3 Car Seats

A.,

I answered this question a few months ago...it should be in the archives. I always had 3 car seats in my sedan. It was tight, but it worked! Good luck!

Hi Anita.. we had three car seats too. We put the infant car seat in the middle and the two boosters on each side. It was tight, but it worked. Good Luck! (I have three boys too!)

Hi A.,
IF you can't fit 3 car seats in the back. I would suggest using 2. one for the baby and one for your five year old. put each seat by the doors and put your six year old in the middle in a booster seat if it can fit. If not strap him in securely in the middle seat belt.

Take your car to your local police station and ask if they have a car seat safety inspector. This is a certified person, whether they be a police officer, fireman or other person who is trained to inspect car seats, seating situations and possible safety hazards in your car. He/she can determine how to place the boosters and infant seat in your car safely and should even have a list of car seats/boosters that may be more streamlined if you need more space. When I got pregnant with #3, we had to make the hard financial decision to buy a minivan because as hard as I tried, I couldn't fit all 3 kids safely in my car. I don't regret the decision, just the payments. I hope they can help you.

Surely the 5 & 6 year olds are big enough for booster seats? They are much smaller than the car seats. Also, the book Baby 411 has extensive reviews of toddler and booster seats including how big they are. However, I think you really need to think about getting a mini van-- or looking at an SUV. True, gas is more expensive, but the prices on SUVs are so low that it could pay for years of gas just in the savings. Put the baby in cloth diapers (to make it up to the environment) and get a bigger car! :-)

We ended up with the same situation when we had a newborn, 3, and 6 year old. The only CAR we found that fit 3 car seats was the Mercury Grand Marquis--not real sporty, but we wanted the kids to be safe. Hope you can find the right vehicle. Best wishes.

You can get all the advice you want but before you do anything get a car seat check. Go to the 4-H building in Newark and ask for Cindy Genau. She knows all there is to know about car seats and how to install them properly. You can also check with DMV. They probably have someone who can help you. Also check with your local police station. They should have someone who is qualified to do car seat inspections/installations. Our children are now 9 and 12 and we had car seat inspections/installations from an early age and found that we were installing them incorrectly. Everytime we had to change to another car seat we went and got another car seat check. When my daughter was younger she even remind me, "Mommy we need to get a car seat check". She even knew at an early age how important it is. She even mentions it to this day about how she would remind me. I can't stress enough about getting your car seats checked by someone who has been trained.

M.

For two years I was the only mom at my son's preschool who had a sedan car! I have 3 kids ages 6, 4 and 1 1/2. So many people were amazed at how we did it. When I was expecting my third I had to search online for the infant car seat that was the most narrow. I found one that worked...it's the Graco Snugride Infant Car seat - Lotus. I couldn't find it in stores but it was on several online sites. It was a bit more expensive than the standard infant seats, but the cheapest of the smaller seats at about $130 to $150. Fortunately you can use booster seats for your other two! I'm not sure if it would work with a toddler car seat. I feel your pain. :) It's not easy getting kids around in such a small vehicle, and the disputes are doubled since they're practically right on top of each other. Lord willing you'll be able to get a minivan or SUV in a year or two when the baby is a little older! Congratulations on the new baby...ENJOY!!

i have a station wagon and fit 3 across. we carefully researched skinny carseats. thankfully our children are all thin so we don't have any problems with the narrow seats as those were the only neg reviews we saw on the seats we have. actually we've had 2 combinations of seats that worked for us... at first we had a rear-facing evenflo infant carrier and 2 graco "cargo's." the graco's convert to boosters. this actually led us to buying a new seat for the bigger kids (almost 4 & 5). my 5 year old was starting to complain about the harness pulling on her shoulders as she was getting too tall, but to convert it to a booster would have made buckling really challenging. in my car, the seats are very tightly next to each other, but there is a pocket of space between the outside seats and the doors which i like for safety. so, we did more research...we got "radian 80's" which have very high backs and keep them in the harness to 80 pounds. we love the seats. they are definitely high quality (not inexpensive seats...cheeper than a new car though!) when the infant outgrew the carrier, we moved her to a britax "roundabout." we love it as well. all of the seats are about 17 inches wide. actually that is a selling point of the seat - you can fit 3 across in just about any vehicle. they actually also work rear-facing, but i would imagine the high back would cause the front-seat passenger to have no space and it would difficult to get a safe angle.

I asked this same question a few months ago. I have a Ford Escape SUV, but it's not big enough with 2 Marathons. If you search, you can see the responses I got.
Here are the details: "3 car seats straight across"
From: A. S Date: Sat. Jun. 28, 2008

I ended up getting a great deal on a Chrysler Pacifica (3 rows), so we made an equal trade of our Escape to this.

Good luck!

Radians!!!! The Radian 65 or the Radian 80! They are extremely safe & good quality & will easily fit 3 accross in even very small cars!

Good luck!

Hello,
I have a minivan, it is a lot cheaper than a SUV and I can fit 5 kids in it very comfortably.

Check out the responses for:

http://www.mamasource.com/request/13015974669147176961/11...

IT is best to use 2 booster seats and then the baby carrier that you can take in and out of the car :) It will fit!! I have a infant carrier a regular car seat and a booster seat and it all fits :)