Car Seats

[Mum from oz]

I was wondering what to do about car seats in the USA. I still can't work out which is better, take ours, buy over there or hire. I need one for DS who will be 4.5 and one for DD who will be just over 3.

I would rather take our seat for DD on the plane as she is a worm and won't sit still on the plane, she will be running around unless she is restrained. DS is not that bad and will sit but I am also thinking about them sleeping.

Will our seats be able to be fitted in a hire car over there? Do all cars have an anchor point? What will be more cost effective? Too many choices, soooo confusing

What did you do?

 

[Jade+3]

My eldest kids were the same ages as yours when we went last year.

We didn't use car seats on the plane, as I also had concerns about them sleeping. Turned out fine as there was enough on the inflight entertainment system to amuse them. I did buy some kid size headsets, which were a life saver as the ones that the airlines provide would have been too big and fallen off.

The cars do have anchor points, so you will not have any problems there. We have hired both SUV's and minivans.

I looked at hiring seats, but the rental company only had convertible seats which my kids would have been too tall for. We also looked at buying them there but it was too hard to figure out how to get from LAX to Target to buy them.

The downside about taking our own seats was the amount of luggage we had to carry through the airports. As well as our 4 & 3 year olds, we also had a baby, so 3 car seats, strollers, cases, hand luggage etc made the airports a nightmare.

 

[Kalice]

We went with a 3 year old and took a 'bottom only' booster. It was easy to strap to our suitcase. Actually a lightweight booster couldy probably strap to a large wheely suitcase. another alternative is this
http://babyproducts.about.com/od/travel/gr/gogokidz.htm

 

[An2net]

We've just hired a car and have asked for 2 toddler seats. Our kids are 4 and 2. It's only $10 each per day. Beats struggling with them if we take them from here! Only thing is, they are issued on availability only...so if there aren't any available on the day we arrive, we're stuck! Not sure what we're going to do in that instance...am trying not to think about it.