3 Car Seats Straight Across

I had three across but they were the basic seats that were available.

My son was 23 mos. old when my id-twin daughters were born.

Best wishes,
Chrissee

I had to by a new car. My Subaru Outback could not hold my 5 year-old and 6 year-old's booster seat and an infant seat. We couldn't keep taking two cars every where with the way gas prices are now. I bought a Mazda CX-9 which is a 7 passanger crossover vehicle. I love it! It gets about the same mpg as my Outback did 22 versus 24.

Hi I'm got 3 little ones across the backseat of my BMW 5-series wagon. They are close, but the seats fit fine with a bit of space on the outsides next to the doors. My older 2 are in Graco CarGo's - I think there are 2 levels and we have the higher level (it's a little softer and has removable cup holders and snack/toy holder which we don't have space to use). My 1 year old is still rear-facing in the Britax Round-A-Bout. It's just 17" wide so it's a narrower option for a Britax seat (I do love it!).

My older ones are 3 and 4 and still use the harness with the Graco seats, but they are getting close to the max on them. They do convert to high back boosters, but squeezing our hands down between the seats to buckle will be a nightmare. Our plan is to move the Graco seats to my husband's car so any of the 3 can ride with him without changing both cars. We are going to replace them with "Radian 80" for my car. The Radian 80 seat keeps them in the harness up to 80 pounds and it is the narrowest seat available at 17 inches. They are supposed to be extremely safe from what I've read and as a bonus, the bottom and back fold in so they are flat for storage/travel. They can be used birth through 80 pounds I believe (always with a harness). They cost about $280 I think. There is also another seat that is also narrow, keeps them in a harness, and folds (in thirds I believe) but it costs more I think. Oh, and I think you can remove the back to convert to a low booster as well with the other one - "Safeguard Booster."

RADIAN 80 - http://www.skjp.com/products/skjp_radian_80.php
SAFEGUARD BOOSTER - http://www.safeguardseat.com/go/index.htm

Good Luck!

I would recommend calling your local police or fire department and ask about a car seat safety inspection. There are people trained in car seat safety and they should be able to help you. I was in pretty much the same boat a few years ago with my Subaru Forester, and I tried everything I could to not have to buy a minivan. Yes, it was a big expense, but I'm happy to say that I now love having a minivan with 3 kids and if that's the route you have to take you'll be really happy. I hope things work out for you, and congratulations on #3!!

I don't know if you're on MySpace at all (or if you might be interested in signing up for an account) but there's a group on there called Everything Carseats & it's run by a bunch of car seat installation techs.

A lot of people have suggestions about this on there.
The link is:
http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=groups.gro...

I know there are ways to do it! I've heard of several stories.
Good for you too for recognizing how important it is to keep your kids harnessed in a 5 pt. for as long as possible! It seems like everyone tries to get them into a booster as soon as they hit 3 years old or 30 lbs (which is SO unsafe!)!
Good for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HI A., One more reason why I am sooo glad that my two oldest were out of car seats before they changed the laws to 8 and 80 lbs!! I suggest you look into booster seats that will last longer and are smaller. I like the Graco booster seat that you can find at WalMart for $20. I had to buy one about 5 years ago and I continue using it with the little one's I babysit. It fits well in my mini van with a infant seat next to it in the second row bench (which only has two seats). But to be honest, as a mother of three girls ages 11, 14 & 16 you might just want to look into investing in a minivan. As they get older, they do get bigger and so does all their stuff!! Good luck & congrats!!

I had 3 seats across in my Ford Taurus! It was a while ago...my kids are 9 and 12 now...but I had my older child in a toddler car seat, then the middle seat was the infant seat, and then the other side had whatever playdate my older child had over. The seats just fit. A lot of brands have changed since then, and I don't remember the brands, but they were the brands that Consumer Reports recommended as the number one back then. Good luck!

I have 3 arcoss-the first car was a Saab and now we have a Camery...and I have two BIG car seats and one booster. (2yrs, 4yrs, 6 yrs) I know it will work even though these seats are so big! My brother was just visiting and he has this wonderful seat for his toddler that doesnt seem to take up much room. I asked about it and his wife sent me to a website that has ones that are similar (thier's is old) Its babycarseats.com and the brands are Cosco and Graco. Cheaper than a new car! Good luck!

We have 13 month old twins and a 2.5 year old. We can fit the Evenflo carseats across our Ford Expedition. I don't know if it's the same width as the Escape? Maybe not. They do JUST fit so I don't know if there are any carseats that would fit across a narrower car. Good luck!

I had to buy a new car...we had an Aztec which fit all 3 carseats but was VERY cramped and hard to get the seat buckled and such.

So no advice other than look for a new car...sorry. We went with a mini-van.

We tried several carseats with our first child, but once our twins came in the second round, we decided to go with the Graco seats, which fit with a little space across our Explorer, so I would think it would be no problem in an Escape. They are the most inexpensive brand we owned of all our carseats, but we like them a lot. They are not too wide and offer the side "wings" on the seats that seem to support the heads when the kids inevitably go off to sleep.

