. We flew two other times where she had her own seat and she like having her own space to move around. I think you can make it work either way but I would air on the side of skipping the car seat especially if LO cries when in it.

My other advice for the plane is to wait as long as possible to bring out your entertainment and use the plane and the people and the stuff in the seat to entertain LO for as long as you can. Good luck!!

I wouldn't bring it. We did a lap child at 12 months and da was great. He hates his car seat so I have no doubt the seat wouldve caused lots of tears

@JoJoGirl: he was just cruising and so he did ok in front of us. That adds a whole nother level to it lol

@JoJoGirl: I'd be wary of expecting your parents to entertain her in the exit row. Flight attendants are pretty against kids being in that row, visiting or not. They won't let a kid have a seat in that row.

We borrowed MIL's carseat to take on vacation with us. I wasn't checking a 45 lb Foonf, hell no!

E would probably do better in a car seat at this stage, esp if i sat next to her and entertained her. She's like that in the car for long trips but she struggled at 15 months to be "free" on the plane. She couldn't settle to sleep on us, even when I wore her, and she kept scrambling between DH and I. At this stage, I'd probably do a seat with E.

I'd bring it for safety reasons if nothing else - I've only flown a handful of times, yet have managed to run into bad enough turbulence that I'm not confident I could've hung onto LO during it twice. And I don't trust car seats that have been gate checked - baggage handlers often throw that stuff around, and if the seat was internally damaged you'd probably never know until you got into an accident and the seat failed.

@JoJoGirl: I'd bring it on the plane, especially since your LO does okay in the car seat. We've always brought ours on flights with our LO, and it works out really well - he naps well in it (which is key), and will sit in it for a while if given entertainment (like snacks). When he needs a break we take him out of the seat and he plays on our laps. While I haven't tried it, I don't think he'd be inclined to sit in his empty seat for much longer than he'd want to sit in his car seat.

My lo will only sit in it if she is ready for her nap (which she decides) or for no more than 2 minutes at a time. For our last two trips, I questioned the usefulness of it because she basically sat in our laps the entire time and refused to go in it. She just turned 2. I don't know how her naps would be otherwise though. When she was younger, it was easier to get her to sit in it.