toddler travel car seat

[muresan123]

I am going to spain with my 19 month old baby. Does any one know if there are any travel car seats I can buy to take with me To keep my bbaby safe? Thanks

Can you take his usual one? I'm sure babies have an allowance for carseats/prams etc.

Will you be travelling by car when on holiday? If not, then you don't need to take one with you

Take your own or if you're hiring a car at the other end you can hire a seat too. Tip for taking your own - if you're checking it wrap it in plastic first. Probably obvious to many, but we didn't and it got rather mucky. You can get ones which are flight safe so can be used on the plane, but you don't have to do this.

Hire one from car company, but get them to confirm make and model when you make booking to make sure it's ok

We flew with Ryanair recently who allowed us to take two pieces of child equipment with us free of charge so we wrapped the DTs' car seats in bin bags and took them with us. Car seats are expensive to hire from car hire companies and the quality is variable.

Thanks all, I wont be hiring a car, it was more for day trips.. taxi jouneys. I am sure coaches dont need car seats but I would rather have one if possible.

I've got the same issue - travelling with 21 month old next month. Will be in France & Italy. We are trying to get taxi services that already have car seats for transfers to and from airport but very difficult to find and more expensive, and will not be sure of car seat quality. Think it's very difficult to transport your own car seat once you're past the group 0 carry car seat too. Otherwise it looks like we'll be trying to avoid cars!

Seems there is a big gap in the market for this sort of thing! Especially as I think all the EU countries have similar infant car seat laws?!

We use bubble bums which are inflatable travel car seats. However check what age range they are for, they are excellent, they roll up to nothing.

Deffinatly a chance to make millions!! I purposly got a coach transfer, longer but the safer option. It may even be cheaper tobuy one when get to yur destdestination but your left lumbered with a car seat to carry around. I have seen on ebay a harnes seat that clips around the seat thenyou

Southlondonluxe - we did this, with a worldwide respectable hire company, in a county we both come from and speak the language fluently.

DH even phoned the hire station the day before and got a verbal confirmation.

It backfired thoroughly. Not only was the seat broken, it was not the model promised, they said it was the only one (a lie) and it took 1 1/2 hours to sort it out. Miraculously a seat appeared when DH said we would cancel the whole contract, talk to a lawyer and invoice them for all costs we now have.

Never again, we always take one with us now. We once tried that my in-laws hired a seat and collected it for us but despite the right seat group, the seat was too small for DD, so if you don't know the brand it still might not fit your child.

We took a britax eclipse on Ryanair flight last summer. Used it on plane for 2 year old and then had it for rental car at other end. Would definitely recommend taking it on plane with you as daughter was perfectly happy to sit in familiar seat and could sleep comfortably. We were confident installing it in hire car and no risk of being provided a rubbish seat.

Don't get that ebay harness. It doesn't meet any european standards. I know the one you mean and this is the crash test for it (they are counterfeit Chinese seats)

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2757724/Crash-test-reveals-horror-moment-deadly-child-car-seat-disintegrates-impact-just-30mph-throwing-dummy-vehicle-safety-watchdogs-warn-thousands-sold-online-world.html

Sorry for the mail link but I can't find the video anywhere else.

For a 19 month old there really is no easy solution that doesn't involve carrying a heavy, awkward seat unfortunately! If he still fits into a baby seat then you could take that with the pushchair wheels? But it's a stretch at 19 months. He/she will be far too small for any booster type seat.

So you've a choice of taking a cheap seat with you - Nania or Britax Prince - and carrying it (you can buy some bags which help you carry it as a backpack?) or just going without a seat and hoping for the best. Spain has exceptions for taxis as well.

If you do go without a seat make sure that you don't put her inside your own seatbelt. This is very dangerous and can cause injuries even at low speed stops. Her own seatbelt or nothing.

There is a harness that you can get for airplane travel but not for in a car (CARES restraint I think). If the trips will be by coach then I wouldn't take a seat with you as they are bulky to carry about with you and may not be compatible with a coach seat/belt anyway.

For goodness sake do not buy anything like this flimsy piece of kit!. Can't believe they are marketing it from 4 months!!

Yes if you look at where that item is coming from it is clear. I don't know why ebay allow items like that but they do seem to come up. It's a good reminder to be careful of things which seem too good to be true in terms of price. The listings just blatantly lie as well. I've seen older ones state "Meets european safety standards" even though they definitely don't.

I wouldn't bother with a CARES restraint. At 19m the child probably doesn't have their own seat on the aeroplane so they won't be able to use it, and it's not approved for use in cars (it's not designed to withstand the forces of a car accident, which are different to a plane crash.)