How to fit 3 children car seats into the back of a car

Question

My 3rd child was just born and I've discovered fitting the seats for all my children into the car is a real problem.

My oldest child is using a booster, my middle child a car seat and the new baby is still in an infant carrier.

My car is a large compact (Citroen C3 Picasso), and the 3 seats only physically fit in the car if I use the seat belt (and not the ISOFIX/LATCH system) to secure the car seat - even then the 3 seats completely cover the entire car back seat and there's no way to get to the seat belt for the booster.

I've also tried with my parent's car that is a roomy family car (Hyundai I30 CW) and have the same problem.

We tried putting the baby carrier in the front seat but this didn't work because we need to also fit two adults in the car (and putting the 2nd adult in back between 2 seats isn't practical)

So, what's the standard solution for this problem, how can I get two adults and 3 children into the car safely, reasonably comfortably and legally?

Are there special narrow car seat models? I've seen seat belt extenders on the internet, are they safe? is there anything else I'm missing?

Let's assume I don't have the money to get a bigger car right now.

Answer 1

Unfortunately very few cars properly fit 3 car seats, and cramming them all in there may actually decrease the safety of the seat.

If you do end up putting one in the front seat, make sure you consider the front passenger air bags - they need to be disabled for many car seats or they can cause significant harm.

Answer 2

I can fit in 2 car seat and an infant carrier in many different cars Opel Agila, Renault Megane, Opel Astra ... using seat belts. It is a hassle, so I start with the middle seat (not the infant carrier) and then add the two on the doors. I have to do it on many cars, because we do car sharing, but it always worked out somehow.

Answer 3

If they are old enough to use a booster seat but you can't fit one in, have a look at seat belt adjusters.

I got an Autosafe one for my youngest and it makes a difference. Admittedly we could always fit three car seats in, but it was a squeeze and we had to move them a bit to buckle all three in.

The adjuster just brings the shoulder part of the belt down to an appropriate level:

Check out the website for more info. Obviously this isn't a suitable alternative for seats for younger kids, as they need the head/neck support as well.

Answer 4

In the end, after spending hours checking each and every baby-related store in the area I've found a cheap no-name booster that fits between the infant carrier and the children carseat (it's 5cm narrower than every other booster I've seen).

I also had to connect the carseat with the seatbelt and not the ISOFIX hooks for everything to fit in.

Answer 5

Check out Kiddy car seats (www.kiddy.de), they are meant to be buckled in rather than put in a fixed base so they can be shifted around easily, and they have a good safety rating.

Answer 6

If you are in a jurisdiction that doesn't require car seats or booster seats for children 2 years old or older, it might be best just to use a seatbelt. Studies by Steven Levitt have shown that car seats are not as effective as seat belts.

And so, anyway, here I am. It's not a fairy tale. It's a true story about the United States today, and the disease I'm referring to is actually motor vehicle accidents for children. And the free cure is adult seatbelts, and the expensive cure -- the 300-million-dollar-a-year cure -- is child car seats. And what I'd like to talk to you about today is some of the evidence why I believe this to be true: that for children two years old and up, there really is no real benefit -- proven benefit -- of car seats, in spite of the incredible energy that has been devoted toward expanding the laws and making it socially unacceptable to put your children into seatbelts.