What do you prefer coming flying: the baby or handbag?
So in reality the "stove under seat" rule are just a gimmick and the infant problem to expensive to solve.
"Adults’ arms are no match for gravity, even in moderate trouble. When I was writing the Practical Traveler column for The Times, I visited the Civil Aeromedical Institute, operated by the
Federal Aviation Administration in Oklahoma City. In a lab were two dummies, each the size of a 6-month-old. One weighed 17 pounds, about average. The other weighed 51 pounds, what the same baby would weigh at 3G’s, a pull three times the force of gravity.
When Van Gowdy, then head of the biodynamics laboratory at the Institute, handed me the 3G dummy, I tried to imagine holding on to it while I was belted in. When it was handed to a flight attendant in the class, she almost dropped it.
“What a projectile!” she said."
The Safety Hazard on Your Lap - Jet Lagged Blog - NYTimes.com