Car seat configuration question

[Koalafications]

If you have a young DC, say two years old, and then have twins - how do you fit all of the children into the car?

If you have a 5 seater how do you safely get the two year old into car seat in the middle?

If it's a 7 seater are the seats at the back child seat compatible?

TIA

[LadyMetroland]

Don't put your children in the rear seats of a 7-seater, v dangerous if you are rear-ended.

We looked into this extensively when we had newborn, young toddler and a 3yr old. Went to a fabulous car seat specialist in Oxfordshire (near Wallingford if you live nearby and want to Google it) who explained the safest place in a car are the seats behind the driver. Front seats and rear rear seats ie in boot are much more dangerous if you have a crash.

To get seats configured the middle seat needs to be a full-sized seat ie as wide as the seats by the windows. Otherwise you simply won't fit two toddler and 1 baby seat in. Ultimately you will have 3 highbacked boosters when kids are older, again, these need a full width car seat. Most cars do not have this. Seat Alhambra, Peugeot 5008, smax, Citroën grand scenic are some that do. Lots of 4x4s don't even have full sized middle seat either inc massive Range Rovers!

It's a bit of a pain leaning in to strap the middle one in but they are safe and that's what matters

[Koalafications]

Thank you very much LadyMetroland that's very kind of you.

So a 7 seater seems pretty useless for us, then.

I thought the safest seat was the one behind the front passenger, rather than the driver?

I'll read around and see which others have a full sized middle seat, thanks again

[xyzandabc]

7 seaters are your most likely bet, not because you need the 2 boot seats but because most 7 seaters have 3 full sized seats in the row behind the driver. Most 5 seaters do not have a wide enough back seat to fit 3 car seats. There are of course exceptions, a few 5 seaters will fit 3 seats across the back but not many.
The 7 seaters also tend to have big boots when you're not using the 2 back seats, which you will need if you have 3 under 3.

[Pinotgrigioplease]

I was always told the safest seat was the one in the middle of the back row as it's the furthest away from any impact points?

[LadyMetroland]

No, you almost certainly do need a 7-seater!

What I meant by safest seats is the ROW of seats behind driver/front passenger. Sorry if that wasn't clear. The actual 'safest seat' singular is I believe, the middle back. My point was, according to the car seat expert I saw (proper expert not just Halfords) the seats at the far back of a 7-seater aren't very safe (also avoid front passenger).

But even though the third row of seats in a 7-seater are not the safest, you will almost certainly need one because those are the cars with that full-sized middle seat.

Our 7-seater is occasionally used for grandparents on short journeys but mainly its just great to have the boot space as we keep seats folded down.

[Twinnypops]

If you speak to the car seat manufacturers they may be able to advise you on how the seats will fit in and where is safest (some have this on their website too). Places like mothercare and john lewis do car seat fittings too so you can make sure.

[Billyjoe123]

I had 3 under 2, and we had a citroen grand picasso, with all 3 in rear facing seats. Oh how smug was I. And then i realised i couldnt see them, nearly wet my pants getting to the middle one, and the one year old would inevitably poke the babies.

So what we ended up with was the toddler in the front (picasso has a proper isofix fitting on the front seat, air bag off obv) and the twins next to each other in the back, leaving an empty space for me/DH on the end of that row.

As the twins got bigger we put them on either end of the row so they couldnt batter each other and passengers had to sit in the back row seats in the boot.

#twinseatskillz

[AbirdN8]

Have you thought of a mulitmac?

We have one and it's great. You can fit all three in the back. I have a 4 year old and 18 months old twins.

Also selling the baby seats if interested.

multimac.co.uk/home