Child Safety Seats on Planes: New Recommendation from FAA

May 24, 2011 — -- The Federal Aviation Administration recommended today that children weighing 40 pounds or less sit in FAA-approved child safety-seats when flying.

"The safest place for a child on an airplane is in one of these seats, and not in the parent's lap," said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt at a Washington, D.C., press conference. The Association of Flight Attendants also joined in the recommendation.

In addition to the air travel safety implications, the FAA flight safety suggestion also means added cost for families with children under two wishing to follow the recommendation. Current rules allow children under the age of two to fly for free if they sit on the lap of an adult passenger.

While the FAA says it is safest for children under the age of two to sit in their own seats, the administration is not making this a requirement because it argue that the extra cost may push families to drive to their destinations instead of flying. The FAA maintains that a child is safer on a plane, even if sitting on a lap, than in a car.

Veda Shook, the president of the flight attendants' association, said if families have already purchased tickets for upcoming trips, and did not purchase tickets for their young children, parents can still bring their children's car-seats to the gate. If there are extra seats available on the airplane, the seats may be used for the child's car-seat. If there is not any additional seating room, the child seat can be checked at the gate for no extra charge.

If a child's car-seat is approved by the FAA for air travel, it should be noted on the side of the seat. Booster seats without seat backs are not approved for air travel.

"We want to make sure moving forward that everyone has the right information so we're all on the same page," Administrator Babbitt said. He continued that child safety-seats, "if approved, should fit all the approved seats on aircraft, if properly put in."

The new recommendations for child safety seating in airplanes comes after recently updated recommendations for child safety seating in cars.

Road Rules

Parents have been told for years that they can make the switch when infants reach the age of 1 and weigh at least 20 pounds. But the about-face would be delayed substantially under new child car-seat recommendations released in March by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"The first recommendation [is] that all infants and toddlers remain in rear-facing car seats until age 2, or until they outgrow the height and weight limits of the seat," said Dr. Dennis Durbin, a pediatric emergency physician at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the lead author of AAP's new policy statement.

The updated recommendations delay the rite-of-passage moment when parents are able to switch their infants from the rear-facing car seat to a forward-facing seat.

"They were able to see us," said Asanga, a mother of 2-year-old twins who said she was from Potomac, Md., but declined to give her last name.

Her husband, Joseph, said, "We could point things out to them. We could tickle their toes."

The American Academy of Pediatrics's last car-seat recommendations dated from 2002. "There has been some evidence that's come out since the last recommendations were issued, that suggest that kids up to age 2 who stay rear-facing are at a significant lower risk of injury in a variety of crashes," Durbin said. "When you're facing the rear of the vehicle in a seat, the child is sort of cradled and supported by the structure of the seat," he said, "If they're forward-facing, their trunk and their shoulders might be well restrained by the harness straps, but their head and neck are often left free to sort of whip forward in the event of a crash."

Durbin added that many infant car seats, and so-called convertible seats, which can be used for both infants and toddlers, can now accommodate larger children in rear-facing positions. With some seats, children up to 35 pounds can face backwards.

The government agrees with the new push to keep children rear-facing as long as possible. "I think it really does reflect the, not only the state of the art, but also the science that that doctors have recognized as what's the best thing for the child," NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said.

For children older than 2, the AAP advises parents to keep children in a seat's five-point harness as long as possible, up to the height and weight limit of the seat, before switching to a booster seat for use with the car's seatbelt.

The guidelines for elementary school children have been changed as well. Previously, parents were advised to keep children in booster seats until about age 8. Booster seats do just that; boost a child up higher so that the car's seatbelt fits properly over the child.

Both the government and the AAP now say it's not age that matters but the size of the child. "The prior recommendations were really based on age, and it did not take into account that different children have different cycles of growth, and I think the recommendations recognize that," Strickland said.

The new recommendations stress that children should remain in booster seats until they reach 4-feet 9-inches tall, when the seatbelt should fit properly across their chest and lap. That could mean children could stay in their booster seat until age 12.

Zack Zindler, 9, of Bethesda, Md., didn't like that idea. "Bad," was his one-word reaction to the notion that he could still be sitting in a booster seat.