Need to buy 2nd carseat for repeat flights for medical care

[Kristinjoy]

Hi, I have a baby who will be one next week. I have to fly him every 6-8 weeks to Boston for repeat serial body casts to be applied to correct his progressive infantile scoliosis. At home he's in a Britax Boulevard, but I do NOT want to lug that huge heavy beat on a plane (or through an airport). I also don't trust the airlines, in the event we have to gate check it. What is a good second carseat for him that is safe, light weight, and relatively inexpensive (in case it gets destroyed)? Thanks!

 

[Keeyamah]

Generally speaking, we recommend buying kiddos, even under two, their own ticket and therefor seat. Then installing their carseat on the plane for them to use.

One you might look at as a travel seat is the Evenflo Sureride. It would allow you to rearface him until 40lbs and/or 40" and then would last forward facing for several more years. You would get the full 6 years out of it (or 5.5ish, depending on the date it was manufactured). It only weighs about 10lbs and runs $70-$100, depending on if you can find it on sale or not.

 

[TechnoGranola]

Will there be concerns with his ability to fit or sit correctly in seats due to the body casts?

 

[Persimmon]

How do you think he would do in his cast without a car seat if you were to encounter bad turbulence? Turbulence is why I use a car seat on an airplane with my DS. I am so not worried about the plane crashing. I just don't want DS to become a projectile. If you do end up taking a car seat on a plane, when I flew with my Britax Boulevard, I just strapped the car seat to a rolling luggage cart or a stroller.

Here is a list of recommended seats for flying:
http://carseatblog.com/25408/recommended-carseats-for-airplane-travel/

and an article on flying with kids:
http://carseatblog.com/6599/airplanes-carseats-and-kids—what-you-need-to-know-pt-1/

Best of luck with the casting!

 

[LISmama810]

My first thought is a Diono Radian.

Now, that seat is NOT light. It's probably heavier than your Britax. BUT, in my opinion and experience, it's much easier to travel with. The Britax is kind of bulky and hard to carry. The Radian can fold up, and if you buy a carry strap (some versions come with one) you can carry it like a bag. Even better is to get two carry straps. You hook those onto the seat and carry it like a back pack. I wore one through a couple airports (including O'Hare) while I was eight months pregnant, and it was no big deal at all.

The other thing about the Radian is that the sides are extremely low, so it often works well for kids in casts.

 

[safeinthecar]

Rfing the Radian on planes can be problematic, and while I'm not concerned in the least about ffing a 1yo on a plane (as long as they rf in all vehicles) sitting that upright for that long with a newly applied cast might be an awful lot to ask of a barely 1yo. Then you also have the issue of getting the harness tight when one side of his body is sitting lower than the other.

(you shouldn't be able to pinch any slack in a properly tightened harness, BTW)

In general, the type of casts used in serial casting shouldn't cause seating problems, unless he has significant twisting and they have to cast his hips abducted. It will magnify how unevenly the two sides of the harness tighten down though, since you lose the ability to "squish" the high side a little in order to make the low side harness tight enough once the cast is on. Due to this, I would suggest getting a seat with a continuous harness, meaning the hip straps don't end on a bracket under the seat like on your Britax, but rather are one long strap that goes down from one side, all the way under the shell and up the other side. This lets you pull slack from one side of the harness to the other and have uneven straps as needed. You may need this feature the entire time your child is casted, not just for traveling.

If you can post back with a height, weight, and shirt size of your little one, we can recommend some seats with continuous harnesses to check out.

Oh! Knowing your budget helps too

 

[MoonRocket]

we've flown with our Boulevard quite a bit. It actually fits really nice on a normal rolly carry on flipped upside down. So it was easy to pull through the airport and easy to install in the plane seat. Only thing easier was the infant bucket which snapped into a stroller and you put the seatbelt over rather than having to fish behind.

 

[bubbaray]

I'd go with a Radian, even though its not lightweight. I would be concerned that our "go to" lightweight convertibles won't work with his cast.

I would suggest contacting the hospital to see if they have recommendations for seats that work well with the type of cast he'll have. GL!

 

[1mommy]

How long will you be flying with him? The Combi Coccoro is a nice lightweight seat but will only last your child to 2, maybe 3 max if they are short.