3 kids and car seats

[2goingon3]

currently pregnant and will have a 8& 4 year old so wondering without buying a 7 seater how I could fit 3 car seats in the back?

what do other people do without buying 7 seater!

2004 apparently. Since 2004 lap belts are no longer permitted in new cars. Previously they were allowed in the rear seats.

In my Vauxhall Astra we had two Besafe HBB for my 8 and 5 year old and a rear facing Joie strapped in the middle. That worked for almost 2 years, then we got the 5008 and had that for 6 months. We're back to a 5 seater now with the ID.5 as my now 11 year old is almost out of car seats but 8 year old is still in them.
Another option will be to either put the baby rf in front with airbags disabled or put 8 year old in front with airbags on and you sit in the middle seat in the back.

Mine were 7&4 when DC3 was born too :) love the gaps. We’ve always had Citroen c4 picassos, 3 across the back no problem plus a massive boot! Or optional 2 more seats in boot.

We have a Skoda Octavia and fit and high back booster a baby seat and a bubble booster seat in the back. Tight but doable. Hope this helps x

Saying that I would really like a seat Alhambra or a pergeout 5008 but haven’t got the budget right now x

Citroen C4 totally fine, never had any issue getting 3 in a row - 2 in britax romer and baby in carbiofix and then a axissfix.

Thank you!

I will have the 7 year old in a HBB (haven’t bought yet - can anyone recommend a slim one?) and the 4 yo in an Axkid Mini.

The baby will probably be in a maxi cosi cabrio for the first year or so, so if we could squeeze all those in it would be ideal. Does anyone have any idea whether these will fit?

Thank you for saying this is a nice gap btw - I’ve been a bit worried it is too big between dc1 and 3.

I'd highly recommend the seat Alhambra 3 seats that each take a car seat and 2 seats in the boot that fold down and a huge boot space
Also sliding doors which when you're traveling with young kids and car seats/baby seats are a god send!

They all get on really well, now 9 & 2 year old obsessed with each other 😄 it’s really nice in the beginning too because the older ones are at school all week and you get so much time with the baby :) well DS2 started school when DC3 was a few months old but still.

That is so lovely to hear! DC1 will be in year 2 and dc2 will be in preschool when dc3 arrives in Feb. I hope it’s not too huge an adjustment for them.

The axkid and maxi Cosi are good for fitting 3 across.

I'd go to the biggest shop you can find with HBBs and see if you can try a load out to see which shapes fit best next to the minikid. It's not necessarily about the whole width, just the bits that touch each other.

I agree lots of trial and error to work out what fits. Must admit we. Are using 1x hbb and 1x just booster as we couldn’t make it work with 2 hbb.

for the first few months we kept eldest in hbb in the front seat so that is an option and I squished into the middle seat but we prefer kids in back

Yes I am a bit reluctant to put one of them in the front too.

I also think we should probably just bite the bullet and get a 7 seater so that we can give lifts etc.

Some allow 3 seats across the back some dont you need to check car manual. Then id be looking at a slim high back boosters and a well tested rear facing seat. Find a good car safety centre locally if possible

We have an Octavia which we absolutely love and really don't want to switch car but I really don't think we are going to be able to squeeze our three seats in the back. We don't use the car as a family of 4 that much anyway and initially will likely use it even less when the third is born. We are thinking we will have to put 6yo in the front in her HBB and I squeeze in the middle. Not ideal for either of us though. Would prefer to buy different car seats than a new car so any recommendations of slim ones would be great! 6yo in a FF HBB but would like to keep 3yr old in a RF car seat for awhile longer.

What seats do you have currently?

@BertieBotts apologies for such a late reply! We currently have 6yo in a FF Cosatto Zoomi (behind driver) and 2yo (will be 3 when baby is born though) in a RF Joie Every Stage (not Isofix, behind front passenger). For baby 3 we have a Cosatto Port (Isofix). It is part of a travel system, and I don't think they make them anymore.

The Port will be fine. You may get more space when fitting the car seat with seatbelt, but it might also be worth keeping the base for the convenience, if it does not take up too much room.

Zoomi and Every Stage are both quite wide, so it would be useful to look into changing these.

The every stage could be changed for an Axkid perhaps, these are good for getting 3 across and are also belt fitted. Assuming 6yo is using the Zoomi as a HBB? You could try that next to the Axkid, but honestly the side impact protection on that seat is not great so may be worth moving it to the centre seat and/or replacing it anyway. It is also much wider at the base than it is at the top. You might want something which is narrower at the base, e.g. Maxi Cosi Tanza i-size.

I have just looked up a random Octavia manual - mark 3 2017 - (you'll need to double check for your own version and year) but just as an example of what they say.

A rear facing seat (e.g. the Axkid or even the Every Stage) may be used in the front passenger seat with airbag off. (General info not from manual: This is a safer option than a FF child in the front).

They have various complicated instructions about putting a Group 2/3 (high back booster) in the front - something about lining up the seat with the side pillar. This is likely to do with distance from the airbag.

The centre rear seat allows child seats fitted using seatbelt. It says something about an extra top tether point in the middle but it also says it's country-specific - I think this is unlikely in the UK.

It says nothing against placing a support leg on the centre rear seat, which means you could potentially fit an Axkid ERF seat there - this may help you a lot.

Thanks so much for your time @BertieBotts ! Will look into everything. Do you have any recommendations for a slim Axkid, there seems to be so many different models with massively different prices? Also, do you know of any retailers that tend to stock both those and the Maxi Cosi you mentioned that would let us try and fit them all in the back? Also I never considered that it would actually be safer to have the toddler in the front RF than our eldest there FF which does make sense now that you've mentioned it, so possibly something else for us to consider if we get stuck.

Move/Minikid/Movekid were the ones that I was thinking of.

I would start by looking for an Axkid retailer - there are fewer of these compared with Maxi Cosi. There is a retailer search on their website. Then go from there WRT contacting and asking about trying seat combinations.

Get a multimac! Then you can keep the car you have. It’s like an integrated “car sofa” - can be easily fitted by a couple of competent adults and works great. Strong recommend - we have had one for 8 years and it’s still taking our three straight across very comfortably.

@2goingon3 what did you choose to do in the end?