What do people do for rental cars and/or airplanes?

[JPS911]

Ok, so for airplanes I guess it is sort of moot. If your car seat fits and you paid for a ticket (or happen to have an empty seat next to you), I guess you just strap it in as best you can given the only seat belt that is there...not like you can take it to get checked. On a side note, we did have ONLY ONE airline flight attendant tell us if our son was in his child seat, he had to be at the window (I can only assume in case of evacuation so his seat doesn't block our exit).

But for rental cars, what do people do? We are actually in rental cars or borrowed cars while traveling at least as much if not more than we are in our own car (we live in Manhattan and seldom drive, but do have a car). In fact, our 16 month old son has logged about 40,000 air miles.

Since most rentals are new, they likely have the LATCH system, but is that sufficient? I mean, it isn't like you can go get the seat inspected every time you stop by Avis...

Do people just do the best they can, or...?

	LATCH LATCH stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren. It is a system mandated by the Federal government in an effort to standardize and simplify the installation of child restraints without using the vehicle's seat belt system. New vehicles and child safety seats manufactured on and after September 1, 2002 will be equipped with the LATCH system. Cars, minivans, and light trucks will be required to have anchor points between the vehicle's seat cushion and the seat back in at least two rear seating positions, and a top tether anchor (with the exception of convertibles). Child safety seats will have a lower set of attachments that fasten to the vehicle anchors. Most forward-facing child safety seats will also have a top strap (tether) that attaches to the top anchor in the vehicle.

[MnMadhouse]

Most people I know that travel extensively will usually bring along their convertible seat OR they will purchase an inexpensive one, such as a Cosco Scenera. If their children are older, and they KNOW there is a tether anchor in the vehicle, they usually get the Safeguard GO which will harness to 65lbs. If all else fails and their child is old enough to be in a booster, some just pack their backless booster in a carry on.

	Convertible Car Seats Convertible seats are for infants and toddlers. The seat can be used as a rear-facing seats for younger children, and switched to a forward-facing seat on the child's first birthday if the child weighs at least 20 pounds. However, experts recommend keeping the child in a rear-facing position until he or she outgrows the weight or height allowed by the safety seat.

	Booster Seat A booster seat raises your child up so that the car's lap and shoulder belts fit correctly. The lap belt should fall across the upper thighs. The shoulder belt should go across the middle of the shoulder and chest. A booster seat is used for older children up to about 80 pounds. Some states have passed laws requiring booster seats for children up to age 8 or 80 pounds. Check your state's law.

	SafeGuard - Click for more info Indiana Mills and Manufacturing (IMMI) is SafeGuard’s parent company, and has been in the business of developing and manufacturing quality safety systems for every facet of the transportation industry for over 40 years, covering everything from the heavy truck and agricultural industries to child seating. IMMI has a world-renowned reputation for creating and promoting the highest rated safety harnesses and restraint systems available today, from integrated child seats in production vehicles to campaigning for increased use of safety harnesses on public transportation systems. Based in Westfield, Indiana, SafeGuard has been creating and testing essential components used across the child safety seat industry through their state of the art crash testing facilities since 1961. The SafeGuard and SafeGuard Go are IMMI’s first direct foray into the child safety seat market, and the results are simply outstanding. No other car seats or boosters are designed with as much attention to structural integrity, ease of installation, and total child safety. This seat has been subjected to the most thorough and extensive testing “ever conducted in the industry”: virtual prototyping with computer models; rigorous front, side, and rear impact crash testing; and environmental testing in a range of climates and road types.

[Papooses]

I think it's important to note that a seatcheck by a CPST is not so that the technician can install your seat, but for the technician to teach *you* how to do so under almost any circumstance It does your child no good if you feel unprepared when you leave the seatcheck -- we are not providing a service, we are educators Granted, it can be a real challenge to provide every parent with all the skills needed to address the issue of frequent travel during a quick event where a line of cars await seatchecks, but many areas do offer free private appointments where we have the freedom of more fully answering all such needs....

IME, the Britax convertibles fit the vast majority of vehicles more easily than most other seats & without requiring any "tricks" or "tools". They are more expensive than most seats & they are indeed heavy, but I'm a single mom with a chronic illness & I've managed to tote my kid + Britax through airports (all I'm saying is that it isn't impossible to do )

For infants & small toddlers, the Graco SafeSeat Step1 also fits most vehicles & airplanes comparatively easily.

Most combination seats tend to do well in these cases, too, even the Apex which is quite large.

Worse comes to worse, the Tote-N-Go is a last resort option for children over 12 months old. It crash tests well, but is very time consuming to fit the harness to the child & it pretty much never fits any vehicle according to the standard of less than 1" movement (because it doesn't have any base whatsoever).

Now that my daughter has outgrown every convertible & combination seat on the market, we could use a booster. We could detach & pack the highback of some booster options & carry the base. Instead, though, we use the Ride Safer Travel Vest. It's more lightweight & spreads crash forces out over a broader area of the body. However, it provides no side impact protection. The RSTV + TNG are "niche" seats, not ideally suited to primary/daily use.

	Britax - Click for more info Britax International has been producing reliable child safety products for over 30 years. Not only does Britax have decades of experience creating car seats and other children's safety equipment, Britax has a long standing reputation as an industry leader and innovator. Britax International is headquartered in the United Kingdom, but Britax car seats are designed and manufactured at facilities in Germany, Austria, and the United States. In the summer of 2002, Britax strengthened their commitment to creating the safest car seats with the opening of a brand new, state-of-the-art crash testing facility in North Carolina. Britax car seats have a reputation around the world for being some of the safest, most reliable, and best designed child safety seats ever made.

	Convertible Car Seats Convertible seats are for infants and toddlers. The seat can be used as a rear-facing seats for younger children, and switched to a forward-facing seat on the child's first birthday if the child weighs at least 20 pounds. However, experts recommend keeping the child in a rear-facing position until he or she outgrows the weight or height allowed by the safety seat.

	Booster Seat A booster seat raises your child up so that the car's lap and shoulder belts fit correctly. The lap belt should fall across the upper thighs. The shoulder belt should go across the middle of the shoulder and chest. A booster seat is used for older children up to about 80 pounds. Some states have passed laws requiring booster seats for children up to age 8 or 80 pounds. Check your state's law.

	Graco - Click for more info Graco is one of the world's best known and most trusted juvenile products companies. They started the entire juvenile products industry with an invention called the Graco Swyngomatic. Since then they have invented products that have changed the way that parents travel with their children such as the travel system, which has made it so parents can lock an infant car seat into a stroller easily, without waking their sleeping baby. Their Graco SnugRide Infant Car Seat is pretty much synonymous with the term “infant car seat” because of its safety and design features coupled with its affordability. Today Graco continues designing and developing top-quality products that inspire parents and keeps children safe. Check out the new Infant Safe Seat Step 1 and Toddler Safe Seat Step 2 for proof of Graco’s continued commitment to child safety.

	Graco Safe Seat Step 1 - Click for more info The Graco Safe Seat (Step 1)—if you couldn't gather from the name— is intended to be the first of a three-seat process. The Step 1 is for infants in a rear-facing position; the Step 2 is for bigger, older kids in the forward-position; the Step 3 is a belt-positioning booster seat without the safety harness of the previous two.