toddler safety in bus/plane/taxi taking us on holiday?????

[SwimmingUpHillThroughCustard]

i am probably being anal and the rest of the group i know wil be putting thier kids on normal seats with normal restraints.
but my dd is not 3 till middle of april and although very tall for her age, im sure im not supposed to put her in normal seat belt until much older(like 12 or something?)
so what do i do for mini bus/plane and taxi's abroad????
would one of those coverd stirofoam booster jobbies do the trick? or not???
please help, this is really something im worried about! as i would use a normal taxi over here without a proper seat.

I took my car seat with me when we went on a cruise. It went on the plane and then on all of the coach trips. It did mean we had to pay the adult price on all of the trips though.

I think the booster seat thing is based on weight isn't it?

Personally I wouldn't feel safe on trips without one. If you do decide to take a seat on a plane though, check the airline regs, as ours was quite strict about what seats they will accept. (You'd think anything was better than nothing, but not apparently!)

we only have the great big 0-4 years seat, so that would be a labour to take..i was wondering if we could use the bboster seat part of an older boster seat?
she has her own seat, as it was a late deal and with easyjet, so despite age, had to pay..will have to do a bit of investigating i think..i wont put her at risk though

We took a booster seat for DS when he was 3 when we went abroad. We carried it as hand luggage if I remember correctly as didn;t want it chucked around the hold. It was a fairly light one so wasn't much of a problem.

For taxis, I can see the fus, for coaches, less so. Often, you don't even have seatbelts on them, even in this country. The thing is, the big risk in a car etc is slowing down really fast (as in, hitting something). On a bus, most things you hit won't really slow you down. It's like a train, iyswim. (No seatbelts, no booster seats there!)

A booster seat on its own is fine at this age, I think, particularly for occassional/short trips.

Oh, and the newest black cabs have a built in seat for little ones. FYI.

I've just got back from a trip to Wellington where we did all our trips by bus and train and cable car with no child seats at all. He sat on the plane with just the seat belt around him. Ds is 3 next month.

I wouldn't take him in a car or taxi without a seat though. This may be irrational.

Everyone in NZ (except me) uses those stirofoam ones the minute their child hits 14kg.

Aha - NQC it all makes sense now.

last year when dd was 2 (she's also little for her age) I took her reins and looped them around the back of the coach seat for airport transfers. Probably wouldn't have helped much, but I thought in an emergency stop, at least she wouln't go flying down the bus.

On an aircraft, the lap straps are better than a childseat that doesn't fit properly, IMO, as in an emergency both child and seat would come loose.You probably wouldn't be able to use a childseat for a 2 yr old, especially not for take off and landing, anyway.

Sorry this post seems to linger on the gloomy side!I don't always look for disasters round every corner, honest!

Where are you going ? A lot of European coaches now have at least lap belts. Personally I'd take at least a booster for her to use. Some minibuses have 3 point restraints with height adjustable shoulder belts, but even these are too high for toddlers.

The foam booster seat would be ideal really even if you don't use it on the plane. We used ours in the cinema and on chairs in the restruant. If you are feeling handy you could add a carry handle for carrying about or hooking over the bagy if you are taking one.

Could you fit the foam booster seat with just a lap strap? Or are these only suitable with a 3 point harness (not got to that stage yet so no idea)

We got hold of an older style car seat from when you could use them with just a lap strap . This is ideal for coaches (if they have seatbelts) and planes. We wouldn't be able to use our normal ISOFIX seat on BA though as it doesn't take a lapstrap. I found that on all trips organised by the holiday company the coaches had seatbelts - they insist on it AFAIK. I'm sure any minibus that you hired would be the same.

I'm sure you could use a carseat for a two year old (provided they 'approved of it') for the take off and landing - it's just if they are under two you have to hold them even if they have their own seat.

thanks for all that advice
she will be 3 in april andi rather tall for her age.
the guy who is taking us in his mini bus normally does school runs so has seat belts fitted.
we are going to palma nova - majorca and ive been told they are not as crazy on the roads as when we have been to greece dominican etc, but once we have arrived we will be getting a taxi to our hotel..which is where the safety seat will mainly come into it again.
i am taking a buggy(its gunna end up costing a fortune..new carseat..new buggy as i wouldnt let them chuck mine round the luggage area!)

just clicked on the link here from mothercare and they had a booster cushion which was suitable from 15kg..great..then went into safety standards link and they said the child should be 22kg to use them????this gets worse???

then argos says 15kg = 3 years and safety bit says 4 years???

Why not prebook a taxi transfer from the airport and they'll provide a car seat if you ask for it when you book. We used these people and dd's seat was fine.

thats fantastic LIZS!
its 45 euro's..so how much would that be in pounds?
Wonder if taxi here would provide car seat???will have to try and find out!
thankyou so much!