Parents who have to travel often with kids, babies and infants are most concerned with their child’s safety while traveling. Whether they plan to travel by car, bus, public transport, train or by plane, they look for measures which they can adopt to safely travel with kids.
One of the most difficult situations faced by newly made parents is traveling with a newborn. New born babies especially need an infant car seat, preferably one which has EPS lining and comes with a 5-point harness system to travel in vehicles. Some infant seats come with separate removable infant head and body support to provide a better fit to smaller babies.
Although airlines and travel agencies never recommend parents to use special child restraint or an airplane car seat while traveling with infants, safety experts highly recommend that babies and infants should travel in a car seat on airplane, which is approved by FAA.
Certain seats and international carriers make traveling by air a lot easier for parents and also take care of infants and babies. Laws for airline baby travel differ from one country to the other. Some European carriers do not allow infants and small babies to travel in rear-facing car seats on airplanes at all. New born babies and infants under the age of 6 months can be taken on board and carried in the lap in their parents arms.
For older kids over the age of 6 months airline attendants give a special seat belt that can be attached to the adult seat belt for safe takeoff and landing of babies. Some airlines also provide special seats and airline baby beds to make infant travel easy for parents.
Once you reach the destination with your infant, baby or kid, you have to make sure that you have car seats arranged at the destination to use according to the laws of that country. If you are planning to visit a relative for a longer period of time, it is better to buy your own car seat or seats for your kids, so you will not be spending too much money on renting them.
Carrying your own travel car seat along with you is also a good idea. However, you should check with your airline by which you plan to travel to see if they consider car seats and strollers as part of the baggage allowance. Domestic and international flights also have different baggage allowances, so confirming with the airline before hand is always a better idea.
If you rent a car seat at the destination, make sure you thoroughly check it to make sure it has not been in an accident before. Renting or buying a second hand car seat at the destination means that you will be risking your child’s safety and life. Buying or renting though a trusted relative or simply buying a brand new seat for your baby is the best option to go for.
Renting a car seat or checking one at the destination through a car rental company can lead to cases when the car does not arrive at all when you were expecting it. To avoid such mishaps, it is always advised to make sure that a baby seat is fully arranged and ready for use before you reach the destination, or take one with you.
When carrying a baby car seat or carrier along with you on an airplane, you should go for the one which is compact and provides multiple functions. Travelmates are ideal as they can be used to attach an infant seat on them and easily convert to rolling strollers. You can simply put the child in it and get going. Since the infant baby seat can be used with travel mates, they can also be used in cars with a stay-in-car base when you reach your destination. Carrying a baby car seat in your stroller can also be an option, but it only works for smaller car seats. Parents can also carry car seat carriers in the luggage cart if allowed by the airline.
Travel car seats provide the desired safety to your child and also give you flexibility of moving around with your child with true peace of mind. Never travel with your child before making prior arrangements for a travel car seat for your baby.