I'll be 38 weeks on Wednesday, and I thought (silly me) the car seat thing would be easy. We have a 14 month old and another due on the 27th of this month. We went today to look for a car seat and it was a complete FAILURE!! It seems like all the safe car seats that are rear facing are NOT AT ALL desgined for sedans or even smaller SUVs like my 2000 Jeep Cherokee. We really liked the new Graco one that goes from 5 lbs to 100 lbs and is rear facing until 40lbs, but it didn't fit in my hubby's Acura TSX.
So now, something so simple is a real problem! Do they even make rear facing car seats for smaller back seat cars. We're not giant people, DH is 5'9" and I'm 5'4".
Am I missing something? What are we doing wrong? We are going to have to put 2 car seats in the back seat so a middle installation is not an option.
HELP would be Greatly, greatly appreciated since I am running out of time...seriously!
Re: This car seat thing is driving me MAD!!! HeLp!!!
We have a Britax Marathon for DS and a Sunshine Kids Radian for DD. The radians are very narrow but tall. I am not sure what your issue with fitting them is - is it a height issue or a width issue? We have a Honda CR-V and DD is behind the passenger seat rear-facing. When someone is sitting there, they have to be pushed pretty far forward to fit the rear facing Radian. DS's Britax Marathon was wide, but wasn't as tall rear facing - he was behind the drivers side after DD was born, still rear facing, and I never remember it being an issue. In DH's Camry, we have an Evenflo Tribute that was rear facing behind the passenger side, and that fit fine.
So if your issue is fitting them next to each other, try out a radian. If it is fitting it behind the passenger or drivers side while rear-facing, then try out a Britax or an Evenflo! Good luck!
This is why we wet with a minivan. We weren't able to fit 2 rfing seats comfortably in our ford explorer. I don't know how the eff people fit them in sedans, they must hve the front seats pushed all the way up.
FWIW, have you tried adjusting the recline in DC1's seat? Since they are older you don't need it super reclined, it can be more upright. Also, the radian is very narrow, can you maybe fit one of those in the middle? It would probably fit between your two front seats and not impact them.
We have the Chicco Keyfit (22 not 30) for when DS comes. Then for DD we have the Evenflo Triumph Advance (goes up to 65 lbs). This seat is currently in the back of my DH's Hyundai Elantra and fits with plenty of room for the passenger too! I have Hyundai Santa Fe and it fits great in there too. It seems HUGE on the shelf but it is actually really compact when it comes to fitting in smaller cars.
We went with this one because it fit in the rear of my DH's old car. He had the Scion tC (2 door sports car). It actually fit better than the infant seat! The best part about this seat is there is no tether to tighten the straps, it is a crank so you just turn it and your child is secure. Plus it's much cheaper than a Britax, which was really important to us to! We go ours for $119 at BRU.
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I'm sure this isn't the answer you're looking for, but that's why we have a mini van. DS used a Graco infant seat and a Britax Roundabout rear facing in our Honda Accord. He's tall though, so we knew he wouldn't make it until 2 years old and it would be a very tough fit for two rear facing convertible seats in that car... so we purchased a Nissan Quest. Now we have a convertible seat with the tallest shell we could find (Safety 1st Complete Air) for our very tall son.
FWIW I think a parent should always consider their child's SAFETY not whether or not they'll get pulled over and receive a ticket. Sure someone could get away with not following the current recommendation- but if they've seen the statistics I'm not sure why one would do that.
Wow, really? The safest forward facing carseat in the world won't prevent the injuries that occur when young children are forward facing when they should be rear facing.
Regardless of whether it's a law or not, new information states many times over rear facing is the safest for children up to two (at least, even longer if possible). Do whatever you have to do to get a rear facing seat to fit. I hear the combi corroco (sp?) fits well rear facing in small cars. Or go to carseatdata.org and see what other brands are fitting.