flying with a lap infant, question!?

I'm a former Flight Attendant. The FAA is clear that the baby should be held loose in your lap, with nothing attached to you. You wear the seatbelt and then hold the baby. Your friend was either given incorrect information or was perhaps flying a foreign airline.

Please do not buy any gizmos which attach to your seat belt. Some are even banned by the airlines.

Remember to never check a car seat in as luggage. Try to get an empty place on the plane (even if full, there could be misconnects) and bring it to the gate. If it's gate-checked, this is safer than checking it in as luggage. Damage can be impossible to see and your seat could then be unsafe for your child in the car.

By the way, MOST 13 month olds hate their car seats. This is typical. They're just too active to sit. Mine were either up in the aisle or asleep in the seat, no in between at this age.

For more information, nine years ago I wrote an article on this subject. It's based on both my personal and professional experience of flying with kids. It's totally non-commercial and other parents from around the world have contributed;

http://flyingwithchildren.blogspot.com/

An edited version appeared on the Expat Women website in December;

http://www.expatwomen.com/mothers/flying_with_chil...

Good luck getting an empty seat next to you and have a good flight!

do not take your vehicle seat because it is going to easily be put in the protecting area of the plan as bags. you should success out and there'll be a spare seat beside you yet, better than likely, the airplane will be finished and also you're going to be require to save your newborn on your lap. they are going to provide you with a seatbelt that connected for your own which will save the newborn secured for the period of take-off and touchdown. How old is your daughter? If she is below a three hundred and sixty 5 days, enquire now in case you may have a carry cot for the period of flight for her to sleep in. e-mail the business organisation now in a lot of time because to have a carry cot will require observe because it is going to also advise that's needed to be seated close to the front of the airplane. Take a lightweight pushchair/stroller to push the newborn round and some businesses will enable you to to shop it as hand bags. back, that's needed to be sure. Barring that, evaluate procuring a baby sling for the toddler so that you'll carry her in it, leaving you fingers-free once you're strolling between flights.

The seat belt goes around you only, not around the infant.

If the infant is not secured in a seat of his own, he will be killed in an accident if there are impact-related casualties, so whether or not the seat belt is around him does not matter. Without the belt around him, he'll hit the seat or bulkhead in front of him hard enough to be killed. With the belt, he'll be crushed to death between you and the seat belt. There isn't any safe configuration. When you have the baby in your lap, you must accept the likelihood that he will not survive a crash with impact injuries. It's just like a car in this respect.

If you want safety, he'll need to be secured in a seat of this own. You are not strong enough to hold him securely in a crash, but an appropriate child seat is.

Airline accidents are extraordinarily rare, so the chances of either of you dying are remote. But if a crash occurs, and it is of a type that injures people through the rapid accelerations of impact, an infant on your lap will most likely be killed, even if you survive. That's the risk you take in exchange for not paying for a separate seat and not using a protective child seat.

http://help.jetblue.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/webisapi.dll/...