CARES harness or seat or nothing?

kalamos23 · Mar 6, 2014

My middle kid will be 3.5yo when we go to Disney in Nov. He's currently a stringbean, 39" and 32 lbs, and all torso. I'm assuming he will be MAX 35 lbs by November seeing as he does not gain weight quickly. We will be flying from the west coast to Orlando, via 2 flights, total travel time is 6-8 hours usually. I will have a 6.5yo and an 18mo (who will be in a car seat) as well. He does not sit well and really needs to be in a harness of some sort, but I'm not hugely thrilled about juggling 2 car seats and 3 kids if I don't have to. He is in a Radian RFing right now and torso is about 15".

What would you do? Can he even use the CARES harness? Someone was saying on another board that the belt is only safe for 40lbs plus (so I'm wondering what the point is for the CARES harness seeing as they market it for 22-44lbs).

MotoMommaNH · Mar 6, 2014

What are you doing for transportation when you get there? Magic express shuttle or car?

Dillipop · Mar 6, 2014

The belt itself on the plane is really only ideal for 40 lbs plus. But with the cares harness, it makes the belt safe for 22+. If you are using public transit once you get to Disney, ie no private vehicles at all, the cares harness could be a great option.

Pixels · Mar 6, 2014

The plane seat belt won't tighten down far enough on a 22 pound child, CARES or not. That's the fault of the plane manufacturer, not the CARES people.

CARES also does nothing to help with the placement of that shiny release buckle.

1mommy · Mar 6, 2014

As long as you don't need a car seat once you get there I would be perfectly fine using the cares harness for a 3.5 year old if he was mine. But I take a simplistic view of the harness is FAA approved from 22-44 pounds so I wouldn't have a problem using it. I would worry more about if it is enough like a regular harness to help keep a squirmy 3.5 year old contained. Also note that is has a 40" height limit so hopefully he wont have a growth spurt before then.

Pixels, note the kid is 32 pounds, not 22, do you still think that the belt won't tighten enough?

kalamos23 · Mar 6, 2014

We will be using Magical Express. As far as the height goes, CARES will exempt the height limit for bigger people that need harnessing, so I was going to see where he is heightwise in Nov. and go from there. I'm mainly worried about keeping him in his seat in the plane, and really don't want to have to drag 2 car seats along if I don't have to (done that many times, it's kind of a pain). To be fair, he can unbuckle the chest clip on his Radian (we are doing the button up shirt over right now) but not the bottom buckle.

I was thinking about the SureRide/Titan65 for my oldest as a secondary seat, if I end up bringing a seat for my escape artist, I'd probably bring that one. My youngest is tall too and would get good use out of it at some point anyway.

safeinthecar · Mar 6, 2014

For that long of travel time, I think you'd just be trading the headache of carrying two car seats for the headache of a 3 yo that can't get comfortable enough to sleep. Although I never flew with it, I wore a folded Radian on my back on public transit buses on a regular basis. It's not too bad at all with backpack straps.

CARES harness or seat or nothing?

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