Anyone had to do this?

Just wondering what y'all came up with. I don't see how you'd get a kid in a rear facing third row seat without having to crawl back there and I'm not sure my wife would be able to reach a middle seat if they are three on a row.

Our oldest is three but he's on the small side and recommendations now are to keep them rear facing for as long as possible. We also have one year old twins.

We have a Kia Carnival and we're looking at options for a second car that can hold everyone but trying to figure out what our best plan for the car seat situation is until our oldest is ready to go forward facing.

turn him around and as for vehicles, your best bet is a minivan with 2 captains chairs in the 2nd row allowing easy access to the rear.

How small is the 3 year old? I feel like our 3 year old has been facing forward for at least a year....

Pretty sure they make car seats that rotate/swivel now. I see the practicality of them, but your situation of having 3 in a row could make space an issue for swiveling....no idea space requirements of the seats. But I'd imagine even if it will swivel, your kids legs sticking out would hamper it....

We fit one forward facing seat and two rear facing seats in the back seat of a Nissan Sentra. Short term only until we got a Sienna minivan. She didn't want an SUV at that point due to the third row being a problem with the car seats.

I mean if it were up to me we'd put him forward facing but my wife's been reading/watching all of the "car mom" types that heavily recommend keeping them backward facing until they size out of the seat so I'm going to lose that fight unless there's just no way we can make it work.

And we do have one of the swiveling ones now, it's great, but not sure that helps us any here.

Should also add this hasn't been a problem with them in their clickable car seats, but it's time to move them up to an actual car seat.

Get off the poor woman!

Dude, you're in a Carnival, that's what they're made for (we have one).

Fold your 3rd row flat. Slide the middle 2nd row right up next to the console, and then slide the outboards back. Or, slide the outboards up, and the 2nd row middle back. This is how we have it set up. You can reach 2 kids from either door.

Not adding much, but I rode backwards until I was 12.

Does your 3 year old not buckled him/herself?

We swapped our 3 year old to forward facing right around her third birthday because she's huge for her size and that's as long as we could fight her on it.

I would think you'd be able to get any of the "3 across" brands like Diono, and just shove the oldest into the middle seat, let them buckle up, tighten it, and then get the little ones into the outer seats.

We have monstrous Graco all in ones for the 2 oldest and still use the click ins for the newbie and make it work in my smallish fleet Ford Edge. It's a lot easier in the Land Cruiser and Tundra.

The debate of putting the oldest forward facing is for you and your wife. my wife was in the rear facing camp until too tall for rear facing. we made it quite a while.

I only have two kids but i have researched some of this in case we wanted a third. If you have to do 3 rear facing I'd suggest something along the lines of a ford expedition with bench seat second row. can probably accommodate regular car seats but Clek makes some narrow ones that are good. Once the oldest is ready, you can flip one of the 3 forward and keep in the middle row or move them to the back row.

https://clekinc.com/collections/convertible-seats

Now, I am not sure of the logistics of actually getting a kid into the middle seat unless they have the capability of helping out.

We have 2 Diono and can still fit an adult in the 3rd seat. They are a slim design.

3 of these work well


https://www.amazon.com/Diono-Radian-Convertible-Design-Across/dp/B083F5P7VP/ref=asc_df_B083F5P7VP&mcid=6288c8187bdd36dab5b9e5a3bbb22848?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80333160053922&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=m&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583932707041997&psc=1

I did three across in wife's Lexus rx350. 5/3/newborn. Skinny car seats, 1 backwards and 2 forwards.

Large suv (expedition, Tahoe, Yukon) or half ton pickup. Used expeditions seem to be the better value out of that bunch.

Have her fumble with three rear facing for a while and then just switch the oldest to forward facing. She'll ***** at you for a day or two and will relent. Did the same with my wife. The convenience will win out. Ridiculous that "they" recommend rear facing for as long as possible. The child safety lobby is strong!

According to "them" they would have our 10 year old in a booster. Anyhow, rant over.

I don't know how you'd manage with 3 in car seats.

When we had two in car seats, we had to graduate from the Grand Cherokee to the Expedition.

My wife didn't like having to Tetris all of the child equipment (playpen, stroller) in the back of the Grand Cherokee. Just being able to throw all the stuff in the back of the Expedition was much easier for her. The Expedition turns 25 next month.

mosdefn14 said:

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Dude, you're in a Carnival, that's what they're made for (we have one).

Fold your 3rd row flat. Slide the middle 2nd row right up next to the console, and then slide the outboards back. Or, slide the outboards up, and the 2nd row middle back. This is how we have it set up. You can reach 2 kids from either door.

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We were thinking something like this for the Carnival, just haven't tried it yet because we took out the middle seat on the second row. Good to know it worked though.

Thanks for the suggestions, I've been searching for used cars for a while so just looking for ideas and seeing what other folks did. We currently have a Rav4 but you can't put three across in it so I've been looking at used cars and just trying to get other people's experiences based on what they've driven.

The reliability of the Atlas makes me nervous, but I've been eyeing some Expeditions. Once the older one goes forward facing it gets a lot easier because then the third row seats are back in play.

As others have posted, Diono makes narrow car seats.

This is the one in my truck:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09TW9QDJB/

Doesn't take up much room at all. I did add their base pad so the seat sits more vertical. This means it doesn't impede the front seats and it lets my son look out the back side windows.

Yeah we're definitely going to have to get some new car seats for whatever car we get, thanks for the recommendations on these.

The three year-old is getting close to be able to buck himself in (though he also likes trying to unbuckle himself...) so that could help with the middle seat situation.

Diono says their seats fit 3 across in most vehicles. I've personally seen them in a Tesla M3, so they may fit in a Rav4 as well. Unless you're using this as an excuse to ditch the Rav4.

I cant imagine having a 3 year old in rear facing seats. In pretty sure every single one if my kids was forward facing at early 2. I dont think I'd still be married if my wife was that over the top. Not because this issue but because I'm certain it would manifest itself elsewhere as well. Ops tolerance for car seat annoyance must be sky high.

Only 2, but...

No, the mid 2010's Rav4's have a seatbelt crossover issue that prevents you from putting three across even if you have car seats that fit.

bobinator said:

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No, the mid 2010's Rav4's have a seatbelt crossover issue that prevents you from putting three across even if you have car seats that fit.

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10-4, just skimmed an article about that. New car for you!