CARES

CARES stands for Child Aviation Restraint System

Facts from CARES website:

• CARES stands for Child Aviation Restraint System. CARES is a harness-type safety device designed for children who weigh between 22-44 lbs and are sitting in their own airplane seats. (Generally 1-4/5 years old.)
• CARES takes the place of a car seat when traveling by air with your children and provides an equivalent level of safety (ELOS) to a car seat. (Stated in the FAA certification designation)
• CARES weighs 1 pound (car seats weigh 15-20 lbs).
• CARES comes in a 6 inch stuff sack that fits in a pocket or purse. (Car seats are over 2 feet high, 20 inches wide, heavy, bulky and hard to carry)
• CARES is designed specifically for air travel: it is portable, light weight and easy to use.
• CARES takes one minute to install on any airplane seat and augments the regular lap belt.
• Parents who need the car seat at the other end of trip can ship it through as luggage, and carry their CARES on board.
• CARES has been certified by Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.  Certification for many other countries is in process.

I found this product online after a brief research for a safety ‘tool’ to fly with my then 8 months old son, however I did not purchase it until Little A was 14 months old. Since I was flying internationally alone with the little boy, bringing a heavy car seat was too much of a hassle. Thanks God for this brilliant invention, I asked my family in Indonesia to buy a car seat for us so all I had to do was grab the bag of CARES on board every flights. Flying back to the US, my in-laws too had gotten us a car seat, thus taking the weight off of lugging one around across more than 2 major international airports from Asia – USA. Since I bought CARES, we had used it on board Korean Air (they hesitated at first but after I showed them the FAA documents, I printed from CARES website they backed down), ANA (All Nippon Airways), Garuda Indonesia, Batavia Air, Emirates, Jet Blue, Delta,  and Northwest. Flying domestically in USA, all carriers will follow FAA rules so the use of CARES won’t be any problem. Here’s what the FAA website stated about Child Safety on Airplanes.

When I was researching for this, I stumble on another similar product called Baby B’air.  At first Baby B’air looks ok but after further reading I believe it would still be safer to use CARES, as Baby B’air will only make your child/baby become a human air bag should an accident occur during the flight.

You might want to practice using the back strap at home before your initial flight (just loop it over a chair), it is very easy to use and so comfortable for the child. Little A who had the opportunity to check out the cockpit with his Dad said “Just like Pilot, Mommy!” so we calls it his Pilot Seat-belts and he’s always happily wearing it.

In Asia, you can purchase CARES from  My Kiddy Store for $88.00 (USD) they offer free shipping inside Singapore and Malaysia. For Indonesia, they will charge you $15.00 shipping & handling.

Moms (and Dads of course!) this is one of the best invention ever made for our kiddos and I sure am glad to own one.