If sharing the Nautilus what to do about head rest and straps

[mommyto4kiddos]

My 5 year old and 3 year old both fit in it. So I just had set it on the top like I have done with other seats and figured both could ride in it.

But I read a few days ago, on the side of the headrest, headrest must be next to the head. I moved it down for a ride today, but it covers the top part of the straps. Is it ok?

[TerisBoys]

Headrest must be next to the head in BOOSTER mode.

As a harnessed seat it needs to be right above the harness.

[Mom2One]

Headrest must be next to the head in BOOSTER mode.

As a harnessed seat it needs to be right above the harness.

Are the two kids far enough apart in torso height that they need to use different harness slots? I think that it what the OP was saying, when she adjusts the headrest to accommodate the smaller child it ends up being on top of the harness. So the smaller child would possibly need the harness moved down a slot?

[bobandjess99]

no, sorry, you can not share it that way. If they need different harness slots, you will need to rethread the harness for each child. I'm a little curious..do you not usually take both kids with you at once? Why is it you are having them "share" the seat?

but anyway..NO, you may not cover the straps. In many carseats, you can "share" a seat, and let 2 kids ride in it and just let the smaller child to have the straps coming from higher up and that is allowed. It is not allowed on the nauti, because you have to adjust the headrest to match the strap height, and graco has said that covering the straps is NOT acceptable, so you will need to rethread the straps down when your 3 yr old needs the seat, so that you can adjust the headrest down. Unless this is something you will need to do very infrequently, I think you will probably want to come up with a different solution, rather than have them "share" the seat.

[Mom2One]

Thats what I was thinking the OP was trying to say.

I agree with the pp, you probably need to find another solution to sharing the seat because the headrest cannot cover the straps. It would be a PAIN to rethread every time unless the sharing was only an occasional thing.

[Mommypooh]

Well that makes ruins my plan. What seat can be shared like that. I need a HWH and would like it to convert to a good booster.

[mburks26]

the Britax Frontier or Apex one are the only other higher weight seat that conver to a booster.

[TerisBoys]

Well that makes ruins my plan. What seat can be shared like that. I need a HWH and would like it to convert to a good booster.

What about putting DC 2 in the Nauti in your main vehicle, and his Boulevard in the secondary car? (Assuming DC 1 still fits)

[singingpond]

Headrest must be next to the head in BOOSTER mode.

As a harnessed seat it needs to be right above the harness.

If this is correct, and headrest only has to be next to the head when in booster mode, then is there really a problem with the OP's situation? Why not just leave the headrest right above the harness, and let either child ride in it that way (yes, the headrest would be kind of high for the shorter child)? I thought that was what OP was doing, until she read the label on the headrest which triggered this whole discussion.....

Those who are saying that the Nautilus cannot be shared in this way, does the manual say anything that contradicts this configuration in harnessed mode (i.e. headrest properly positioned w.r.to harness, but higher than necessary for the child in the seat)? I'll have to go to the Graco site and look at the manual again myself, and also look at some of the other threads around here with photos of kids in the Nautilus.

I'm curious, since I had been thinking of getting a Nautilus, and probably using it sometimes this way (sharing between my sons, without repositioning straps) in one of our vehicles, or occasionally in a grandparent's vehicle.

Katrin

[mish]

I really think it would depend on the size difference between the kids. If their torsos were quite a bit different, it might not be possible. If they are similar, it would probably be fine. You just don't want one kid to ride in it with the straps way up by their ears. Also, as the headrest has EPS foam, I would want the child's head to be somewhat contained in it. KWIM? I have shared my Nautilus with the neighbor boy who is smaller than my son and it worked out great.

[Mommypooh]

What about putting DC 2 in the Nauti in your main vehicle, and his Boulevard in the secondary car? (Assuming DC 1 still fits)

My oldest is just now too tall for the BV so I can't do that. Plus my Middle child would have nothing to do with losing his BV. I have to get something at least for my oldest. I guess I can still switch seats for my middle child when I need to but I can't move my oldest seat into my husband's van anymore due to no top tethers. I just didn't want to have to keep changing seats, but I guess I will have to.

I need to keep a seat in DH van so that in an pinch he could leave work and pick up DD if I can't make it or have an emergency. So guess I can't find a seat to meet all my needs. I cna't spend another $300 on a seat to only be used maybe once a month and I need it to be a pretty good seat as it has to be up front with no tethers.

[Mom2One]

If this is correct, and headrest only has to be next to the head when in booster mode, then is there really a problem with the OP's situation? Why not just leave the headrest right above the harness, and let either child ride in it that way (yes, the headrest would be kind of high for the shorter child)? I thought that was what OP was doing, until she read the label on the headrest which triggered this whole discussion.....

Those who are saying that the Nautilus cannot be shared in this way, does the manual say anything that contradicts this configuration in harnessed mode (i.e. headrest properly positioned w.r.to harness, but higher than necessary for the child in the seat)? I'll have to go to the Graco site and look at the manual again myself, and also look at some of the other threads around here with photos of kids in the Nautilus.

I'm curious, since I had been thinking of getting a Nautilus, and probably using it sometimes this way (sharing between my sons, without repositioning straps) in one of our vehicles, or occasionally in a grandparent's vehicle.

Katrin

The Nautilus manual states that the headrest must be at the appropriate setting for the child in harnessed mode as well. I don't have my manual in front of me for an exact quote, but there is an illustration showing where it should be.

