Position of 2 car seats in the car?

Sarahbear621

We have a small SUV so DS's Britax 70 Marathon fits better in the middle seat then behind the passenger or driver.  However, when #2 gets here is it ok to put her in her bucket seat on one of the sides?  Or should she be in the middle?  Her infant bucket seat fits fine behind the passenger and driver.

CaitlinJ22

from what I understand, with 1 child the safest is the middle. WIth 2, you have to adjust the seating and so the best place for the forward facing seat is the middle and the rear facing on the sides....if you can fit them like that. I had DS on the side FFing and DD RFing on the other side. We have a mini van so the captain chairs can be moved, so we just moved DS towards the middle and DD and him play now. Its cute I feel beter with him in the middle. 

If you have 2 RFing, then I would say you would probably have to fit them each on the sides.  

Sarahbear621

They are both RRing as DS is only 1 year old.  He will be 15 months when #2 gets here.  I would hate to put them both on the sides because that would mean the only seat in the back is the middle and we couldn't access it without climbing over the carseats...but then again it might be better that way so that DS is not right next to DD. 

meredith anastasia

We have a Toyota Matrix and DH is quite tall so needs as much leg room as possible. 

We currently have DS's Britax Marathon rear-facing behind the driver seat, and the infant base is installed behind the passenger's seat. 

CaitlinJ22

Sarahbear621:

They are both RRing as DS is only 1 year old.  He will be 15 months when #2 gets here.  I would hate to put them both on the sides because that would mean the only seat in the back is the middle and we couldn't access it without climbing over the carseats...but then again it might be better that way so that DS is not right next to DD. 

Yeah, right next to eachother is only something we could do now. They are 18 months apart and until about 2 ish he would throw things and probably grab stuff from her. You can always try it and see what works.  

maramarrie

Child 1 should stay in the middle because whenever they are/turn forward facing that is the safest position for them (a RF child is automatically 5 times safer than a FF child, so it's better to have the FF child in the safest location).

We have DS in the middle, RF. We have DD on the driver's side, RF in her infant seat. The two seats share the "60" part of the 60/40 split so that we can use the other side to access our 3rd row seats. 

(Ours have been next to each other since DD's birth and it hasn't created any problems. Occasionally we have outbursts, but for the most part a toy gets stolen one way or the other and we just referee.)

NavyPilotWife

Sarahbear621:

I would hate to put them both on the sides because that would mean the only seat in the back is the middle and we couldn't access it without climbing over the carseats...but then again it might be better that way so that DS is not right next to DD. 

It's not that hard to get to the middle seat...the person that's sitting there just needs to get in before you snap the infant seat into the base.  I have both girls RF on the sides.  When DD2 switches to a convertible car seat, I might put them right next to each other.  We have a third row (we don't use it very often), so it would be nice not to have the seat behind the passenger car seat free.

Daisy22

DS1 is FF behind the driver, DS2 is RF behind the passneger. We had DS1 behind the passenger the whole time he was RF until DS2 came along. The safety place we went to said that any of the positions are find as long as the car manual does not have any exclusions (i.e. some do not advise you to you latch in the center) and the seat is properly installed.