Hellobee Boards

If we know we will be in cars, we bring our car seats. If we know we won't be, we leave them. Since we travel a lot in Europe, you can often get away with a plane-train connection and avoid taxis.

So far we have brought a car seat, but we've only flown with her twice. Once she was still in the infant seat so it was a no brainer. And more recently we borrowed a friend's Cosco scenera for the trip. Both times we were getting rental cars so knew we would need a car seat one way or another.

It would be trickier if we were going somewhere where I knew we would only be driving to and from the airport, but I think I'll continue lugging a car seat.

@T-Mom: do you know when you can start using the bubble bum booster? Age or weight?

@Foodnerd81: It's basically the same requirements as sitting in a normal booster seat, 40+ lb AND at least 4 year old. We started using it at age 5 because she didn't get to 40 lb till then.
This is what the website says
"BubbleBum is a Belt Positioning Booster seat for children who meet all of the following criteria:
1.Children between 40lbs and 100lbs in weight
2.Children are over the age of 4,
3.Children can sit for the entire journey without sitting on their knees"

Right now, we bring a car seat with us.

I have been looking at those vests, but I haven't had the occasion to get one just yet, maybe this year when we go abroad. Would be so much easier.

We've mainly rented bc we usually rent a car, too.

We're going on our first "real" trip with LO soon and we're just getting a car seat through the car rental company. I'm not sure what we're doing to get to the airport. We don't use a car seat on the plane.

Safety wise, you need to have children fly in car seats. It is not safe to check or gate check the seats due to the damage they can sustain being tossed around. Before we knew better we flew with DD as a lap infant at 4 months and my mom picked us up with a carseat. Now we just bring the seat with us. I would definitely use a harness when our DDs are old enough, but then would have to ensure that whoever picks us up brings a seat already installed in their car, or pack and carry-on a booster if they are old enough for that.

@mrbee: cool, that does seem like a nice option for international travel, especially if too small for inflatable booster.

@mrbee: We've taken our car seat with us on the plane. We've had the in-laws take it with them when they drove instead of flown. We haven't rented one because the places we've gone don't offer it. My brother rented all the gear when they went to Denver and were really happy with the service. The bad part about the vest thing is that the kids might start refusing to sit in their normal car seat when you return home. My DS is very flexible and wouldn't push back but my nieces are the type that if you let them get bye with it once there is no going back.

@hotchildinthecity: Generally, renting a car seat isn't recommended because you don't know the history of the seat, and sometimes the seat provided isn't an appropriate seat for your child.

We'll either bring our seat or buy a new one specifically for traveling. I'm interested in getting a Harmony Defender and using it as her big girl seat when she turns two. We're likely flying somewhere this fall and I've been looking into what we'll need as far as car seats go.

@mrbee: oh yeah we did that on the way back from Korea. I'm wishing we were going to LaGuardia so we could just take the bus!

@hotchildinthecity: Uber family has car seats, too! I would totally rent a car seat on arrival if you can--saves the hassle of lugging through the airport.

@hotchildinthecity: No, it's not. I used to be part of CSFTL on Facebook but had to leave because of all the drama and "best practice" stuff. So, best practice is to always bring your seat, have your child in a seat on the plane, and never use a seat with unknown history (rented seats, seats from Uber/car companies, secondhand seats, seats that have been checked on an airplane).

the one time we've flown with her, we gate checked a combi cocorro in a travel bag. she was a lap infant.

I fly with the seat. I'm bit uncomfortable with unknown seats, and my kids are too little for alternative harnesses.

We've done a variety of things. We've brought our own car seat on the flight and gate checked it, ds has flown as a lap infant mostly until our last flights to/from NYC when he had his own seat. We've rented car seats, we've had car services that come with car seats installed, we've ridden taxis in NYC without a car seat for DS.

We haul the car seats with us. It's a pain but once they're checked in, it's not so bad. One of the seat also converts into a stroller so we're only really lugging one seat around.

@daniellemybelle: This is awesome!

@daniellemybelle: I love this. I could totally picture my kid sitting on the floor playing with his cars on the seat. Last time we took Amtrak, he killed like an hour playing on the floor of the train car. Is it filthy? Sure. Could he go catapulting into the side of the train? Possibly. But it's either that or my fellow passengers can listen to him cry because he has to sit in a tiny seat for 3 hours.