Thoughts on the Nautilus headrest issue

My 6.5 yo is barely using the top slots of the Nautilus. So of course the headrest is quite high, and the red belt guides are way above her shoulders. It doesn't look too bad though, and I feel safe using it. Even if I did try to use the third slots (which I can't because she is def just over them), the belt guides looked like they would touch her shoulders in that position.

My 3.5 yo is close to outgrowing her Triumph, and I had planned on getting her a Nautilus too, so yesterday I tried her out in it while my oldest was at school. She was just barely over the second slots, so I put them on the third set. However, it looked ridiculous. The belt guides were so high, they looked like they were in her face. Of course they weren't, since they are recessed, but I didn't like how it looked at all. I wouldn't want to use the seat like that.

So basically, the smaller the child, the more drastic that diff in headrest positions is going to seem. I know this is not a new speculation, and that there isn't any apparent safety hazard to the belt guides being so high, but has anyone else not wanted to use the Nautilus for a smaller/younger child for that reason? I do NOT want to pay nearly $300 for a Frontier, especially because I love everytning else about the Nautilus, but I prob will if it fits my younger dd better.

Kimberly

I guess I'm a loner on this issue, lol.

I tried my friend's smallish 5yo in Ryan's tonight. He's about 1/2way between the second and third slots (straps in the third) and looked fine.

But yes, any shorter would have been a concern.

Ryan is AT the third slots. I'm not moving them up til he's definately over them.

My ds will be 5yo in 14 days. He is just over the 2nd slots so I had to put it up to the 3rd. The headrest did look better when he was in the 2nd slots but I did not have a choice it had to be moved up. He is very comfortable and does not complain at all. We both love his seat.

I do share your concern. I'm afraid of what would happen is a child's head hit those open guides. The way I see it, it would have similar results as the hole in the side of the Touriva shell.

There are a couple of other threads on this from when the GN first came out and I don't see what the problem is as all the pictures I've seen have not made me think that there is reason to worry. The belt guides are recessed from the headrest. As I understand it the belt guides (in booster seats) are pretty much a pre-crash positioner and if the head were to hit the belt guides, the belt guides would likely just break off.

*Nautilus photos of harness/headwing issue
*Nautilus photos of harness/headwing issue

Some quotes that may help you:

joolsplus3 said:

There wasn't a resolution to that Apex issue (or Evenflo Generations)...I think it just really doesn't matter. It looks bad, perhaps...it doesn't jive with the picture on the side of the seat, for sure, but it's not a safety issue. The headrest really isn't substantial enough to be doing any SIP work the way a Britax headrest is...it's the harness that's going to be doing the work in a side crash. I wouldn't personally worry about it at all if it were my seat and my kid, as long as the harness fits properly, it's perfectly safe. :twocents:

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joolsplus3 said:

...it's just not that big a deal...it's really not... the sticker showing the belt guides at the shoulder is for booster use, so they did overlook that detail, but it's simply not a big deal or they would have redesigned the seat....

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joolsplus3 said:

Here's the manual... pages 15 and 36 show the belt guides right by the head.. http://www.gracobaby.com/assets/pdfs/instructions/ISPC110BB_ISPC125BA.pdf

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joolsplus3 said:

TerisBoys said:

The harness fits properly...

But on Ryan the red slot guides would be at his ears! Isn't that a problem?

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I don't think so... carseats have been doing a great job of protecting heads without EPS for a long time now...(except for those Tourivas with huge/sharp notches at head level...I don't think the red belt guides look anything like those...maybe I can find a picture, they are horrid and have been known to kill one kid )

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Jewels said:

The main concern is how the harness is going to perform in the event of a collision. You don't want the straps below the shoulders so above is the way to go. I most people will have this problem sometime since there isn't a infinate adjust harness (ie EFTA - is that what it's called?) so you have to pick a slot. If he is above the one slot it needs to be moved to the next slot which on many seats is several inches difference so the harness ends up being closer to their chin/ears :twocents:

I'm sure that Graco would have come across this in their testing.

From the pictures i've seen it looks like the booster guides are so big that it looks like it would be hard for the guides not to be close to the ears even when the guides are closest to the shoulders and it doesn't look like they are sticking out.

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The mom that started the threads told me that she installed the GN with the recline and that allowed her to have him in the lower harness slots with the headrest down (for the time being) and that the recline seemed to help things.

Except in the hole on the Touriva there were sharp notches that could harm the child. These are resessed belt guides that would likely just break if they were hit. I think there is a big difference here between the two.

The guides are definetely recessed. I don't see them being a problem with kids hitting their heads on them in a crash.

Thanks Jewels! I do remember chatting about this before I even got the seat. It kinda panicked me at first because I had a feeling my dd would barely be using the top slots, and have the harness guides higher up, but those threads really did help ease my fears. I got the seat and I really love it. Since she is taller, the guides don't seem too high, and her head looks fine in the headrest. She did tell me that it is comfier though on the notch lower, which I can't use because she is just over the third slots.

It only bothered me with my 3.5 yo. They were seriously high, like at the middle to top of her ears. It just looked not right. Even if it is perfectly safe, it looked dumb and uncomfortable. Perhaps she wasn't over the second slots, maybe she was right at them and I could've moved the harness down. I'll def play with it more, as well as the recline modes, before making a choice. She still fits in the Triumph, but she can't sleep well in it anymore. Her head just hangs and it bugs me. Something about the way it is shaped and her being too tall to rest her head against the sides like she could do when she was smaller.

Kimberly

Jewels said:

There are a couple of other threads on this from when the GN first came out and I don't see what the problem is as all the pictures I've seen have not made me think that there is reason to worry. The belt guides are recessed from the headrest. As I understand it the belt guides (in booster seats) are pretty much a pre-crash positioner and if the head were to hit the belt guides, the belt guides would likely just break off.

*Nautilus photos of harness/headwing issue
*Nautilus photos of harness/headwing issue

Some quotes that may help you:










The mom that started the threads told me that she installed the GN with the recline and that allowed her to have him in the lower harness slots with the headrest down (for the time being) and that the recline seemed to help things.

Click to expand...

I had it on the middle recline level. Perhaps moving it back all the way would put her just under the second slots. That would be better anyway because she loves to sleep in the car.

The issue wasn't that there were sharp spots in the Touriva notches, the problem was that the notches had ridged edges. Since the belt guides are made out of hard plastic, my thought is that they also have ridged edges. I'm also not convinced that having them break off if the head impacts them is a good thing. Then you would have this chunk of hard, and possibly sharp plastic getting pinned between the child's head and the outer shell of the seat.

I also don't see them as being particularly recessed. I think they just appear recessed because of the padding in the rest of the headrest.

Personally, I have my reservations about the seat. It sets off some internal alarm for me and I don't know exactly why.

I'm not worried from a safety standpoint.

I'm more worried from a COMFORT standpoint for my sleeps-in-the-car 5yo.

The guides are recessed, and the plastic they're made from is flexible.

Phew, I'm glad I didn't have to say all that twice! (anyone have pictures of the Touriva ridges/notches so we can put them side by side and really get a feel for why they are so much more potentially injurious? In my memory they are *really* sharp looking )