I'm sad this day has come but my oldest has outgrown the harness slots on her nautilus so it's time to convert it to a booster seat. She sits on a bench seat in the back of the van. It does have a head rest. However, after googling it up I'm still not sure whether I need to put her seat in as backless or not. She right now is tall enough to where her knees come to the edge of the seat without being in her car seat. She also is 44 lbs. Don't know if any of that makes a difference in whether she needs a backless or if the back can stay. Help.

Good gravy...is she freaky tall or what? 44# and outgrown the top slots of the Nautilus?

Here's the 5 step test:
http://www.carseat.org/Boosters/630.htm

The 5-Step Test.
1. Does the child sit all the way back against the auto seat?
2. Do the child's knees bend comfortably at the edge of the auto seat?
3. Does the belt cross the shoulder between the neck and arm?
4. Is the lap belt as low as possible, touching the thighs?
5. Can the child stay seated like this for the whole trip?

How old is she?

I know she's young yet...that paired with 44#..I would not be comfortable with her being in a seat belt alone, regardless of if her knees bent over the edge of the seat. I highly doubt she's truly mature enough to sit that way for the duration of a trip AND I would doubt the shoulder portion of the belt lies properly over her shoulder.

Next, again, the weight and age factor in...keep the back on the booster for that side impact protection.

Remember every step 'up' in car seats is a step 'down' in safety. So you don't want to rush into those transitions and you don't want to go jumping too far ahead either. In other words, ideally, we want to rear face to the limits of the seat, then forward facing harness to the limits of the seat, then move to a belt positioning booster. After that, a backless can be used to bridge the gap between booster and adult seat belt time. But those *ideally* shouldn't be used until 8-ish, imo.

So, keep the back on. And could you measure her torso for me? That's just blowing my mind that she's outgrown that thing already. hehe (not trying to argue with you over the fact, just a 'wow, I have got to see this' kind of thing) Have her sit on the floor, legs crossed (Indian style/criss-cross applesauce/whatever you want to call it) and measure from the floor to her shoulders.

Lol. T, my freak is 3'9" tall at 5 1/2 yrs old. I measured her sitting and from floor to shoulders is 17 1/2" . I might have seen it wrong on her car seat but her shoulders do appear to be just above that top slot.

Thanks. I am wanting to leave the back on but wanted to clarify since some of the info I found was saying that if there was a headrest you don't need the back. Just wanted to make sure it was safe. Also I'm pretty sure that the seat belt will dig into her neck without the back on.

Check your manual and seat. The Nautilus *should* have around an 18.5" top slot. I've not messed with it much so maybe there's just something you're missing that I am unable to help with. But check that the headrest is up all the way, see if there's another slot hiding in there. AND check the manual.

And the deal with the headrest/backless booster deal is just saying when using a backless booster there needs to be a headrest so that the neck/head are still supported. As with an adult/anyone in a seat belt, headrests are a must.

But you *can* use the back on the Nautilus WITH the vehicle's headrest. Now, if the vehicle's head rest shoves the seat out and makes things awkward/seat doesn't sit flush against vehicle seat, then, again, check your manual, but you should be able to remove the vehicle's headrest and rely solely on the Nautilus. :)

Generally headrests and high back boosters ARE compatible. I cannot think of a case where a booster manual requires the vehicle headrest to NOT be present/be removed. In fact, I can only recall the opposite...one high back booster that REQUIRES the vehicle to have a headrest.

Anywho, I rambled again and had distractions LOL I hope that was helpful.

In short..check your manual for a hidden slot as I'm getting a higher top slot measurement in my checks. Then...headrest + Nautilus with back = ok.

Hmmm. No hidden slot and I went ahead and measured the seat from bottom to top slot and only measured 17 1/2 " I even measured twice to be sure. Dunno. New question though. The headrest on her seat tends to give me a huge blind spot on that side, any ideas on how to fix that?? I don't dare put it any higher than it is now, it's bad enough.

The downside of boosters/any seat for bigger kids :( Just find the best place you can for it and up your own safe driving tactics ... double and triple check mirrors and over shoulder. That's all I know to tell ya there.

In our Expedition I had a taller convertible flanked by boosters in the third row...I only had a sliver of rear window..at the top, big help THAT was LOL

[QUOTE=His butterfly;220120]Lol...my freak is 3'9" tall at 5 1/2 yrs old.QUOTE]

You don't have a freak! ;) Trevor is the same age and about 4'1". ;)

Lol...my freak is 3'9" tall at 5 1/2 yrs old.

You don't have a freak! ;) Trevor is the same age and about 4'1". ;)

Yep. My just-turned-six year old is 4 feet tall, give or take - 3'9" sounds like perfect height for 5. We don't have nautilus so can't comment on that. A. has been in a Radian 65 for the past few years, hope it lasts us a while longer, too.

I hope you can get the seat installed so that it doesn't impair your vision too much. When we were having trouble moving the Radians to the 3rd row bench, http://www.car-seat.org/ was a big help, we found a thread with pictures and everything to help us get the seats in tighter. I am 99% certain I learned about that site from Tara, too, lol.

Y'all gotta remember...I got shrimps here LOL
My 4.5 yr old would have no problem fitting in a Nautilus (or his present Radian) until 7, easy, by height and...hello? my 6, 9 and 11 yr olds could still fit by weight...in the lower weight 65 version!

I have to make a conscious effort to think outside that box. Sorry. :~p

I was always told that when they are 3yrs old and 30lbs they can ride in a booster seat with back and regular seatbelt and 4yrs old and weigh 40lbs or more they can ride in a backless booster seat, abraham is 3yrs old but only weighs 29lbs so I still have him in a 5point harness and state law requires them to be in a booster seat until they are 8yrs old or 4'9 so long time in booster seat lol, but anyways is this wrong? I mean thats what I read on the carseat/booster seats manual

You've been told a manufacturers minimum, basically, Melinda.

I'm in the camp of liking to practice SAFEST option, not just the minimums. Using the seats to their MAXIMUMS not swapping at the bare minimums.

I like to see kids rear face to 30-40# which gets most kids to about 3 yr old. Then in a forward facing 5pt harness to at least 5-6yr. More and more seats are accommodating that age range for all sizes...seats now have higher weights, 65 is common and even 80 and 85# maximum weight limits, with shoulder harness slots to fairly closely match.

Next, high back boosters to properly position the seat belt until they can pass the 5 step test and properly fit in an adult seat belt. http://www.carseat.org/Boosters/630.htm

No back boosters can fall in there around age 8 or 9, but they really aren't a necessity in the car seat sequence.

Most kids need a booster aka cannot properly fit in an adult seat belt until around age 12.

HTH :) (there's probably another thread (or 5) around here on car seat stuff if you're interested in browsing)