CHICAGO (AP) - Coffee pots must be secured during airplane takeoffs but not children under 2, the American Academy of Pediatrics says in joining the push for mandatory child safety seats on airplanes.

The American Academy of Pediatrics wants the federal government to order airlines to end the long-standing policy of allowing children under age 2 to sit on their parents' laps, especially during takeoffs, landings and turbulence.

The Federal Aviation Administration appears to be close to doing so, though it may face a rocky response from financially strapped airlines concerned about the cost.

"The AAP believes that children should be afforded the same protection as other passengers," the nation's largest group of pediatricians said in a policy statement being published Monday in the November issue of its medical journal, Pediatrics.

The academy noted that a 1996 White House commission report said the FAA should require restraints for all infants and children less than 40 inches and weighing less than 40 pounds. The Association of Flight Attendants and the National Transportation Safety Board have made similar recommendations.

"Luggage, coffee pots, everything on an aircraft must be secured except for under 2-year-olds," said Dr. Phyllis Agran, a member of the academy committee that wrote the new policy. "It doesn't make any sense that children under 2 are provided unequal protection."

The proposed policy says infants and children weighing less than 20 pounds should be placed in rear-facing, aircraft-approved safety seats and those over 1 and weighing 20 to 40 pounds should fly in forward-facing seats.

Many automobile safety seats are approved for aircraft use but parents should check the label to be sure, the academy says.

The FAA has drafted a proposal mandating safety seats on airplanes and expects to have it ready for public comment by year's end, said FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette.

"The intention of the agency is to make it mandatory," Duquette said.

The AAP policy statement says that while the risk of death or serious injury on airplanes is "exceedingly low," data suggest unrestrained infants are substantially more likely to die in crashes than adults.

Critics have argued that requiring child seats on planes would force parents to buy tickets for babies and would prompt many cost-conscious travelers to choose driving, which is statistically more dangerous.

The academy says there's no data to support that argument. "People aren't going to drive from California to the East Coast instead of flying," Agran said.

The new policy also urges airlines to offer discount fares or rebates for restrained children. Many airlines already offer such fares but they often aren't advertised and parents have to request them, the academy says.

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