Why flying with kids in carseats is important...

[catfeet]

(cheerfully ganked, with permission, from another board)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rC4Q3ofz7SI

Ann

[stillplayswithbarbies]

bumping this up

we need to add this link to the Carseat 101 post.

[heather13]

First, this gave me nightmares last night even though DD has a seat on our flight in a few weeks.

Second, I'm really curious to know the relative safety of holding a baby in arms? While I know it must be safer on impact to be in a carseat, I've also read plane crash survival stories where the ones who survive are out of the plane in seconds. What if the heat melds the buckle together? Austrian flights require that infants sit in parents' laps for take off and landing, and also require that they be attached to their parents using a special airline-provided belt. That seems like an even better solution than a loose baby.

[o_mom]

If the heat is hot enough to melt the buckle, the child is dead or will not survive long. Temperatures that extreme are not compatible with life. Heat is not the killer in most fires it is smoke.

The special extender belts on international flights are not considered very safe. Basically, you are going to fold in half at the waist on impact and sandwich the baby between your legs and torso. This is of course in addition to them being closer to the next seat and striking it with their head. Better than an unrestrained child? Maybe. But it still ignores the fact that the safest place for a child is in a child restraint.

Airlines have a very good safety record which allows them to ignore the problem of unrestrained children. If there were planes having hard landings and other survivable impacts every month we would not allow children to ride unrestrained, but it is easy to ignore the few that happen as anomolies. Additionally, they have a huge influence on the federal government and regularly pressure them not to require restraints and to continue to allow lap babies.

[vickimaggie]

Oh how awful! Thanks for posting the video. Its so sad to me that the airline industry allows parents to think that lap babies are safe :(

[egoldber]

But statistically, a lap baby on an airplane is safer than that same baby properly restrained in a car. Airplanes are MUCH safer than cars.

[vickimaggie]

Of coarse airplanes are safer than cars! But this issue is lap babies vs. babies properly restrained in a carseat on an airplane. Babies who are properly restrained WAY safer than those who are not. Lap babies can be injured in crashes, rough landings, bad turbulence, etc. I have been on flights where the turbulence was so bad people's belongings got tossed around the cabin and we weren't aloud to get up to use the restroom for hours. Personally I would not be comfortable without a seat for my child. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

[egoldber]

I agree that they are safER. Just pointing out that it is questionable to call it UNsafe (not saying you did), when it is actually riskier to put your child in a car, something most of us do every day.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

having the baby attached to an adult with the attached seatbelt protects other passengers from being hurt by a flying baby. It doesn't protect the baby. The baby becomes an air bag for you, basically.

[heather13]

Thanks for the clarification. Having never been in a crash landing (just a few emergency ones) it's hard to imagine what the impact would be like. There's always so much information on the few survivors actually making it out of the plane that I never really thought about the crashing part.