Baby B’Air Flight Vest for Toddlers

Bergen (22 months) has reached a milestone in his traveling life.  Unless we get a wild hair and need to fly before our August trip to Wisconsin, the little guy has seen the last of his “lap baby” days.  The  next time he flies, he’ll have his very own ticket, followed by his own mileage plan, and all of the other “privileges” that go along with a legitimate seat on the plane.

Toward the end of his journey as a lap baby, we gave the Baby B’Aire Flight Vest a try to see if it might help to keep him wrangled a bit better, and therefore safer while in flight.

About the Vest

The overall and most important purpose of the vest is to provide better security in the event of turbulence.  In addition to this increased safety, the vest also provides a more comfortable flying situation for parents and their lap baby. With the child secured to your seatbelt, your hands are then more free to entertain instead of worry about the little one getting away from you.

The rules clearly state that while the vest can be worn during take-off, landing, and taxi, it can only be attached to the adult’s seatbelt during flight.  We utilized the flight vest for two trips (4 flights total) with Bergen, and never had any flight attendants question us about the vest.

The Baby B’Aire Flight Vest comes in two sizes:

• Small (newborn/infant)
  • Fits most children up to 6 months
  • 16″ neck opening
  • up to 40 pounds
• Large (older baby/toddler)
  • Fits most children from 6 months to 2 years
  • 19″ neck opening
  • up to 40 pounds

How the Vest Works

• The vest goes over the child’s head with two adjustable straps with buckles on either side of the waist.
• A strap also slides through the legs and is then attached with a buckle.
• A loop strap on the bottom-back side of the vest allows the adult to then secure the vest to their seatbelt by feeding the seatbelt through the loop.

What’s to Love?

• Because the act of strapping Bergen into the vest was similar to buckling him into his carseat, it almost gave him the illusion that he was in a seat, and therefore needed to stay put.  At the same time, wearing the vest didn’t bother him one bit.  He never tried to take it off, and certainly didn’t pay attention enough to realize there were buckles and straps to mess around with.
• My husband and I felt more secure with him on our lap, especially sharing a row with another non-related passenger.  The flight vest helped to keep him on our lap without a lot of fuss, and gave us peace of mind that he wouldn’t end up crawling over to an unsuspecting neighbor’s lap.
• The vest provides the perfect place for showing off Bergen’s Alaska Airlines “wings” that he worked so hard to earn.
• We could breathe easier knowing that in the event of extreme turbulence, Bergen had an added safety net of sorts to protect him.

What’s to be desired?

We really can’t complain about the product except to say that at times it felt unnecessary.  It provided us with exactly when it claims: comfort, peace of mind, and protection against the almost inevitable turbulence that comes with flying.  The best place for small children flying on an airplane is strapped into their carseat, but for frequent travelers who want to utilize the “children under 2 fly free” policy, the flight vest is the next best thing to providing a safer flying situation.

Please note: The folks at Baby B’Air provided us with a free Flight Vest for review on the blog.  All opinions expressed are my own.

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