Does Baby Have to Be in the Center?

Hi Robyn, what you really need to do is get a bigger car, I never put my babies next to a door, if you ever get hid from the side, that door is coming in on your child, with my first born we only had a Pontiac Sunbird, small car, so we out our baby in the middle of the back seat and strapped the carseat in using both seat belts, when our second one was born we bought a van and we had are to boys in the middles seat, but the way thevan was made the car seats were not that close to the doors then we we had outr third child our 5 year old sat in the back back but in the middle and the we had a booster seat on one car seat, but always kept them from being to close to the doors. For now I would put the baby in the middle
easy isn't always safest. J.

I'm pretty sure that I read on carseat.org that if you have a toddler and an infant, the safest place for a rear facing infant is on the passenger side. The safest place for a forward facing toddler is in the middle.

Hi Robyn!

Good question! Most carseat makers, Fire Departments, and car manufacturer's will recommend that you put it in the middle seat because it is the safest seat in the vehicle for infants, due to side impacts. Of course, this is their saftey recommendation and you can put the seat wherever you want. It can be a little harder to drag that carseat up and over the toddler seat - I know...I've done it!! Since saftey is your concern here, you should go with your gut feeling.

Congrats on the new addition :)

Safest seat is the middle but like myself I have a van with bucket seats in the middle row. So both of my little ones have sat by the door.

I have my infant car seat on the back passenger side-easier to help if I need to help him. I believe the only issue is if there is side impact airbags and if the carseat is compatible with side impact airbags, and of course there needs to be a working seatbelt.
I can't believe someone told you to get a bigger car, do they plan on paying your gas?

The *safest* seat is the middle, for any child, but if my choice was rear facing in a side or forward facing on a side, I'd put the rear facing to the side. In fact, because it is the most dangerous seat in the car, and rear facing is safer than forward facing, I would put it behind the passenger seat. I know it seems almost cruel to intentionally place the weakest child in the most dangerous position of the car, but in the event of a serious acciedent, the rear facing child has the best chance of the fewest injuries in that position than your forward facing kids.

I would also keep the baby rear facing as long as humanly possible, but when turning forward is ABSOLUTELY NEEDED, I would place the baby in the middle, and the oldest behind the passenger. (Because at that point, the strongest has the greatest chance of fewest injuries.) Hope that helps! ~J.

I have heard that it is the safest for the baby to be in the middle in case of a side impact accident. But if you have three things going on in the back then there is really no choice. I have a car seat that snaps into a car seat base already in my car and works great.