Patent ID: 8622476

Claim:
A child restraint comprising a seat shell including a base providing a seat bottom and a backrest extending upwardly from the base, the backrest having a front portion facing toward a child seated on the seat bottom and cooperating with the seat bottom to form a child-receiving space above the seat bottom and a rear portion facing away from a child seated on the seat bottom and located in the child-receiving space, a headrest mounted for up-and-down movement on the backrest, and a headrest-height controller arranged to adjust the height of the headrest above the seat bottom, wherein the headrest-height controller includes a headrest lock and a headrest-lock release, wherein the headrest lock includes a rod receiver coupled to the rear portion of the backrest and arranged to extend away from the front portion of the backrest, the headrest lock is formed to include a series of rod-receiving notches having openings facing away from the headrest, each rod-receiving notch being located at a different elevation above the seat bottom, and a headrest-retainer rod arranged to move relative to the rod receiver between a locked position engaging a selected first of the rod-receiving notches of the rod receiver to retain the headrest in a selected position on the backrest to establish the elevation of the headrest above the seat bottom and an unlocked position disengaging rod-receiving notches formed in the rod receiver to free the headrest for up-and-down movement relative to the backrest to assume a different selected fixed position on the backrest associated with a selected second of the rod-receiving notches to establish a new elevation of the headrest above the seat bottom, and wherein the headrest-lock release includes a release lever mounted for pivotable movement on and relative to the headrest about a horizontal pivot axis in response to application of a pivot-inducing force to the release lever by a caregiver to push the headrest-retainer rod in a transverse direction away from the rear portion of the backrest and relative to the rod receiver from the locked position to the unlocked position and a return spring coupled at a first end thereof to the headrest and at an opposite second end thereof to the release lever and configured to provide means for yieldably urging the headrest-retainer rod in a direction toward the rear portion of the backrest and into a rod-receiving notch upon arrival of the headrest-retainer rod in a position confronting the rod-receiving notch once a caregiver lets go of the release lever to allow pivoting movement of the release lever about the horizontal pivot axis so as to retain the headrest in a selected one of the fixed positions on the backrest.