CARES Kids Fly Safe?

[Jonathan S.]

Anyone use this?

Seems like:

Pros =
- Way easier than making our way through the airports (especially since we’ll probably have a layover) with her bulky car seat (which we don’t need at our destination since we’ll be using my brother’s in his car).
- Once on the plane, gives her adjacent parents more space for themselves.

Cons:
- Not quite as safe as a rear-facing car seat.
- Yet another thing to buy (or conceivably rent from all the eBay entrepreneurs).
- Possibility of some passenger in the seat(s) behind her messing with the straps.

Thanks in advance for any feedback. (And yes, although she’ll be only 19 months at the time of the trip and therefore could legally fly without her own seat, I can think of many activities that are legally permissible yet don’t appeal to me...)

[wooley12]

Sorry I can't help ya. Last time I flew with an infant I just strapped her in the seat next to the mom while I headed back to one of the many open seats in the smoking section to relax.

[bodywhomper]

have you flown with your toddler before?

from my experience, some of those bulky seats (front and rear facing) do not fit very well in plane seats; there's not enough room from the seat in front.

the cares thing is pretty interesting and was not around when my older kid was toddler/preschooler. what we did was buy a relatively light, FAA-approved, low profile, front facing harness/booster combo seat. we used it at our destination (i understand that's not an issue for your next trip). it was a fairly cheap purchase from target. on the plane, it worked well (5-pt harness) and attached via the airplane seatbelts. at home we stopped switching a single seat between our cars and just had one seat in each car. (at that point, we also decided to graduate to front facing - i know the age rec has changed). our kid still uses that seat, he's almost 6, as a booster seat, i.e. using the car seat belts and not the 5-pt harness.

hope that helps.

[54-46]

We had a cares; worked well. Were able to sell it easily when our kid outgrew it. Worth it IMO

[Jonathan S.]

have you flown with your toddler before?

from my experience, some of those bulky seats (front and rear facing) do not fit very well in plane seats; there's not enough room from the seat in front.

Hmm, good point. Our seat is pretty bulky. To have the proper clearance with the back of the front passenger seat in our Subaru Legacy sedans we have to put the front passenger seat pretty far forward. If the car seat would lack clearance with the back of the airline seat in front of it, then that would eliminate some of the rearward facing advance.

The CARES is starting to looking more attractive...

[skinnyskier]

We've taken our kid on plenty of flights in his car seat and never had any real problems. They have to be in the window seat, and sometimes the seatbelt buckle is hard to reach. As long as you adjust the angle of the seat in it's base, it fits fine. We use a pacbac to get it throughout the airport.

[jgb@etree]

We've taken our kid on plenty of flights in his car seat and never had any real problems. They have to be in the window seat, and sometimes the seatbelt buckle is hard to reach. As long as you adjust the angle of the seat in it's base, it fits fine. We use a pacbac to get it throughout the airport.

^^this. Not sure what a pacbac is, but we use one of these:

http://www.theportablebaby.com/gogokidz.html

It's awesome actually. When he gets tired of walking, he'll just hop in the seat & we can wheel him around in it. Easier than carrying him when you're trying to manage all of the other luggage.

Now if someone could tell me how to keep him in the car seat for the entire flight, THAT would be a miracle.