Infant Child Seat Size...parents experience needed!

Baby on the way end of March, so we bought a car seat.

Huge problem: The car seat takes up so much room, that the front seats have to be slid forward nearly as far as they'll go. This makes it impossible for me to drive (I'm 6'3"), and virtually impossible to sit in the passenger seat.

And that's in the center, if we ever have another and need to put in two car seats (to the sides) we're screwed. The Seats have to literally be moved as far forward as they'll go...meaning neither my wife or I will be able to drive the vehicle. WTF!

So we're about to take the car seat back..but looking online it seems like *all* car seats are essentially this same size within a half inch or so.

Am I overlooking some magical cache of child seats that fit in the liberty we are overlooking?

What have you other parents with infants done?

I used the standard, rear-facing, permanent-base removable carrier Graco for my kids when they were babies. My wife had to be scooted up about half way. Once we had our second kid, my 2 year old was in a forward facing car seat that freed up a lot of room. She could fit behind me, and the new baby went behind the wife. I have to sit within 2 clicks of the rearmost position too.

For a short time they were both in relatively small forward facing seats and we were both happy with more room.

Now I have to have one of the huge Britax Frontiers for my older daughter, as she's too big for the standard seats but I don't want her to be in a booster yet as she's not even 4. It is a very thick and sturdy seat, and she has to go behind the wife again, with the wife scooted forward about 4 notches. By the time my baby is in that seat, my eldest daughter should be in a booster, about 6 years old.

My advice for the KJ is to realize that the middle with a big carseat is a losing battle. While you have one, put them rear facing on the passenger side, and then once forward facing put them in the middle again. Once you have 2, the rear facing seat will go on the passenger and the forward on the drivers. It will be highly unlikely to have one in the middle with 2 in there, but some of the narrower seats might work.

In general though, the KJ back seat is very small if the front seat occupants like to sit back much. My seats all fit MUCH better in my wife's concorde. We usually take it unless the weather is bad. I either drive one or two kids otherwise, but if the wife goes we usually take the concorde.

This should be broadcast to all parents with KJs out there so they can report back with pictures, combinations, etc..

Regarding the placement of the seat, I always thought that the recommendation/requirement was that seat should go right at the center of rear seats, face backwards until certain age/weight.

middle is safest. It has nothing to do with weight or age, but distance from impact. I don't know of any requirements that the seat be in the middle.

We had the Graco bucket type for the first 6 months, on the passenger side. Then the rear facing convertible for the next 6 months, then at 1 year they get flipped around & problem is over, until you start again.

Believe me, car seat placement will be one of the small changes in your life... & one of the few that goes away in a year!

Three kids here... I feel your pain... Big time...

We had a Montana minivan and even in that the seat arrangement was a PITA, they just don't make those rear facing seats convenient for most vehicles.

Ok a word on the middle versus the side, yes impact is the factor. So the middle is the safest and we did that for a while, then we gave up on it, no it wasn't the seat thing it was the fact that every time you go to get in or out your reaching over to the middle of the vehicle, just becomes a serious pain, and of course nearly impossible for my wife at first due to healing up from the birth having to lean in that far, etc..

Get a rear facing seat with a removable base, most of them are now but there is a few traditional ones yet. The base gets belted down using the LATCH system belt to the metal loops built into the rear seat... THANK GOD FOR THAT, when our first was born it was fighting the seat belt and those metal clips that hold the belt in place, etc... What a pain.. Now both vehicles we own have the latch system, 02 PT, 03 KJ, and its a great convenience.

You just have to suffer through it a bit then you go forward facing with the kiddo in the middle so its easier to interact, plus he/she can see you and whats going on and it keeps them more content. Eventually you move to a more traditional forward facing toddler seat and then options abound.... And then to the seat belt booster, and finally out. Law here in MN says 8 years until no booster, regardless of size or weight, age must be 8. So my oldest just got out of his booster back in July, the next down he is on a seat belt booster, and the youngest he is in a forward facing toddler seat. All three fit nicely in the back of the KJ and even the PT.

