Going on a long flight (12 hours) and in a foreign country where we will need to take taxis maybe 1-2x a day. I have a Chicco NextFit which I love, but ain't no way I'm lugging that thing around.
I also have an Evenflo Tribute that is lightweight but horrible to install (it has LATCH but the buckle that tightens and loosens the LATCH is awful). I use it for when we travel but only if we are going somewhere where we are renting a car or just not driving. It is too difficult to install and uninstall daily.
Suggestions? Here is a consolidated list of requirements:
1) Under $100 (would do $150 if it was perfect)
2) Lightweight (may have to carry it some)
3) Easy to install and uninstall (perhaps multiple times a day in and out of taxis)
4) Approved for airplane use as we have a seat for DS so he can sleep.
You might also enjoy...
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Britain Click Tight is amazing but probably not cheap or light.
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Safety first guide 65--we brought it on a 12 hour flight and across Israel.
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I don't think this seat exists
. I'd also be really nervous trying to install and uninstall a carseat in a cab while the driver's getting upset at how long it's taking.
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@hilsy85: OMG you are my hero. That's where we are going!
I was just googling whether most cars/taxis in Israel have LATCH. We plan to mostly walk around (staying at the Hilton so good central location) but there will be a few times where we need to drive to visit family. Plan on taking taxis. Any experience/advice? -
@ShootingStar: Well, I live in NYC so...I don't care about that
Cabs having to wait for strollers being folded and carseats being installed is a part of life. I've also gotten really good at installing a carseat...about 5 mins with a good seat. But the particular one I have is just a pain and I'd rather not do it multiple times a day.
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@SweetiePie: we did not use latch at all--just did a seatbelt install which was very easy. I will say that most taxi drivers looked at us like we were crazy. For bringing the car seat as I got the feeling it is not very common in taxis there. Esp for toddlers. But they'll wait for you to do it, no big deal.
Are you flying el Al? The flight was by far the worst part of the trip for us--our flight left at like 10 or 11pm I think so we had to wake up LO to go to the airport--I thought he'd fall back asleep by nope, he was so overtired and over stimulated he maybe slept for 3/4 hours total on the flight, most of it on me. On the plus side, the time change was not too bad--he ended up staying up a bit later and sleeping in, which was nice. On the whole the country is very child friendly. I will say that they are not health conscious when it comes to kids thought--multiple gkmes I asked for yogurt for LO and was given chocolate pudding. And when I asked for plain Cheerios or similar, they brought the most sugary cereal. We went 2 years ago exactly--on the whole it wa da great trip!
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@hilsy85: I don't feel as confident with a seatbelt install but I can maybe practice in our car before we go, just in case we don't have LATCH in a cab. I'll order the carseat you recommended now so it gets here this week and I have ample time to install.
We are flying El Al. We got him his own seat and I am praying he sleeps. Fortunately we got a 7:45pm EST flight going there, so its right around normal bedtime. We'll just keep him up and hope that once lights go down on the plane he will fall asleep. I am even going to ask my ped about a little dose of Benadryl
A friend said her ped told her it was OK for a long flight, but of course I want to ask our ped first. Just enough to make him too drowsy to fight it.
The flight home - insert killing husband here - he insisted that we should take the 2pm flight Israel time and basically land at his normal bedtime here in NY. So he'll either sleep the flight home and not be able to go to bed when we get here and be up all night. Or he'll be up the entire TWELVE HOUR flight (kill me now).We leave next Thursday and we just booked flight and hotel today
My husband, I could kill him (lots of killing DH in this response) - we've been talking about taking this trip since January and I've been begging him to just contact his family and book it...but like at least a couple months out. Sure enough he decides last night that we absolutely must go this month. So now I am running around like crazy trying to learn as much as I can before we go. Fortunately his cousins have small children there so we can get some info from them, but I do get the impression its very different, as you stated.Good to know about things like yogurt and cereal. I want to pack as little as possible but I will take a few good snacks/items that I know he'll eat and are relatively healthy.
We've been to Israel many times when it was just the two of us and I really love the trip...but this is first time with a kid...who is 18 months old...I'm totally crapping my pants. Fortunately he's a really pleasant kid, but he has high sleep needs and a million family members who want to meet him. We're mainly going so his old ailing grandma can meet our son once and just telling everyone else not to have any expectations.
And - now my MIL might be coming. Greeeeeaaaat.Positives - good hotel, babysitting in hotel so we can go to dinner, beach, good food. I'll focus on those things.
Hopefully we can turn this into a nice family trip. Sorry this turned into a rant about my trip to Israel instead of carseats!
