Like many parents, when faced with a long flight with toddlers or children, we are always on the lookout for anything that might help our little ones sleep. We were excited to give the Seat to Sleep Travel Nest kids travel pillow a try on our latest flight.
We’ve had pretty extensive experience with inflatable travel cushions, or inflatable airplane beds for toddlers as they are sometimes known.
Our experience in using an inflatable toddler airplane bed has been nothing but positive. Our two favorites have been the Flyaway Designs Kids Bed and the Fly Tot, both of which you’ll see mentioned often on our site.
Why You Can Trust This Seat to Sleep Kids Travel Pillow Review
Baby Can Travel reviews are written by real parents who have thoroughly tested the products while actually traveling with their own children. Our parent reviewers write reviews for products that actually work for travel and they know it because they’ve used it in real scenarios with their own children. That’s why you’ll see babies and toddlers in all our reviews. We aren’t a large company with handfuls of writers on staff who get sent all the products to setup, take a picture and write a review. We provide only trusted reviews by real parents with real experience.
So why try out a new kids travel pillow?
Unfortunately, not all airlines allow the inflatable cushions that turn an airplane seat into a bed for toddlers. In addition, as kids get older they don’t fit in that same position quite the same.
While we are still big proponents of products like the Flyaway Designs and the Fly Tot, we like the Seat to Sleep as an alternative to help toddlers sleep on the plane.
When flying with toddlers, anything that help improve the comfort level is a definite win! The same goes for flying with kids…
What is the Seat to Sleep Travel Nest Pillow?
The Seat to Sleep is a kids travel pillow designed to turn an adult seat into a more comfortable place for children. It offers supports for both their head and neck, plus it helps add padding to those hard arm rests on the plane.
The Seat to Sleep Travel Nest is best for kids aged 3 to 10 years old, so you’ll get a ton of use out of it.
How Does the Seat to Sleep Work?
The Seat to Sleep is an inflatable kids travel pillow that surrounds your child to create a comfortable seat for toddlers and kids.
You inflate and deflate it in seconds to a level that is most comfortable for your child then set it in place. You can easily inflate it by blowing in it (and it really doesn’t take much) with no pump required. It has a main valve and an inner valve that can be used to make it easier to inflate (without losing air) or deflate (when fully open).
For deflating, you just open the valve and press the inner valve button once. Once the air is mostly out, you can start folding it to get the remaining air out.
It fits behind your child so they can use it on the airplane for both sleeping and when they are watching a show.
The Seat to Sleep comes in a travel pouch that can be clipped to a bag, but doesn’t take up much room regardless. The travel pouch comes with an attached card with all the details for using it.
What we Loved About the Seat to Sleep Travel Pillow
Our first experience using the Seat to Sleep kids travel pillow was on an 8 hour overnight flight. Our kids were excited to have these travel pillows that were their own and that they could carry in their own bags.
As claimed, when it was time to set up the inflatable seat cushions it took only minutes to get them inflated.
We originally set them up when it was time for our kids to sleep, but we love that you don’t need to wait. On subsequent flights, we set them up right away before take off.
Plus since this inflatable travel seat cushion sits entirely on the seat and nothing blocking the area between the seats, there’s no worry about it not being approved or not getting to use it.
As I mentioned, it packs down small so we didn’t need to save bag space to pack it. In fact, the kids carried them in their backpacks for the entirety of the trip.
Other benefits we found with this plane seat cushion is that it can be deflated and repacked equally fast.
I had no issues getting the inflatable travel cushion back into the bag after using it. I would usually do it as we were starting our decent, because I like to be ready to go. But you could easily do it once you land, because it’s really doesn’t take long.
The cushion also wipes down easy enough, so the kids used them for watching movies and through their meal. I liked that I didn’t have to worry about taking a mess with us.
As for the kids, they both really liked them and would ask for them even on short flights. They are quick enough to set up that it’s not a pain to inflate them even for short flights.
We also used two side by side, which worked really well.
You could even use them for your child reading or watching tv in a hotel bed! Which is really nice that they don’t need to be just for the airplane.
Now what about helping kids sleep on the plane?
The Seat to Sleep creates a comfort nest around your child with padding over the arm rest. This helps your child be able to lean over and still have a comfortable spot for sleeping.
In the past, I found my kids often struggled to find a comfortable place to lay down with the arm rests and would often end up on my lap. Less than ideal for me and my comfort!
In our experience using them on overnight flights, both our kids fell asleep in minutes using them. They both slept until we woke them. After the fact, both kids claimed they were so comfortable.
I actually really enjoyed having my child sleep on it next to me, because we moved the arm rest up and I found it comfortable to lean against as well!
What could be improved about the Seat to Sleep Travel Pillow
The Seat to Sleep has a great design, but our biggest issues with it were finding the right level of inflation and getting it positioned properly.
They can be a bit wide for economy seats, so I found I was trying to keep my son closer to me and letting it spill into my seat, just so he wasn’t bothering the passenger on the other side of him. When I had a row with both kids side by side, it was much better since I didn’t have other passengers to worry about.
I actually really enjoyed sharing it with my son (I draped an arm over and lied my head over the top of it) and felt I slept better.
My husband found it to be a bit wide for the seats in economy, but again I believe he may have had it overinflated.
The only other thing that could be improved is more fun designs for kids to choose from.
Tips on Using the Seat to Sleep Travel Nest
Really the only downside of using the Seat to Sleep was our lack of experience in knowing how much to fill it up. Here are our tips for getting the best experience using this kids seat cushion on the plane.
- Don’t fill fully – 80 percent or less is the best (as is recommended) depending on size of child, sleeping position and size of seat available.
- Blow it up then use button to slowly let air out to get desired inflation.
- Be careful if you inflate before taking off – they can get over inflated when reaching higher altitudes.
- Use it to make the seat comfortable for watching shows or playing games. You don’t need to wait until your child is ready for sleep to set it up.
Where to Buy the Seat to Sleep Travel Nest
I’m sure you are wondering where you can get your hands on this travel pillow for toddlers and kids. Currently, the Seat to Sleep is available for purchase directly on the Seat to Sleep website.
Use discount code BABYCANTRAVEL on your Travel Nest inflatable cushion for kids.
Other Toddler Travel Gear
Pin It For Later!
