Best place for car seat

[Anonymous]

I just had our car seat inspected in Arlington but my husband came up with a very good question to which I had no good answer. I had installed the car seat behind the front passenger seat and the police officer said everything looked good. My husband's question was, "Isnt it safer to install the car seat in the center of the back pasenger seats so that god forbid we are hit from the side the baby is safely in the center of the car?" Anyone have an answer to this? There are no LATCH bars in the center of the vehicle for the car seat to attach to so I guess its really not an option. BUt does anyone know why you wouldnt attach the baby seat in the center of the car? Thanks

[Anonymous]

i read somewhere that actually the best place for a car seat is behind the driver's side because apparently the driver is always careful not to get hit on their side.
anyhow, the middle is recommended typically for the reason that your husband stated that in case their is an impact from either side the baby is protected.

[Anonymous]

We just did this in Montgomery County and my husband had installed our Graco Snugride in the middle as per the instruction manual. He, too, thought the middle was safest. We were told two things: a) the most common collisions are head on (although i'm sure passenger side crashes are more common than driver side) and b) it would then go on the passenger side b/c it is more important for the driver to be able to adjust his/her seat, but the passenger comfort level is less important.

We are not completely happy with it installed behind the passenger, b/c now no adult could reasonably sit up front (the seat had to be pushed forward to accommodate the seat). However, I have seen this in so many cars.

I look forward to others' input, too. Thanks to the OP for posting this...it's timely for us.

[Anonymous]

We also had installed our carseat in the middle, but when we got it inspected (at a Fairfax county police station) the officer told us it should be on one side or the other since that's where the Latch bars are in our car. So it has always been behind our passenger seat.

[Anonymous]

I just had mine installed in MoCo and the inspector said that the safest place was the middle. That's where he installed it. He told me the same thing about LATCH only being on the sides and that not making any sense. He said he heard that new cars are going to start to come with LATCH in the middle, but I don't think that's happened yet. He showed me how to install the seat using LATCH, but since there is no LATCH for the middle seat, he actually installed the seat not using the LATCH - it CAN be done. Not all cars have LATCH, anyway.

[HrCreuzi]

The middle is safest (check Consumer Reports on their extensive research). Not only do the car seat manufacturers say this, so do car manufacturers.

If you have side impact airbags they can interfere with the car seat.

In a head-on (or rear end) if the car seat was on either side then the force of the adult's seat being jarred back will move the car seat, in the middle it's able to move freely and the force is better distributed.

We looked into this a lot since we have LATCH on either side but not the middle.

[Anonymous]

Just had my car seat installed and inspected. I was told that in general the middle seat is the saftest, but since DH is so tall and the primary driver, the car seat should go behind the passenger side to prevent the car seat from hitting against the driver's seat. I was also told that less than 5% of accidents are side impact, so while putting the seat in the middle is the safest, putting it on the side is going to be fine for 95% of the accidents out there.

[Anonymous]

I was told by my car seat inspector that it's more important to have the car seat in the middle than to have it installed with Latch. Apparently it is just as secure to use the seatbelt if you do it correctly. The only advantage to Latch is that it's a little more user friendly. But if you get a professional installer to show you how to use the seat belt (and if you have a top tether) I think you're just as safe as using Latch. Anyway, that's what my installer said.

[Anonymous]

I have latch on both sides of the car. So I used the inside latch bars from each side to install it in the middle, if that makes sense. We had it checked by Fairfax County Police and they said it was fine.

[Anonymous]

We are getting ready to install our first carseat as well. PP, we were planning to do the same as you - use the inside latch bars from each side to install the seat in the middle. My DH is 6'4" so we are worried about him being able to sit in either front seat if the seat was on one of the sides.

However, I was wondering. Does having the car seat base in the middle make it a lot harder to get the seat in/out of the car? I am 5'5" and regrettably not very strong. I'm worried about having to lift the seat & baby not just up into the car, but over into the middle seat.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

It is harder, and there's less room for a single back-seat passenger, but not that bad. I'm barely over five feet and I do okay.

[Anonymous]

To the last two PP's- I'm the PP who posted on 1/18 at 20:33. We also have the LATCH bars on either side of our car, and had done what you did-- used the inside latch bars from each side to install it in the middle. I'm surprised a Fairfax police officer said it was OK for you, b/c our Fairfax police officer told us this was NOT ok and should move it to one side or the other. Which is why ours is on the passenger side now.

[Anonymous]

The Safe Kids person at Children's Hospital (where they do carseat checks for free) has us install the infant seat it in the middle using the belt, which -- as noted by a previous poster -- is just as safe as using LATCH, just not as easy. In terms of crawling across the seat to reach the baby, it's not bad. We have an SUV, which I think makes it easier because the seat is higher up. We did finally move the seat to behind the passenger seat about 5 mos. into my second pregnancy, because it was difficult getting a toddler in & out of that middle seat while pregnant.

[Anonymous]

Update - I am the PP from 12:38 on 1/22.

Just got back from having our Graco Snugride installed in our car (Hyundai Santa Fe SUV) and here is what the Loudoun Fire Dept. had to say:

1. The MOST important thing is proper installation, which is more important than the position of the car seat in the back seat.

2. I was hoping to get a middle seat install, even though it would require using seatbelts not LATCH (just as an aside, they said seatbelt install is AS SAFE as LATCH, as long as its tightened correctly. Its just EASIER to get a correct install with LATCH.) However, my DH is 6'4 and when he drives the driver seat must be all the way back. This ruled out both the driver side and the middle, since NO PART of the infant seat can be touching either of the front seats for a correct install. Remember that the handle and sunshade must be pushed all the way back in the car.

3. So sort of by default we ended up with a passenger side installation, which they insisted was perfectly safe, reiterating again that the most important thing was a proper install.

They also explained the harness, chest clips, etc. to me. They checked our seat for recalls and overall just could not have been nicer/friendlier. The whole thing took about 15 minutes (They do their installs by appt.)

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hijack this post but I am scheduled my installation/inspection now -- my question to the previous posters is did you attempt this one your own first or did they do it for you and tell you how to do it?