[mish]

The Nautilus manual states that the headrest must be at the appropriate setting for the child in harnessed mode as well. I don't have my manual in front of me for an exact quote, but there is an illustration showing where it should be.

I agree with this, but when you have to move it up to the next level, and your child is right above the straps you just moved them from, the head rest is not right at their shoulders. There was quite a discussion about this when the Nautilus first come out. When I had to move mine from one set of slots to the next they were quite a bit above Adam's shoulders and the headrest was too high according to the manual. That was the only choice I had though, and others had the same issue. I imagine everyone with this seat will have this problem at some point.

Anyway, my point to that whole thing is that yes, the headrest is supposed to be right at their shoulders, but it isn't always going to be. It is going to depend on where their shoulders are in relation to the slots they are using. Since we know this is ok, I do think kids can share the seat if their torso heights are similar. I wouldn't just put them on the top slots and call it good though. I would want to make sure both of them fit well in the seat.

OP, could you take picuturs of both kids in the seat? That way we could tell you if it looked acceptable.

[Mom2One]

I'm reading the manual AGAIN online and I think I may be remembering wrong. From what I see, there is a pic of the red quides being right above the shoulders in harnessed mode, but no actual words about it. In the booster mode section it says:
"The shoulder belt guides must be even with or just above the shoulders as shown by the dotted line."

[singingpond]

If anyone is interested in continuing this discussion, take a look at the third photo posted at the top of this thread:

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=52280

It's a photo posted by Mommy2Five -- I'll put the direct link here, but will remove it if that isn't kosher:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/jsisler69/SEAT%20STUFF/IMG_0023.jpg

The photo shows a child in the Nautilus with harness at second-from-the-top position. The headrest is higher than it needs to be, so the harness could be in the top position with the headrest as shown. So, the question is whether the headrest looks too high for the child in the photo? If not, then the seat could be shared by two kids who are within one harness position of each other.

What do you think?

Katrin

[BookMama]

I do think the headrest is too high for the child in that picture.

On the seat itself (and in the manual, too, I'm sure, though I don't have time to check it right now) there is an illustration that very clearly shows where the headrest should be in relation to the child's ears. That headrest is far above the illustrated range, and I imagine that the headrest is too high for the OP's 3YO when adjusted for her 5YO.

And, of course, Graco prohibits the headrest from covering any part of the strap.

So, given those two considerations, I would say that this is not an ideal seat for two kids of different sizes to share.

[Mom2One]

I do think the headrest is too high for the child in that picture.

On the seat itself (and in the manual, too, I'm sure, though I don't have time to check it right now) there is an illustration that very clearly shows where the headrest should be in relation to the child's ears. That headrest is far above the illustrated range, and I imagine that the headrest is too high for the OP's 3YO when adjusted for her 5YO.

And, of course, Graco prohibits the headrest from covering any part of the strap.

So, given those two considerations, I would say that this is not an ideal seat for two kids of different sizes to share.

:thumbsup:

I agree that the headrest is MUCH too high in that picture.

[singingpond]

Here's another photo posted by Mommy2Five in that thread, with the headrest at the proper position for the child:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/jsisler69/SEAT%20STUFF/IMG_0025.jpg

Is the headrest down one notch or two notches from the position in the first photo? :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/jsisler69/SEAT%20STUFF/IMG_0023.jpg

I'm not familiar enough with the Nautilus to know how big the increments are on headrest adjustment.

Katrin

[Mom2One]

That looks like 2 notches to me.

[singingpond]

Then maybe one notch difference is OK? That would go along with what Melissa (mish) was pointing out above -- that in normal operation one sometimes has no choice but to have the headrest looking 'too high' for the child, since one is not allowed to cover the straps with the headrest.

So maybe one notch off is OK for sharing, but more than that puts the headrest too high for the smaller child?

Katrin

[BookMama]

There is one headrest notch per harness slot. If you use the headrest notch for a lower slot than where the harness is set, the headrest will cover the harness straps (which is prohibited). So my interpretation is that you must have the headrest at the setting that corresponds with the harness slot you're using, unless that puts the headrest belt guides below the position shown in the illustration.

The headrest will fall in the higher end of the acceptable position when a child moves up to the next slots (this is the case with my DS right now, since I just moved him up to the top slots) but I think that's different than having it more than one notch higher.

:twocents:

[4boysmom]

As a non-tech if that is the higher setting she is using it in it is WAY too high. I would think in a situation like this you are in a situation comparable to "touriva notches" as the belt guides are right in that danger spot it would seem to me.

[singingpond]

As a non-tech if that is the higher setting she is using it in it is WAY too high. I would think in a situation like this you are in a situation comparable to "touriva notches" as the belt guides are right in that danger spot it would seem to me.

I wanted to clarify (since I was linking to someone else's pictures) that she was taking comparison photos of her child in a number of different carseats, in order to compare harness heights. The higher Nautilus headrest position was not an 'in-use' photo -- I just thought it was relevant to the discussion in this thread.

Katrin

[SDMama]

I also have a 5 year old and a three year old and am looking for a seat for my husband's car that both kids could fit in. Only one child is in his car at a time because if both are going, we use my car. He is going to pick up my daughter from school so my son using it would be occasional. I'll just go try both of them in it at the store. Knowing that one slot difference is probably fine to share is good. They are both at the same slot on the Marathon right now, so I'm guessing we are probably fine.