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@SweetiePie: have you seen this? http://carseatblog.com/6635/airplanes-carseats-and-kids%E2%80%94what-you-need-to-know-pt-2/
We used the Cosco seat mentioned when traveling last summer. It is really light, she seemed more comfortable in it than her $300 one at home, and so easy to install and feel confident about its safety. That would be my pick!
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I just went through this! I almost went with the Safety1st @hilsy85 recommended but in my case I'm trying to fit the backseat of a truck that is pretty tight front-to-back so I went with the Cosco Scenera Next that @happygal mentioned.
I think I would call the Cosco Scenera generally easy to install but not confidently. I haven't used it much yet but it went into my Subaru Outback SO easily! (And I am VERY spoiled with our daily Chicco NextFit and KeyFit.) But then I tried to install it in the truck (where it will live as the secondary seat) and it took three different tries with angry googling about what other seat I should trade it for before it went in. That said, it's now in rock solid so... Practice? Luck? No idea. The other thing is that the truck's bench seat is a tricky install in general. So I'm inclined to say the Scenera is typically an easy install in cars but I can't promise. I'm happy with it right now. $45 for a SUPER light secondary/travel seat is pretty nice.
Oh, and this is ALL talking about Rear Facing. I tested it FF in both vehicles and it went in easy-peasy. I only struggle with RF installs.Have an awesome trip! I was stressed about Hawaii last month with a 3 year old and 1 year old but it was fine. The flight there wasn't fun (not much sleeping) but it was fine. YOU will be fine.
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@SweetiePie: We have the same carseat as @hilsy85: and we found the seatbelt install easier than the latch, so we just used that. The latch was hard to tighten and we couldn't get a good install that way.
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We have the Cosco Scenera Next and I think its not THAT different from the Evenflo you already have. Its not that bad with regards to the Latch install, but its REALLY depends on the angle of the seat in the car you are installing in like @caitlanc: said. It installs like a dream in our Prius, but we've had times when traveling when it did not feel as solid and adjusting that Latch strap was a pain because of the angle of the seat.
That said, we just used our Scenera Next in terms of just straight rear-facing seatbelt install and it way easier than tightening the Latch belt. I think you may just want to practice using a seatbelt install in the seat you already have in your car and see if that makes you comfortable. For us, it was literally just passing the belt through a hole in the bottom and making sure its cinched.
You might also consider buying this installation aid for a few bucks and carry it in your diaper bag in case you get a weird angle in the taxi - a rolled blanket or towel doesn't always cut it. http://amzn.com/B005PK1CN4
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@Happygal: @caitlanc: @tinyperson: very helpful, thank you!
@caitlanc: How long was your flight to hawaii? This by far is my biggest stress! We've done a 5 hour flight but it was same time zone so only a minor disturbance. This is 12 hour flight with 7 hour time difference. It's one of those trips where we aren't there long enough for him to adjust to the new time, but just long enough to screw with his schedule at home -
@SweetiePie: I think you'll actually be fine on your flight home--chances are he will sleep for a bit, and you can treat that like a nap, and just put him to bed when you get home. As for the benadryle, I would test it out first, as I have heard for some kids it has the opposite effect and makes them hyper! My LO was 16 months and VERY high energy when we went, so it was just a tough situation.
We also had my MIL come along--not sure what yours is like, but she was a lifesaver for us. She helped entertain him on the flight, babysat him while he napped at the hotel sometimes so we could go sightseeing ourselves, and it was just nice to have someone willing to walk LO around outside at a restaurant when he was antsy so DH and I could eat a bit and actually have a convo. We also went to visit DH's ailing family member, so I totally get it . We did use babysitting at the hotel as well and went out to dinner on our own almost every night after he was asleep--that was also nice!
One more thing--if your LO drinks milk, just be conscoius of whether the restaurant is a meat kosher or dairy kosher restaurant--we were unable to get milk for him a few times because we weren't paying attention.
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@SweetiePie: I wouldn't stress about the time change--chances are he will be exhausted from the flight regardless, so hopefully tired enogh to sleep well that first night. Just make sure the hotel has black out curtains, and use them!
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@gingerbebe: girl, we were just talking about 45 minute car trips being stressful and now I am on a 12 hour flight with a 7 hour time difference. How????
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@hilsy85: Thank you this is all really helping to calm me!
When we travel I take a few boxes of shelf stable milk so I'll be sure to keep one in his backpack all the time. Good tip! I'm not Jewish so the kosher thing would never occur to me!My MIL is helpful...but overly. If that makes sense. She is really overbearing and doesn't want our son to look away from her for a second. So it gets really stressful when we want him to just calmly sit and watch a show on the plane and she wants to wave toys in his face and sing and clap. Because she wants the attention.