Congrats by the way!!

We've got the same problem. The little one's still small enough to be rear facing, and with both our Chicco KeyFit and the new Britax Boulevard the passenger seat has to be nearly at the front position. I keep the child seat behind the passenger seat because it helps with quick visibility - if I have to take my eyes off the road I don't want it to be for too long - and I'm not as worried about a right side impact as I would be of a left side. (Yes, that sounds weird... but the idea is that if I get hit on the right side that means I screwed up where the left side is more likely someone running a red and will be much more violent)

If it's any consolation, we've got the same problem in my girlfriend's Explorer, so it's a pretty universal situation. Once we can move to front-facing it'll save a lot of grief... but it was said up above, it's only a problem for about 18 months.

I will try to get the names off of the seats we have
1 is an infant seat the other is a 6 months +
I know the newer 1 was bought because it fit in the back seat of the TJ
The older 1 would fit but it was tight
Both had lots of room in the KJ

Put it like this when my daughter was 6 months old and still in the infant seat we took
a 1500+ mile trip with me my wife my mother and daughter + all of our stuff

Man, do I feel old. When our sons were brought home from the hospital, the nurses just plopped them on my wife's lap in the front passenger's seat. From there we graduated to a small basket shaped thingee that was just placed in the back seat. Finally we graduated to a car seat that just slid over the back of the seat. All these were extremely dangerous, but standard procedure for "good" parenting. Fast forward to today and our grandsons. Now we have all the safety regalia which is a pain (but worth it) with the rear facing seat, and fine with the front facing one.

Sorry I'm not really helping with your dilemna, but Congrats on the new addition!

Bruce

For our littlest one, she is in a Chicco bucket system that fits in the passenger side better due to the fact that the front passenger seat has to be pushed mostly (not all the way) to front position. Our 2 year old is in a front facing unit, Graco I think, behind the driver, this set up works well for us as I am 6'2" and the lady is 5'4". In the back there is about 6-8" of space between the child seats, a grocery bag fits nicely or the diaper bag but definately not a person.

Wow, I should have re-read my initial post...talk about grammar failure. Thanks for responses so far. We put the seat in the center. I don't think my wife will go for it being on the sides for now (I would prefer this so we can take it out easily using LATCH system). We're going to see if babie's r' us will let us take a couple of the sample units out to he car to compare the fit today. When we picked the seat out the problem of fitting in the vehicle never even crossed our minds.

indieaz said:

Wow, I should have re-read my initial post...talk about grammar failure. Thanks for responses so far. We put the seat in the center. I don't think my wife will go for it being on the sides for now (I would prefer this so we can take it out easily using LATCH system). We're going to see if babie's r' us will let us take a couple of the sample units out to he car to compare the fit today. When we picked the seat out the problem of fitting in the vehicle never even crossed our minds.

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Yes it is true everyone recommends middle seat for the safest spot, and they recommend rear facing for as long as possible. I've even seen seats that rear face until like 45 lbs!!!

The problem is, in the real world, sometimes these just aren't feasible. Getting little arms into the straps in the middle position on a lifted KJ for example.

Babies R Us or Buy Buy Baby will let you take them out to your car for a fitting. They better, some of them run well over $200....

My Frontier was on sale for $250
We kept my daughters rear facing for about 1 year. At that point they were hell on wheels and very tall and strong. I think plenty big enough to be front facing.

Once you have two, you'll have to find very thin seats to put one in the middle and one on the side. I pity anyone with 3 carseats in the back of a KJ...

Babies R Us or Buy Buy Baby will let you take them out to your car for a fitment. They better because some of them are really expensive, take for example my Frontier, which although it will allow my daughter to remain in a 5-point harness until 80 lbs (I'm guessing 6 yrs old ) it cost about $250 plus tax on sale.

Personally I think a 5 point harness, head padding and support, and sides are as important or more important than middle/side placement. All of the rules say to put my daughter in a booster due to height and weight, and there is no way I'm letting a rambunctious 3 year old do that. I like having them tied down

They should make a car seat just for Jeep Liberty....I think it would be cool.

