Anon, in most cases, you’ll be fine, but what about when you hit severe turbulence? Would you consider hold a child on your lap in a car?

Also, anon, just because you have a seat doesn’t mean your baby has to sit in it the whole time.

I really think it is a symptom of over-caution, to be honest. If you say “just because you have a seat doesn’t mean your baby has to sit in it the whole time” then what’s the point? If you can, presumably, prepare and take the time to strap the baby into the seat, you can also prepare and hold fast to your child. In a car, I would be *driving* and therefore not able to hold the child. If it was not illegal to forego carseats, I am not sure I’d be so into them either. Although I do recognize the increased safety issues in driving and especially these days when you have loons texting while driving or even merely speaking on their phones, I could moreso see the safety issues in a car. We could afford the seat but knew we wouldn’t use it anyway, and it was not necessary.

I know it’s much more dangerous to drive than to fly. I wrote that we took vacations (1 in about 3 years) where we could drive because we couldn’t afford 5 plane tickets.

To me, turbulence is the main issue. In the veeerrry unlikely event of a plane crash, I doubt the car seat matters much. But I was never so glad to have those “baby buckets” as when we hit some strong turbulence. I got very nervous and I’m honestly not sure if I could’ve held the baby securely enough to keep from bumping hard into the arm of the seat or the seat in front of me, or really from knocking a kid’s head against my own—that hurts!

Three years ago, a relative died on the West Coast and my husband was out of the country for work. So I had to fly, by myself, with a baby and a toddler. Driving cross country was not an option. I had to buy 2 seats, because having both kids on my lap for a 6 hour flight wasn’t an option either. But I did not buy a seat for my baby. I wore her in a sling the whole time and she was fine. The price the airline wanted to charge me for a third seat was insane, and as it was, people were complete assholes about the one carseat anyway. I can’t imagine how difficult it would have been if I had to deal with two of them.

@Paula – “Fearless” was scary, but it was a work of fiction. The fact is that planes are extremely safe. Yes, there is always a small chance something could happen, but that is true in almost any situation. (You could be pushing your kid in a stroller and a drunk driver could run off the road and hit you, but I don’t think that means people should lock themselves in their homes. Which, btw, is not necessarily safer. I read once that it was much more dangerous to be in your bathroom than on an airplane.)

Anyway, I don’t want to discourage anyone from buying a seat if they feel better about it, but you really shouldn’t judge parents who put their infants on their laps.

@Sarah – what I was told is that you can’t put the baby in the carrier during takeoff and landing, but you can have them in during the other parts of the flight.

Most European and Scandinavian planes now have baby seat-belts, which attach to the adult seatbelt and allow for the baby to be tethered to a seat. Babies are required to wear them for take-off and landing, and are encouraged to be buckled in when not moving around, just like anyone who has a seat on the plane. Personally, I found them to be much better than carseats, because it meant I could breastfeed when I needed to and if we hit turbulence nobody was going to go flying anywhere. We have a “Baby B’Air” harness for domestic flights which works the same way, and is actually a bit more secure since it surrounds the whole chest of the baby. If you’re concerned about turbulence/falling asleep/takeoff and landing but don’t or can’t purchase a second seat for your infant, I highly recommend it.

Here is the link to the story I mentioned: http://tinyurl.com/3ytnp9a

The thing is, the seat is only safe if the kid is actually in it. How many doctors advocate nursing on take off and landing to help the baby clear his ears? How many children do you know that would consent to being strapped into a seat for hours on end and never let out? You could be in the aisle on the way down to the bathroom when turbulence hits, so that seat you paid for to put the kid in is zero use. Children under two, even if they have their own seat, still need to be removed from to be changed or fed or entertained. I don’t fly much, but in the instances where the plane hit turbulence it was unexpected and no one was wearing their belt.

In one of your links I found the info on the statistics I was looking for.

http://www.faa.gov/passengers/fly_safe/turbulence/

“Each year, approximately 58 people in the United States are injured by turbulence while not wearing their seat belts.
From 1980 through 2008, U.S. air carriers had 234 turbulence accidents*, resulting in 298 serious injuries and three fatalities.”

Again, everyone should do what they feel is best. There is certainly nothing wrong with getting yoru child his/her own seat. However, in your original post you said “It always seem odd to me that parents who are so uptight when it comes to car seats, seem to think that the same principles don’t apply up in the air.” These are nowhere near the same things. About 40,000 people a year die in car accidents. According to this link, 3 people have died due to turbulence over the course of 28 years. The risks are nowhere near the same.

I would like to know why I was made to unwrap my infant for takeoff the last time I flew? Having a child wrapped to me (and happily snoozing) while I am strapped to the seat seems like the best of both worlds: secure baby, single seat.

Given that – the plane was empty enough that I was able to utilize an empty seat for his bucket on the way back and I have to say that I enjoyed it. I nursed him on takeoff and when he passed out (it was a late flight) I slipped him into his seat, strapped him in and relaxed. He didn’t stir until I unbuckled him to de-plane. On the way up, however, once he fell asleep he sweated all over both of us and I was just plain uncomfortable.

Our next two flights are cross country and with that comfort in mind, as well as the safety concerns, we’ve purchased a seat for our child.

Laure68: Thanks for putting some real research into this, not just trying to drum up fear like the original article!

The chances of turbulence being so terrible that you couldn’t hold your baby is certainly not great, even if there are no stats on it. And it is completely baffling that a baby isn’t allowed to be in a wrap/sling/carrier during take off (i have asked numerous airline workers and no one seems to know why.) And as another note. . . not all of us fly for vacation. I had to fly with my two month old and one year old to a childrens’ hospital. I had to fly again to a great grandparents funeral, although that is obvious a choice, but driving 25 hours wasn’t really feasible.

What would you have done if your child was over 2, Baltimore Mom? And as far as unexpected turbulence, of course it happens, but often, there is warning — that’s when the flight attendants tell everyone to buckle up. So yeah, when the seatbelt sign is on, my infant was buckled up in her seat. Obviously, you do what you gotta do. I’m not saying you’re a bad parent for not buying your infant a seat. We all have our own comfort level.

If both kids were over two? I have no idea. Probably had to miss my uncle’s funeral, the man who raised me after my father was killed and my mother took off. There was no way I could have coughed up the money for a third seat.

As far as turbulence, it’s not unexpected if there is a warning. And I’ve never been on a place with turbulence so severe that it would rip my child from my arms. And if the plane is crashing, then everyone’s dead anyway.

The lap rule is the closest the airline industry will get to a “babies fly free” offer. It’s not about safety, it’s about selling seats to Mom’s and Dads who otherwise couldn’t afford to bring baby while not giving away any seats that can be sold to others. If you can afford it, you buy your kid a seat. If you can’t, you’re unsafe and uncomfortable. Isn’t that pretty much the American way?

Having flown in Europe with young children before I had my own kids, I thought the baby restraints were normal everywhere. When I first flew with my oldest, who was about 18 months, I was shocked that they had no restraints to attach him to me. The stewardess had no idea what I was talking about when I asked for one. I really do think they should be standard, it solves the turbulence issue and the money issue.