Using A Britax Two Way Elite in a Ford Focus with a two year old

I’ve written on the subject of rear facing using our Britax Two Way Elite twice before. Once, when Arlo was a mere baby at 15 months old, and once when he was  22 months.

He is now two and a half, and this is how we use our Britax Two Way Elite in a Ford Focus:

Ignore the dangling excess from the tether strap, Arlo must have grabbed it and I forgot to move it out of the way before I took these photos.

We now have the ‘foot’ of the Britax Two Way Elite seat out, doing so has shuffled the Two Way Elite base towards the edge of the seat and given Arlo a lot more room for his growing legs. In the end, there was no problem with the seatbelt being too short to acheive this, as feared in my last post. The downside to this position is that the passenger seat in front has had to move forward slightly or Arlo’s seat would have been too upright. So once again Sam has less leg room in the front, but his room is not quite as restricted as it was when we first installed the seat in quite a reclined position.

Arlo is still happy and comfortable rear facing. He has recently tried out forward facing car seats in his grandparents’ cars, and has shown no preference for forward facing over rear facing. He gets an excellent view out of the sides and back of the car (probably better than he would if he were forward facing as the passenger seat would obstruct his view quite a bit), and he is always chatting to me about what he can see on the road. It’s very easy to pass him things from the front seat if needs be, and although I can usually only see the back of his head, it’s very easy to tell if he has fallen asleep. Rear facing with a toddler is in many ways easier than with a baby – as Arlo is completely verbal, I feel less of a need to be able to ‘see’ him at all times because he’s always chatting away to me and he can let me know if there is a problem or something bothering him.