Here is my 2 cents!

We just had twins last November. I got my KJ in December. We have two latch in seats and have expierienced the same problem. I am 6'3" as well. So this is what we did. We duct taped our smallest to the roof rack. Then the other we bought a baby bjorn and strapped it to the spare and went about our way. It is a great way to save some space for tools and such!

Just kidding. We actually scoot the seats all the way forward. Latch the seats in. Then I scoot my seat back. As it goes back it catches the top lip of the seat that hits the KJ seat. I just lift it up and put it between the seat and the headrest. Never have an uncomfortable ride anymore. It can be a pain to scoot it forward to get them in....then back eachand everytime. But it does give you the leg room you need.

First off, congrats on the upcoming baby!! We also used the Graco setup with the permanent base latched to the rear seat, and removable bucket to carry the baby in. We kept that for a year, then our kids graduated to the front facing seat which is much easier. We didn't have any issues with the seating because I'm 5'3" and my wife is only 5', but we did use the side mounts for the kids and not the center position - we're too short to reach the middle of the seat in a KJ comfortably from the outside!

well i drive sitting up anyways and foward(trailer pulling) so i think i could have a baby with the KJ

brucebotti said:

Man, do I feel old. When our sons were brought home from the hospital, the nurses just plopped them on my wife's lap in the front passenger's seat. From there we graduated to a small basket shaped thingee that was just placed in the back seat. Finally we graduated to a car seat that just slid over the back of the seat. All these were extremely dangerous, but standard procedure for "good" parenting. Fast forward to today and our grandsons. Now we have all the safety regalia which is a pain (but worth it) with the rear facing seat, and fine with the front facing one.

Sorry I'm not really helping with your dilemna, but Congrats on the new addition!

Bruce

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When i was a kid we hardly ever got belted in, well because most of the vehicles my parents owned didn't have seat belts or they were buried under the seats or didn't work, etc... It was a different world back then. I remember riding up in the package tray in the back window of the land barge (large car for the younger folks) we used to have for a family car and watching the traffic go by.. Any others on here do that as a kid? Seems like it was the thing to do back then. And then when your dad, or mom, hit the brakes you had to hold onto the speakers so you dont flip and roll back down into the seat... LMAO...

Now i feel old too..

LAMO yes that was diff times and i wish they would go back!

When I was a kid, my mom's arm was my seat belt...

I had an Explorer Sport when my kid was born, that was a ***** trying to get her in and out using only 1 door and moving the seat forward. I bought the KJ because of the 2 other doors. She is in a booster now and sits on the passenger side and luckily my wife and myself are on the short end of the height spectrum. If it is a big deal for you I would avoid taking the KJ when the 3 of you go out. We never took my Explorer, but that also had a lot to do with the Cherry Bomb glass packs, but still. You can look around for smaller infant only carriers but then you'll be buying another when she out grows that and then another after that. The convertible seats are rather big too. I noticed the middle of the rear is not really ideal for anyone, regardless of age, if they intend on using the seat belt. Car seat alone, it's not so bad. I'm rambling and making no sense at all. Good luck on the new arrivial (God bless if that's your sort of thing) and good luck on the search.

Ditto on Boiler's post.

We had a graco rear-facing seat when my daughter was an infant, and I don't recall any space issues. Are you saying that you have to slide your drivers or passenger seat all the way back to be comfortable? I believe that if the passenger does that in my KJ, then my daughter (who's now 8 and sits in a 'booster' seat) will feel her legs pinched a bit. I am just a hair short of 6'3" but I have the advantage of being short-legged/long bodied, so I don't have to push my seats all the way back.

My main complaint with the KJ is width. But as long as you keep your offspring to two or less, you should be fine. However, when you have to jam 3 car seats in the back, good effing luck getting all three kids back there and not uttering any streams of four-letter words while trying to get all three seatbelts snapped in. Luckily this only happens when I drive my daughter, nephew and niece around.