No way my child could fit in one of those bassinets. She will be 18 months old when we travel in June, and she is tall for her age. We used miles for three tickets so we are guaranteed a seat for her on the Delta flight, and we plan on strapping here into a car seat.

Since we have to fly Alitalia from MXP-ATH, we will have to hold her, but at least that is a short flight. Technically we are ticketed for three seats on that flight as well, but we would not be able to place our child in one.

Thanks for all the advice...I have heard lots of conflicting advice about the benedryl. I think we'll take our chances without the medicine, it's a short flight (2.5 hours), hopefully enough treats and toys will do the trick. If not, I'll be drinking the wiskey!!

I checked with AA (website), and they require a car seat for a child under two who has a purchased seat, so we will definitely bring it with. It'll solve the rental car problem, too!

Thanks again for all your advice,

Trish

I know you have already figured things out, but just in case anyone else is reading this.... Other concerns with benadryl aside - With only a 2.5 hour flight you would have a sleeping/groggy child on your hands going through the airport at your destination. I think that stuff normally works for 4-6 hours. Even for people who recommend benadryl I would think that lugging a comatose child through the airport would make it more hassle than it is worth.

I did say weight, not height. The limit is generally appx. 25 lbs. Unless your baby is three feeet tall, height wouldn't be a problem.

Realizing this does not address the specific topic at hand....

I am a FA for a regional carrier. You have seen us going through the cabin...counting passengers in sections for the weight and balance. We count "lap babies" for the TSOB (Total Souls On Board). One Captain I flew with referred to lap babies as "projectiles."

Food for thought, perhaps.....

A friend of mine used to fly for United. She said on United lap babies were referred to as UFO's - Unrestrained Flying Objects.

It's so true, and I've seen it happen. Luckily, both times were very soft landings, and no damage done, but scared me to death. I hate seeing lap kids on my flights because of this issue. You would also not believe the number of (no doubt well-meaning but not thinking) parents who strap their seatbelt around themselves and their child. That could be deadly under fairly routine circumstances.

Almost any Flight Attendant (who’s probably had to watch videos of what happens when infants turn into “UFOs”) would urge parents to bring a car seat for anyone under two. Just check first to make sure there’s a sticker that says “Approved for use in cars and airplanes”. For one thing, it really helps when the gate agent/fa asks to see it to know where it is. It’s usually in red lettering in the middle of a bunch of black text.

We bought a Sit N Stroll carseat, which at the time was certified for airplane use, and loved it (as did our daughter) *when* we were allowed to use it. Sometimes we were. Sometimes we weren't. The flight attendants were pretty arbitrary about it. This was pre-2001, so we sometimes got up on our hind legs are debated the issue.

As far as medicating your kid with Benedryl, our solution was to:
1) check with our pediatrician, who said ok.
2) try it out at home a couple of times first, to observe any side effects. We ended up using it a couple of times travelling to Asia from the US, but everyone's different, so don't take this anecdotal observation for anything like general guidance.

Just for calibration on the trips, these were multiple trips from SFO to SIN, HKG, DPS. All < 2 years old.

(Now my daughter is 10 and watches cartoons for 10-12 hours straight going to Europe or Asia. She's a wreck the next day, but at least I've slept.)
Rich

FALSE

If I were you, I would check the car seat. I have rented a car seat before, and it is expensive and gross. That was only because I didn't own a car at the time, so of course there was no car seat to check.

You do not need to bring the car seat in the passenger cabin. You just wrote, in plain English, that the child will not be able to sit for long periods of time (2.5 hours is a long time for a child that age). It will be easier to restrain the child if she has just a lap belt than if she is strapped into a car seat.

I have bought a ticket for my 18 month child (he is now 5 years old), and he sat in the seat with a regular seat belt with no problem at all. No flight attendants bugged me about it, and this was on UA, which is not known for flight attendants who overlook rules and regulations in favor of customer service.

