Safest positions for 2 carseats?

Hi. We have a Suburban which has a middle and a back row seat. My husband thinks it is very unpractical to install one seat in each row (newborn in 2 months and a 2 year old). Currently the 2 yo is in the middle row, middle seat. I have read that a rear facing seat offers more side protection and should actually be the one by the window if we're going to put them next to each other. So, we'd keep the toddler in the middle. This goes against what I was going to do (put the newborn in the middle/toddler by window). We've already checked and they do fit in this configuration. Any opinions or personal situations you can share? Has anyone put one child in each row?

Thanks,
Jennifer

Hi Jennifer.

Yes, assuming you can get a good install for both seats (moves less than 1" when you tug on the seat at the belt path), it is safer for the rear-facing seat to go outboard. I would also base my decision on where to put the toddler on where there are tether anchors.

From a practical standpoint, I think it would be very difficult and time consuming to put one child in each row in the center spot. I think it's easiest to stand on the outside of the vehicle to put a rear-facing child in her seat. I'm pretty lazy, so I'm always looking for the safest, but easiest, ways to do things .

i have never owned a sub or a van but i have had lots of experience with them (family). although i'm a stickler for safety and would overspend my budget to satisfy my carseat addiction (LOL) and i would also go out of my way convenience-wise to have the perfect seating configuration, i don't think i'd go so far as to have two center seatings in a sub. getting to the 3rd row in a sub is an entirely different thing than doing it in a minivan!

if i were in your situation i would probably keep them in the center row and put one outboard.

when my kids were in a combination and infant seats, i had the infant seat on the outside. i was a little leery of having the tiny baby on the outside but they do lay back into those side wings a lot better than an older toddler does. later on when i had my baby in a rearfacing convertible seat, he stayed on the outside because his conv seat still had deeper sidewings than my older toddler's combo seat.

now that i have a husky (HUGE seat) for my older child, they both ride outboard because there isn't room for the two seats to be side by side anymore.

there is a school of thought that the sidewing advantage is so small as to not make any difference. but from a common sense perspective and some knowledge of crash dynamics, it does seem that a reafacing seat would have a slight advantage over the forward facing one, again, especially in a small baby who lays back in the sidewings. of course, it all depends on chance and the exact point of impact in a crash.

some parents find that they cannot have their children side by side at all because they tend to pick on each other. so in that situation they both end up outboard.

i have an 18 month old and a 3.5 yo and if they were side by side now, the baby would pick on my older toddler ALL the time LOL instead of the other way around.

congrats on the little one coming! siblings are a true joy.