Rear Facing on the side VS Front Facing in the middle

Unregistered · Dec 9, 2010

Which is safer? My son is 15 months and 24 lbs. My husband is 6'6", which requires the driver seat to be pushed all the way back so he has enough leg room. This makes it impossible to have our Britax Boulevard rear facing in the middle seat.

This leaves me with 2 options for the car seat:

1. Rear facing directly behind the passenger seat (side of the car)
2. Front facing in the middle seat

Which is recommended? Or is there another position that's better?

Thanks.

wendytthomas · Dec 9, 2010

Rear facing on the side any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Rear facing offers an advantage of up to 500% at his age. The middle offers a 30% advantage. So 16x safer to be rear facing outboard than forward facing in the middle.

Also, at your son's age you don't need a 45 degree angle. He can sit as upright as 30º. If you haven't tried that yet in the middle, give it a go. That may get him back there even behind your husband.

What car and year is it? It's quite possible that you can shove the two seats together in the driver's side. That's called bracing, and Britax allows it. So install your son's seat upright in the middle, then move your husband's seat back. See if that works. If it starts to push the Boulevard up it's not working, and also if your husband can't fit in. But that may be an option.

Wendy

jess71903 · Dec 9, 2010

:yeahthat:. Rear facing is safer in any position than forward facing, especially for a 15 month old.

bobandjess99 · Dec 9, 2010

Yesd to what Wendy said..a serious increased magnitude of safety for rearfacing.

Carrie_R · Dec 9, 2010

Another one saying rear-facing outboard is much safer for a child that age. (Although I do have to dispute Wendy's 16x, I think some math got messed up somewhere with that. But the 30% reduction in safety by moving from center to outboard is by far outweighed by the 500% increase from rearfacing. In fact, since I believe the stat is actually 5.32x or 532%, you're still netting around 500%

)

Give it a shot to put the seat more upright, but if it still doesn't fit, then I would move it outboard (RFing) and not think twice about it.

wendytthomas · Dec 9, 2010

I did 500%/30%=16.67.

Laine is outboard rear facing in my car. She has been since she was born. It's so safe it never occurred to me to get a seat that would fit in the middle next to Piper's booster. Or to replace both seats so they could sit next to one another. I knew she'd be just fine behind me, so that's what I did.

Wendy

Kat_Momof3 · Dec 9, 2010

rearfacing... no matter what position over ff anytime any day any seat (as long as the child fits it and it is installed and used properly, of course)... crash forces are distributed better rf, and there is always more side protection in any harnessed seat.

I think somewhere around age 3, it probably starts merging into less difference as the head is not as large in proportion and the spine begins to solidify... but even so, I'd pick rearfacing.

Unregistered · Dec 10, 2010

Thanks for the replies!

I have never heard of bracing before. I tried to run a Google search on it but couldn’t find a clear “how-to” on this. Can anyone provide more information and step-by-step instructions, or direct me to a link? Can you brace a carseat that’s in the middle position, or only directly behind either the driver or passenger seat? So in my case where my husband, as driver, is the only front seat that needs to be all the way back, can I put the car seat in the middle, and brace only partially with the driver seat?

Is it safer to brace, even if it’s not necessary in order to install the seat correctly?

Oh, so many questions!

My car is a 2008 Sequoia and a 2007 Toyota Camry – can I do bracing in either of these vehicles.

Oh, one more question: is it safer to outboard behind the driver or passenger, or does it make a difference? (I feel so smart using the term “outboard”!

)

wendytthomas · Dec 10, 2010

Bracing is as I described above. Where you shove the carseat against the front seat, basically. I don't know if it's safer, but Britax allows it. It's useful when you have three inches to work with, like you do.

You can likely brace against your driver's seat, but not the passenger. So try the seat in the middle, braced against the driver's seat (so move the driver's seat up, install the Boulevard very upright, then push the driver's seat back). If that doesn't work, put it behind the passenger, though it cannot touch the passenger seat.

Check the airbag section of both car's manuals to see if there are driver's side restrictions on pushing or touching. There probably will be on the passenger's seat (the two seats have different sensors in them).

Either side is fine. Whichever works better for you guys.

Wendy

Rear Facing on the side VS Front Facing in the middle

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