Any single time I share a photo or video in our family car I am flooded with two of the same questions
1. What car do you drive
2. what car seats do you have to fit three

It seems to be that a huge deciding factor in having baby number three is the car/car seat situation! Having to upgrade your whole vehicle to fit another child in can be expensive and it was definitely something we didn’t want to do right before having a baby, so we didn’t. Instead we did our research, we reached out to car seat companies asking for advice, we checked in with out local baby bunting, we did mock car seat installations to see what seats would fit best, we did the work!
Our car is a Hyundai Tuscon sport, it’s classed as a Medium SUV, not the roomiest of cars once you chuck in a third seat so we knew we had our work cut out for us.

All of our car seats are INFASECURE brand
Levi & Bowie both use the Infasecure Achieve Premium . Achieve Premium is the next evolution of Infasecures groundbreaking Birth to Eight Years Type A4/G Convertible Car Seat. It allows for Extended Rearward Facing up to a large 30-month-old, and Forward Facing with an internal harness to a large 8-year-old. Offering the absolute best practice safety to a child through all stages of their development, it’s the only restraint you’ll ever need.

Goldie sits in the Infascure Attain Premium .Attain Premium takes all of the incredible Premium Range features and packages them up into their slimmest child restraint. With Extended Rearward Facing to 30 months, and Forward Facing to a large 4-year-old, it’s a very little child restraint, but a very big deal. Measuring an incredibly narrow 420mm approx. across at its widest point in both Rearward and Forward Facing modes, Attain is the narrowest child restraint with an in-built harness on the market to date. Not only is it narrow across, but it also features an ultra-compact Rearward Facing depth, which is great for smaller vehicles (or taller front seat travellers!).

So these are the three seats we have across that back, is it a tight squeeze? Yes, but most people who need to fit 3+ seats in their car know that it’s inevitable but as long as they’re installed correctly.. being close together isn’t so bad!
I have teamed up with Infasecure to share their top tips, tricks and products on fitting three across the back, trying to fit three across can be a stressful ordeal, but with these tips it doesn’t have to be!

TIP 1. Start with the middle restraint.

You want to install the middle restraint first, as it will determine how much space you have on the sides, and it’s easier to install the side restraints last.

TIP 2. Use a rear facing restraint in the middle position.

While it’s nice to be able to have the rear facing restraint on the side for your convenience and comfort, often times you’ll find having two forward facing restraints next to each other will sit awkwardly, or not fit at all. We were lucky enough to fit our rearward facing restraint on the side, but if we had to choose between having it in the middle or a new vehicle, we’d have picked the middle!

TIP 3. It’s ok if your tether straps aren’t quite straight.

If you have to push your restraints over a little to get that last one in, and you find your top tether strap is now at a slight diagonal angle, that’s ok. In fact, the ADR for motor vehicles allows car manufacturers to place anchor points up to 40 degrees offset from the centre of the seating position, so in some vehicles you could potentially see this behaviour with only one or two restraints.

TIP 4. It’s ok if your restraints touch the doors.

If your child restraints contact the doors, that’s ok. Being hard up against the door can actually have some benefits in relation to the reduction of momentum in a side impact accident, and…

TIP 5. Don’t worry about rear side curtain air bags.

If your restraint is against the door, and your vehicle is equipped with rear side curtain air bags, it’s easy to feel like there could be an issue there – however, while the restraint could potentially interfere with the operation of the rear side curtain air bags, all child restraints sold in Australia must demonstrate side impact protection by themselves. The Australian Standard’s side impact protection requirements are the most stringent in the world, so you can rest assured that your child is protected, side curtain air bag or not.

TIP 6. Measure your back seat.

You want to measure across from the top of the windows (to match against the top of the restraints, often the widest part), from the door arm rests (to match against the restraint armrests) and the actual back seat (to ensure you can physically sit three restraints across it).

TIP 7. Choose the right restraints.

Infasecure feature all of their child restraint dimensions on their product pages within their website, so you can make informed decisions before you buy. They offer a number of narrow child restraints that can make the three across problem easier for you to solve.

Fitting 3 across the back seat can be a real challenge. Sometimes, nothing will work and the only option will be to look at buying a new, larger vehicle. But with a little homework, some child restraint juggling and the right restraints, you might be able to avoid that particular path (at least until number four comes along!).

Click here for a list of three across the back products

AND FOR A LIMITED TIME. You can use the code THREESCOMPANY and recieve $170 off the Attain Premium for the first 20 Users ONLY!

YOU’RE WELCOME

Love Jessiika  x