Outgrown His Carseat and Travel with 10 Month Old

For car seats, you'll need to get a convertible not a booster! I kept my kids backward until age two, it's the safest. We have the britax Marathon, safety reputation is outstanding and we were in a fatality accident with one so it's been proven to M.! It can be used forward facing to 65 lbs so lasts a long time. Super easy to install too, and you can get a wheeled thing to carry it. Albeebaby.com or look for new in box on eBay for the best deals.

A couple of things:
On the plane, will he be sitting on your lap, or did you get him his own ticket? If he is sitting on your lap, check the carseat with your other luggage and bring an umbrella stroller or baby bjorn for him in the layovers.

If he has his own seat, you can bring the carseat on and he can sit in that in his seat. I've seen people in the airport with the carseats on luggage carriers - pushng around like a stroller.

As far as car seat recommendations - he needs a seat which can be rear facing. In Texas, by law, they need to be rear facing until 12 months, but our doctor says keep them rear facing even longer... I got the Britax Roundabout for my son, which I LOVED off of Amazon for @ $150. It maxes out at @ 65 pounds.

I've traveled with my babies and they are really good little travelers. They LOVE the airport - so many things to look at! We have had a couple of hairy moments stuck on runways with screaming babies, but, as the flight attendant consoled us - "Dont worry - you will never see these people again anyway..."

Have fun!

Sorry, lost my earlier response so here goes: A 10-month-old is too young for any "booster" seat. He still needs a car seat. A child his age will not be properly fitted in a booster and the booster will not hold the car seatbelt straps or especially the airlne seat belt straps on his body properly or safely. Better to have him in his usual carseat a bit snug than in a booster that is not appropriate for his height and weight. I know you really want to avoid carrying a car seat on this long trip, but his being half an inch away from "outgrowing" it just doesn't mean a lot. If you plan to have him in any vehicle at your destination, and if you have him in is own airline seat, he needs a car seat. Put safety over convenience. I've traveled extensively with my daughter since she was five months old and eventually, truly, you will get to fly with him not in a car seat, but in the meantime, the hassle is worth knowing he will be safe.

That is such a long travelling situation to deal with all the extra equipment, but if it is possible, I would say bring the infant seat since he is used to it (its ok it he's a little big) and then an umbrella stroller too. I would have said that anyway so that you could get him out and about without having to carry him everywhere. Then if the umbrella stroller gets broken or something happens to either of them: the infant seat is not needed anymore when you get home anyway and the umbrella stroller is $20 or less so its not a big deal.

If you have his own seat and it is such a long flight, I would say that unless you are getting the booster seat for your own safety beliefs I wouldn't bother because he will want to be moving around etc... and if you don't have his own seat, it will just get in the way because using it in the airports etc will just be a hassle.

Good luck! We did a 2 hour flight with no layover with our 1 year old and it was an event! You will be surprised what they will find to entertain themselves with though. My LO didn't play with any of this toys, but putting a straw through the lid of a plastic cup repeatedly wasted almost 45 minutes!!! O yea- and bribing him with lots of food (cheerios, etc... )

A rear facing car seat is outgrown when there is less than an inch of hard shell above his head or he hits the weight limit. The recommended height limit is just that, a recommendation. All kids are built differently, one kid may be 30" tall and be all legs, making him able to use a seat longer, whereas another kid can be 30" and all torso, and outgrow the seat long ago.

So if he still has over an inch of shell above his head he's good to go.

But if he's outgrown it, you want a CONVERTIBLE car seat, not a booster. He's only 10mos old and nowhere near ready to be forward facing. Please google EXTENDED REAR FACING, JOEL'S JOURNEY and INTERNAL DECAPITATION for more information on why your little guy should be rear facing until at least age 2, if not 3.

He should actually still be rear-facing in the car until he hits the 12 month mark, so you may have to get a convertible seat (can face front or back). Do you still have the manual for his infant car seat? Different brands have different height & weight limits. He may still be able to use it for 2 more months and save you some money.

I don't know about air travel, but we just got a Graco Nautilus carseat and love it. It can hold from 20-65 pounds in a 5 point harness, then converts to a booster with a seatbelt positioner up to 100 pounds, then converts to a backless booster.

One Step Ahead has a harness than holds your child in your lap on a plane, you may want to look into that, it'd be a lot simpler than hauling a carseat & stroller around!

what BeckyW said - here's a helpful photo link that shows how to measure whether your LO is within the height limits of his rear facing car seat:
http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=30201

And these links have some helpful suggestions for safe air travel for children
http://carseatblog.com/6599/airplanes-carseats-and-kids—w...

http://carseatblog.com/6635/airplanes-carseats-and-kids—w...

you can still use the carseat! it will probably be best to use it because he is used to it

We are planning to take our Marathon on our flight this summer. A friend said they brought a carseat and an inexpensive wheelie thing for their son's flight and an umbrella stroller. We already have an umbrella stroller, but depending on where you go, some people just use the wheelie thing and carseat. It might be easier to navigate places with a smaller stroller anyway.