And she is the type to have high expectations and when they aren't met, she cries. Like I'm sure she has this idyllic picture in her head of LO being well rested and happy and just spending hours on the beach and every night dinner with family and so on. And that's just not what it's going to be. I'm anal with his sleep so our two goals are visit grandma and keep kid happy with sleep and food. That's it. And I think she'll be really butt hurt that she's not showing him off to every single family member (all of who will be stateside for a wedding this spring, they'll have time to meet him then).
This is a last minute trip for his grandma and I wish we could have planned something longer to accommodate everyone, but we are there for FOUR whole days. That's it. It just isn't happening.Sorry I'm so rant-Y today. I'm a planner and this is just throwing me for a loop. And MIL is my kryptonite.
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@SweetiePie: I would just be careful about pulling out the milk at a meat kosher restaurant..that might not be ok with the restaurant staff/other diners. I am maybe being too paranoid about it though, so maybe ask your family there!
My MIL is similarly overly helpful sometimes. And only 4 days?! that is rough--we went for 8 or 9 I think so the flight/time change seemed like less of an issue. I hope you guys have fun regardless!
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@SweetiePie: Dude, we just did 7.5 hours each way in 48 hours (granted, it was more like 2.5 hour flights, with 2.5 hour layovers), but it totally wrecked his naps and we had a 3-hour time difference to deal with. It was a hot mess, so I understand your stress!
We tried going without Benadryl on our way to Maui in October (5.5 hour flight nonstop) and he didn't sleep more than 20 minutes and was screaming the entire time. We gave him Benadryl on the way home, and he slept 3 of the 5 hours in my arms. I do have a friend for whom Benadryl makes her son super hyper, so definitely try it out, but we did give him some Benadryl before boarding whichever flight was closest to a nap time or bedtime. It helped him settle and snooze for his bedtime flight, although be prepared for sleeping for a while in the seat, waking up and freaking out, and then needing to sleep in your arms, etc. Once Sam was out cold, I could transfer him back into his seat for a little while, but it was back and forth like that.
One thing that really helped us was not immediately rushing S off to bed. We gave him a shower or bath to get the airport/airplane filth off him and changed him into jammies so that he was refreshed and relaxed, but we let him run around and explore his surroundings for a little while and wind down. At some point the adrenaline wears off and they visibly look tired and should drop like a fly.
Skipped naps are just going to happen, but as long as there are lots of people and distractions around, its not that big a deal. S subsisted on 10-20 minute catnaps once or twice a day all weekend, but that made bedtime, whenever it was, super easy because he was just dead tired. We even had to share a bedroom with him in a pack n' play and DH had a hacking cough and slept right through all of it. The ONLY thing I would advise is to not let the catnap happen if you know you're about to be back at the hotel for a real nap - S fell asleep for 5 minutes in the car back to my MIL's house and REFUSED to sleep at all once we got there.
I'm a big believer in just starting the day on time wherever we are. So even though we went from PST to EST to PST all within 48 hours, we just stuck to S' normal schedule as much as we could in that time zone in terms of wake up and bedtime. The only thing that I didn't care about was food and meals. He could snack and graze as much as he wanted wherever we were because I couldn't guarantee him a meal at the right time.
As for milk, if you can haul the shelf stable milk cartons, great, but again, we had great success with Nestle Nido powdered if you need a dry product. Just carry a 1/4 cup measure with you (1/4 cup per 1 cup of milk) and you've got milk!
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@hilsy85: ohhhhh good point about not even bringing to kosher place. I'll bring it but be sure to find out if the place is kosher and if so won't even bother. He can survive on water and a little less milk than usual for a few days.
Yeah we would love to do a longer trip but my husbands work and our pre existing travel schedule in the states just doesn't allow it. Have a lot going on the next couple of months! -
@gingerbebe: ok I have to much to say to you so I'm going to wait till I'm at my laptop.
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Just one small suggestion, lol, bring a section of pool noodle for an instant angle adjuster just in case you need it.
. I'd also be really nervous trying to install and uninstall a carseat in a cab while the driver's getting upset at how long it's taking.
Cabs having to wait for strollers being folded and carseats being installed is a part of life. I've also gotten really good at installing a carseat...about 5 mins with a good seat. But the particular one I have is just a pain and I'd rather not do it multiple times a day.
A friend said her ped told her it was OK for a long flight, but of course I want to ask our ped first. Just enough to make him too drowsy to fight it.
My husband, I could kill him (lots of killing DH in this response) - we've been talking about taking this trip since January and I've been begging him to just contact his family and book it...but like at least a couple months out. Sure enough he decides last night that we absolutely must go this month. So now I am running around like crazy trying to learn as much as I can before we go. Fortunately his cousins have small children there so we can get some info from them, but I do get the impression its very different, as you stated.
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