What you should do is check the car seat, board the plane, and sit your child in her seat with the seat belt. If a flight attendant says you have to hold your child on your lap because you don't have a car seat, tell him/her that 1) you are surprised that AA admits its own seat belts are inadequate and will be filing a complaint with the FAA alleging the operation of aircraft that are not airworthy; and 2) you will hold the child in your lap only on the condition that the child's ticket be refunded in full before departure (after all, why buy a ticket if you're not going to use it?)

You stand a good chance of being able to use your child's ticket with just the seat belt. Not every flight attendant knows every airline policy (other than FAA regulations, which this is not one), and not every flight attendant enforces every non-FAA airline policy.

This is your child, your ticket, and your decision to use just the seat belt, which is perfectly fine for an 18 month old. Do not let AA browbeat you into stupid airline policy submission. I assume these tickets are non-refundable, so next time fly a better airline, which would be anyone. Have a good trip!

Huh?

Are you saying that child safety seats are no safer than a seat belt for an 18 month old child? And that "It will be easier to restrain the child if she has just a lap belt than if she is strapped into a car seat?"

Car seats were invented because lap belts do not adequately restrain small children - in the event of an impact (or turbulence in the case of an aircraft), a lap belt will not hold a small child. The impact/turbulance can send child the flying - they lack sufficient size and weight for the belt to hold them down. That's why child safety seats are required to have a 5 point restraint system until the child is at least 5 years/40 pounds in most states.

At 18 months old, kids are usually great wigglers - most of them could be out of a lap belt in 5 seconds flat, so I must disagree with your conclusion that a lap belt would in any way be safe or effective for an 18 month old.

Yes

False. Car seats were invented for cars. If a lap belt will not hold a small child, surely it will not hold an adult, right?

You need density for the seat belt to work (e.g., a loaf of bread or a ballon will more easily slip out). The density of a child is the same as that of an adult -- maybe even more so since they are typically not as fat.

You are referring to laws regarding car seats in cars.

In that case, the lap belt is not tight enough. If you put a child in a car seat and casually lay the belt on top of the child, the child can just as easily wiggle out of the car seat.

That is incorrect on two counts. First of all, children and adult are, as I'm sure you have noticed, different sizes. What will safely hold an adult will *not* hold a child. Secondly, in order to use your "car seat" in an airplane, it *must* have a sticker on it that says, in red writing "THIS RESTRAINT IS CERTIFIED FOR USE IN MOTER VEHICLES AND AIRCRAFT". Please see FAR 121.211, subsection b, subsubsection 2, subsubsubsection B, subsubsubsubsubsection 2.


Yes, but there the child is not as large as an adult, and unless the seatbelt is *painfully* tight, the child *will* slip out, because they are not as wide as an adult.

Which is why CRSs are designed with a proper restraints, not just a belt across the waist. They are much, much safer than holding a child in your arms. I do not, however, find anything in the FARs that prohibits the use of a standard seat and seatbelt for those under the age of two. Common sense does dicated that this course not be followed. Many carriers (my own included) have policies that only a child under the age of two to ocupy an empty seat during cruise flight only.

Improperly positioned lap belts can cause severe abdominal injuries to adults in accidents.

Just imagine the potential damage a lap belt might cause an 18 month old during a very severe stop from an aborted takeoff (of which I have experienced several) or from severe inflight turbulence (experienced that as well).

The typical 5 point restraint belt system distributes that force across a larger portion of the infant's body. And, of course, infant chest aren't even ready for any of that load until they are a year old/20 pounds - that's why they are to ride facing the rear: In a severe stop, the force is evenly distributed across the entire backside of the infant if facing rearward.

Anyway, kef0913 delivered the correct answer (as usual) that the FAA requires infants to be held in arms for taxi, takeoff or landing if they are not properly restrained in a CRS.

So the correct answer to the OP is bring the seat or be prepared to hold the child during taxi, takeoff, and landing (and maybe, depending on the FAs, during Seatbelt Sign illumination during cruise as well).

Which is safer -- holding the child on your lap or seating the child with a lap belt?

Citation?