Carseats with 2 kids

MommaKrae · February 2013

I know this may be a silly question but when you have an infant who is rear facing and a toddler who is forward facing, what is recommended as far as where the carseats are placed in the car? Meaning, does the infant go opposite side of the drivers seat and the toddler behind the drivers seat? Does it matter? Hopefully my question makes sense.

TIA!

sschwege · February 2013

I don't think it matters from a crash/safety standpoint. I put the infant carrier behind the driver seat because we live in Chicago and mostly parallel park. So it's safer because I just have to snap the car seat in as opposed to standing out in the street buckling my toddler in which takes longer.

smerka · February 2013

I don't think it matters. I put the baby behind the passenger so I could reach him more easily.

megann831 · February 2013

I like the baby behind the driver so DD can get in on her own while I'm strapping in the baby. In general the baby tends to be easier than DD, so I can strap him in quickly, she doesn't always cooperate, so I'd rather be struggling with her while on the side walk instead of in the street. I'd also make sure they're not too close together. I borrowed my parents minivan for a few weeks while my Honda Fit was getting fixed, even though my car is so small, DD can't reach DS, in the mini van they were right next to each other and we were constantly telling her to leave the baby alone.

Angela814 · February 2013

DH is 6'3", so it's very difficult to fit a rfing carseat behind his seat. Since he drives both vehicles occasionally, we've always put the ffing seat behind the driver. The rfing seat goes behind the passenger. That means that passenger seat is sometimes pushed up pretty far, but since I'm only 5'4", it's never been an issue.

saturdaynightdoubletree · February 2013

It doesn't really matter. The last car seat inspector I had look at my car seats suggested infant seat in the middle and older kids outboard. For us, DD1 has always sat behind driver. DS always sat behind passenger, but is now in the middle of our 3 across because it was impossible keeping the kids safe while putting the infant in the middle, or trying to reach an infant seat across the older kids.

chpswife · February 2013

I've got DD forward facing in the middle and LO behind passenger seat. DH insisted neither be behind drivers seat....

aandg · February 2013

When DD was still in the infant seat we put her in the middle and DS behind the drivers seat. Now that she's in a convertible seat, she's behind the passenger seat and DS is still behind the drivers seat.

MrsWindyCity · February 2013

Assuming the seat fits, we plan on putting the infant seat behind the driver side. Currently, DS is behind the passenger side, RFing. If neither seat is able to fit behind the driver's side (we don't have a huge car and DH is tall), we'll have to FF DS. We will try to put the infant seat in the middle first, but I just don't think it will fit properly. We'll see. Anyway, our reasons for trying to keep the infant behind the driver side are that we also live in Chicago, so I'd rather buckle DS in and then take the carrier onto the street side to put it in (vs. having to take DS out first and walk over to the passenger side to remove the baby, trusting DS not to move into the street and/or getting DS second and not knowing where to put the infant carrier while I buckle him in/out).