Graco came out with a new seat in january called the Graco Nautilus. It has the 5 point harness up to 65 pounds!!! i LOVE this seat!!!!! the nautilus is very slim for a big kid seat and i love that my 4 1/2 year old (big for his age) son can still be harnessed! it's also nice looking! i got it the first week it came out and it was only $149.00... i've seen it recently for a lot cheaper and if you go to a site like amazon you can get free shipping sometimes... also walmart.com has it (free shipping to store and they sell it in stores) and i think babies r us has it too.... the britax seats tend to be a bit bulkier and this graco is a lot slimmer. if i were you i'd go to the car seat websites like graco, britax and sunshine kids and check out the dimensions of the seats (they usually have them on there)... also, see if you can go to the store and "test" the seats in your car before you buy them.... just ask an associate and i'm sure they will assist you to your car to help you do that.

good luck and kudos to you for extended harnessing! if i could keep my kids harnessed until they were 18 i would! :-)

I have done a lot of research into this in the past because I did not want to take my child out of the 5point harness. The seat I now have is Radian Carseat 80 made by Sunshine Kids.
http://sunshinekidsbaby.com. I found it online but did mange to see it in USA baby before buying it and tried it in my car also.

Good luck with your search.
T.

Just two cents to add - we just moved our son up to the Britax Parkway model and we had an adult sit comfortably between him and an infant car seat this weekend. I don't think the Parkway models are any bigger than an adult seated is, and most SUV's claim you can put 3 adults in a back seat. Our car is a Subaru Impreza, a 5 year old car and it worked well for us. Put the infant one in the middle and I think you'll be fine with 2 Parkway seats on either side. Good luck!

What did you end up doing? I am actually thinking of buying a Ford Escape because I was hoping the three seat's would fit...

We had a dodge stratus car and three children nad no money to buy a new car. We had to buy a really narrow booster which I got from kmart. My oldest was 4 my next was 18months and then the newborn. Obviously we had to have a forward facing car seat for my 18month old. It was lots of scraped knuckles and hitting doors with my hips to shut them!!! I'm soo glad we have a van now! We manged to get it to work but it was a science to do it! I would suggest two small boosters so your car seat will fit. They are usually really cheap too. The belt needs to hit on their shoulders not their necks and you can buy separate seat belt adjusters to hewlp with that. We got saftey first seat blet adjusters.

I have a CR-V and not an escape, but they are similar in size (both considered mid-size SUVs). I know there are a couple people on www.car-seat,.org (car seat safety forum) that have escapes though, and would have more exact information.

The Sunshine Kids Radian65/Radian80 (it's the same seat, only different weights - the shell is the same and so will install the same). I can get 3 installed rear-facing, and I've down a forward-facing Radian next to a rear-facing convertible seat that's wider than a Snugride (I'll be trying it out tomorrow though, as we're expecting another child and I'll need to see how everything puzzles together. I can re-post how it goes).

The Fisher-Price safe voyage booster (http://www.albeebaby.com/fisher-price-safe-voyage-booster...) is one of the narrowest boosters on the market. I believe the standard Graco TurboBooster is as well. I've never done boosters in my car, since I don't have any booster-ready children that ride with me. So in that regard you'd get more relevant advice on the above forum.

Have you tried puzzling the Marathon next to the infant seat? The only way I see this working though is with the infant seat in the middle - not exactly ideal, I know. I can go out and try my Marathon (my daughter's seat in my car) forward facing next to my SnugRide and see how it works. I don't forsee my daughter being forward-facing in the near-future, but it would be good to know.

I'm not sure if the Nautilus would work for you though, it is kind of a wide seat. Be worth a try to go to Babies R Us and try one out in your car though.

There is a seat that harnesses to 65 lbs that is narrower than the Marathon. It's the Graco Nautilus, and is relatively new on the market. I researched it and found that it was very acceptable on the car seat safety boards. I bought one for my son and he does well in it. He seems comfortable, but visually it is quite a big difference from the Marathon. Because it is a lot narrower, the seat area is smaller for the child. My son is almost 4 and he's pretty skinny, so he fits great in this seat. My daughter is 7, and again on the thin side, and she fits fine also (she wanted to see if she'd fit). From what I've researched, the Nautilus has the highest shoulder strap height of the car seats that harness higher weights. Here is a link.

http://www.gracobaby.com/catalog/product.aspx?modelNumber...

I ordered mine from Wal-Mart online and had it shipped to my local store. They don't carry it in the store here. I've since seen it in-store at the Baby Depot at Burlington Coat Factory. The price is around $150, so a lot less expensive than the Britax seats. Again, this might seem like a step down from the Marathon, but it does harness to the same weight and my son finds it comfortable (he previously had a Britax Roundabout).

Good luck finding what you need, and congrats on the new addition!

ETA: I forgot to mention that the Nautilus converts to a high-back booster, and then a backless booster that holds up to 100 lbs.

My friend just went through car seat issues this year, so I asked her to respond for ya. Here is her advice - hope it helps!

Hi there,

I drive a Trailblazer SS which is just about the same size as an Escape and fit 3 seats across.
Our baby is in the middle with the Chicco Keyfit baby seat with the base. It actually is cut just right to leave my older kids space to buckle their belts our old baby seat did not work at all and this is the only seat out there as of 5 mos ago that worked. Â My other 2 ages 3 and 5 sit in the Graco booster seat. (It has the back part which they will eventually grow out of and just have the bottom booster part. It also has cup holders.
I love the Chicco seat it is cozy and my baby loves it as well. It also has a high safety rating. The Graco seats work well too I don't know the safety rating but we were in a pretty serious accident previously and my kids were fine.

Hope this helps and congratulations on the new little one.

Jodi