In the course of the past year, my daughter exceeded the height limit of the Chicco Keyfit 30 and graduated into a convertible seat – the NextFit. In that same period of time, I strapped the NextFit to my back and carried it into Boston Logan Airport – all the way from Central Parking A, through the hamster tube, alongside the out of service moving sidewalk, to the check-in area. You know what? That trip was the first and last time I’d do that. That thing is heavy.
If your child is at least 22 lbs and can sit up facing forward, there is a much simpler 1 pound device called the CARES harness that can really change the way you fly with a toddler. It loops around the seat, under the tray table of the person behind you so as to not interfere, and has two vertical shoulder straps that the existing seat belt loops through. Your child gets the normal protection of the seatbelt, plus some shoulder support and a chest buckle like a car seat provides. The upside, in addition to being a lot easier to carry and very simple to install is that your kid also has some more freedom of movement compared to a car seat.
It’s been fairly surprising to me, though, how many crew members have just never seen the thing. Most had heard of it and at least have been trained that it is FAA approved, but on about 50% of flights someone wanders over to watch me install it because they just haven’t seen it before. Most recently on a US Airways Express flight, I was installing it when the captain wandered over. I looked up, said hello, and just said, “Don’t worry, it’s FAA approved, I can show you the tag.” He said, “I believe you, I just want to see what the heck this thing is because my own daughter is getting too big to fly in her car seat.” He watched me install it, then asked me a bunch of questions – what’s it called, where did you get it, how much, is it comfortable, etc. The CARES Harness is available through Amazon (Prime!) for $60-70.
So if you haven’t heard of it already, the CARES harness might be an option when your child outgrows the infant seat.
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Thank you for the post, it is a good recommendation. I been thinking that I need to get one of these. Does your child care about being strapped in, as ours doesn’t like to have seat belt on at all — we are debating about what to do next time, he is too big for the car seat inside of the plane seat now.
Cheers,
PedroNY
She likes it as much as she’s going to like any kind of safety device, which is an endorsement 🙂 My daughter hates two things: sleep and the slightest hint of confinement. The CARES harness helped a lot because she didn’t feel like she was enclosed on 3 sides like she was in the car seat. It also allows her to sit more upright or recline a little bit with the seat (don’t go all knee defender on me). It’s good for takeoff and landing, and she can also nap in it if you recline the seat a bit and roll up a blanket to use as a neck pillow – or use an actual toddler-size neck pillow. It’s hard to visualize so I’ll need to take a picture the next time we install it, but the strap that goes around the seat is positioned right at about the top of her neck, and it bridges over the curve of the seat back to kind of give her head a very slight bit of support if she leans it back while sleeping. The neck pillow adds some padding and does the same on the sides. I’ll be honest, if she were more comfortable in a car seat, I’d lug her seat with me every time just to keep her happy in the air. The CARES harness is more convenient and she’s more tolerant of it, so I’d say it’s been a good purchase for us.
I was afraid this post was going to end unhappily – it is amazing how uninformed flight crews are about proper use of even car seats on airplanes. I can imagine the CARES harness causes even more consternation. Had a friend who was wrongly prohibited from using a car seat at all (she had paid for a seat for her toddler) and instead made to hold the child in her lap for takeoff and landing because crew just had no clue about the real rules and dug in for no reason. I’m SO glad no one gave you a hard time!
Yeah, I know all about that darn harness! We rented it from Ebay seller, and ended up forgetting it on the plane. So I paid the rental fee and had to reimburse the purchase price. Good times!
Hi awty,
I have a cares rental business for those people who would rather not buy. I do agree with you about some flight attendants oblivious about it. I’ve had four customers who were NOT allowed to use it on the plane which was so ridiculous, they had to call the manufacturer even if it clearly stated on the webbing and installation card that it is FAA approved. Long story short, out of the four, three of them were allowed (same airline but different attendants) to use it on their return flights!