@Loloval wrote:
Southwest would not let me nurse my daughter while taking off and landing. I had purchased a seat for her for the duration of flight specifically to allow her to rest on my lap so I could nurse her while allowing her legs to be comfortably spread across her seat. It all began when the inflight attendant who was checking for seats asked if she was a “lap baby”. The gate agent told me since I had purchased a seat for her she was not considered a lap baby. My reply was no, she has her own seat and that age was under 2. She said regardless of age she needs to be strapped in the seat on takeoff and landing. At the time of our flight, our daughter was 19 months. I read online on southwests site, under traveling with infant... that if she was under 2 that I could hold her, although it was not recommended. I had flown with her in the past on southwest prior to this trip and was able to nurse during takeoff and landing which I choose to do because of ear popping. The attendants said because she has her own seat she needs to sit in it. I again stated she was under 2 and I nurse her to help upon takeoff and she said that’s when they need to be seat belted in. Our flight was also even delayed into late evening hours where she was needing a nursing and was extremely fussy by the time we boarded and when I did seatbelt her in, she started to get really upset, so I did what she was expecting me too, nurse her but by leaning in while I maintained seatbelted as well, and the heavy buckle was weighting her down and hurting her tummy, and it also left me more exposed then I was comfortable with because I was practically holding myself up so she could reach. I even overheard a women behind me also, who was irrate since we were leaving late, that the babies on board better not keep her up during the flight. Unfortunately my child was a touch louder because of the uncomfortability of the nursing position which added to my anxiety that if I said anything further to the flight attendant that I may be at risk of seen as causing a scene. I also had the birth certificate in my carryon in case it was needed to clarify age, but I was never asked to show it because the flight attendant was adamit about stating that even though she was under 2, age still needed to be strapped in. I had no car seat either? Even though i recalled what I read I did not have it printed out and I could not pull it up on my phone due to cellphone plane mode. What do I do on our next flight which is coming up in 1 month? I want to nurse my child so she doesn’t have to deal with the ear popping? I paid for the seat for comfort too so my husband and I wouldn’t have to gamble for the extra space if the flight was full. I tried to see if there was a place I could email on southwest’s site but all I found was phone numbers and this discussion board. So I hope someone can assist. There needs to be consistency on the flights with the information about nursing on takeoff and landing. I can see if she was older than 2, but she was under 2 at the tine.
I'm so sorry to hear about this experience. We have a two-year old also who was a lap child for a while, and then had to transition to ticketed passenger. We also had been informed one flight when she was nervous about take-off that because she had a ticket, she must be in the seat. Having a ticket supercedes being able to be a lap baby.
I do think this is an FAA regulation and not Southwest's own requirement, unfortunately it is a confusion situation due to the ticket being optional. But once you buy the ticket, the seat is supposed to be occupied.
You may want to look into a CARES harness, you can find a posting or two about that on this community. Otherwise to nurse, I think you'll have to wait until take-off to change positions so that you aren't having your ticketed child on your lap while on the taxiway or runway.
Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.
