SUV or Carseat Ideas

[redemption_song]

This may sound crazy, but have you considered putting the new baby rear facing in the middle back? You'd have to open the back and get the baby in/out that way, but you could do 5 year old, new baby, 4 year old in the back and the two in larger 5 point harnesses in the front seat.

We just bought an Odyssey (upgrade from a Civic!) in preparation for having 3 carseats in the vehicle come April and I can definitely see your dilemma.

[BigDog]

This may sound crazy, but have you considered putting the new baby rear facing in the middle back? You'd have to open the back and get the baby in/out that way, but you could do 5 year old, new baby, 4 year old in the back and the two in larger 5 point harnesses in the front seat.

We just bought an Odyssey (upgrade from a Civic!) in preparation for having 3 carseats in the vehicle come April and I can definitely see your dilemma.

Well, you have me puzzled. I can't wait till DH gets home to try this one.

The only forseeable problem I see is getting the latch to release for the carrier. Maybe I could show my 5 year old how to do it. (He was literally picking locks at 15 months. Every mothers dream, right? LOL.) Hopefully he could have enough strength to pull on it.

[BigDog]

Well, the carseat going through the back didn't work. When we left the two boosters in the back it was fine. Until we went to act like I was going to get the baby out via the back. We have a 60/40 split in the back. So the baby was in the middle. When we go to fold down the "40" side it was fine. When we tried lifting it back to get the baby out. The seat base refused to let the "40" to come flip back. (I tried putting the baby seat on either side. Didn't fit on the "40" side of the bench, same problem. It "fit" on the otherside, the outside of the "60". That would mean I would put one of the boosters in the middle. And the middle seat has a much smaller width. In otherwords the buckle would be under one of the boosters.)

I have not gave up hope yet.

Though a pain in the neck. I think if we get a smaller width carseat for our 2 yo, it *might* work. We would put the 2 yo with the new seat, our 1 yo with a smaller width seat, and our 4 yo with the highback booster in the back.

The pain in the neck would be crawling in the back (with middle seats pushed together, too hard if they were apart), and strapping in my 2 yo and 1 yo.

I have googled and asked around and looked around for answers. I haven't found a good solution (safe). There has to be somebody out there with this same problem. The only viable solution looks like the Radian car seat. Getting 2 of them.

Any experiance on Radians?

[BeckyP]

I am about out of ideas. Here is a great website with LOTS of car seat pros who should be able to help you out.
Car Seat.Org - Carseat, Vehicle & Child Passenger Safety Forums

[leobaby]

Currently, I drive a 2007 Chevy uplander minivan with 4 captains and a bench.
When my friend and I take our kids to the zoo, I drive (I have 2 and she has 3).
The kids and carseats are as follows:
2 year old Evenflo Triumph in captains chair
1 year old Evenflo Triumph in captains chair
6 year old Graco Turbobooster rear left
6 month old Graco infant seat with base rear middle
4 year old Graco Turbobooster rear right
yes, we have to buckle in the turboboosters but it's totally worth it for all of us to ride together not only to save on gas but we can help eachother out when there's a problem with the kids.
When the baby gets older, she will be in a cosco scenera and it will work in the back with the two turboboosters...we have tried it when my ds2 didn't have his evenflo triumph.
hth

[TheWoman]

FIVE KIDS UNDER FIVE?? ARE YOU INSANE????

Just give it time....

[talk2ham.1]

I haven't really heard one way or another about how these things rate in crash tests and stuff, but a friend of mine recommended it when we were looking to do the same thing as you for a carpooled trip to KS with my sister and her family in our minivan. Here is the website. ...::: Safe Traffic System, Inc. - Safety Children can Wear !! :::... . In my opinion, they looked as safe if not safer than regular boosters for kids over a certain height/weight. Obviously, they are going to promote their products with high marks on crash tests. I have no idea how they rate on unbiased consumer websites though. It sure would give more space, but my kids were too small to bother with them anyway. It may work for your 4 + 5 year olds and give you more space in the back seat.

We drive a Chevy Uplander '07 also. We ended up going with two Evenflo Tribute 5's (16.5-17 inches each) and a Graco that we borrowed from my SIL. All were 5 pt. harnessed. Don't know what the model was on the Graco since it was a few years old and all markings were worn off or missing, but it squished in with the others enough to work, anyway. It took my husband an hour of puzzling and reworking to get them all to fit, but it worked. Three Evenflo Tributes would've fit better, but we didn't want to spend the money on another carseat just for the trip. Hope you find something that works well for you.

[ecj98]

We love our Radian car seat. It has nice tall shoulder straps for DS who is 3 and would have outgrown many other car seats. It is very easy to install forward facing; I've never used it rear facing. And it has steel construction, so it doesn't expire for 8 years versus 6 for most car seats.