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Baby in High ChairI’m back, my dear readers. The invasion of grandparents is finally over and I don’t have to be watching like a hawk over my kiddo, so have time to blog! Thank you for staying with me, from now on – not a week goes by without a post or two.

Ironically, for this post I have to thank Eric’s grandparents who managed to break his high chair (yes, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, it actually happened).The chair he had was serving us fine for the last 1.5 years and we all were quite happy with it – but all good things come to an end and thanks to clumsiness of nana and pop we had to go and buy another high chair. This new chair taught us a couple of lessons.

Imagine you’re in a store, standing in front of a row of high chairs. What should you be looking for?

To me there is a number of things that I need in a high chair. It needs to be:

1. Safe and stable.
2. Easily washable.
3. Comfortable for the baby.
4. Easy to handle for mom and dad.

Stability

Our old high chair had a wide base and could withstand anything. Our new high chair is much less stable and can tip over when Eric (who is 2 and weighs 14kg ) climbs up to sit on it. I have to hold the new chair while Eric climbs, which means that it’s inconvenient for me and not safe enough for him.

Cleaning – high chair

I prefer the chair to be padded, but the fabric needs to be waterproof and the shape should not have “food traps”. There are chairs with washable cover that can be taken off and machine-washed, but it’s still too much trouble, because you’d have to time the washing and the drying in between the meals of your child. Also remember that you’d have to wash it every day, because most of the kids are messy eaters. Time-poor as I am, I like a chair that can be wiped with a damp cloth better.

There are wooden high chairs that are easier to clean – just take them to the back yard / bathtub and hose them, but I think they are less comfortable for the kids. There was a time when Eric had a habit of sitting in his high chair and banging his head against the back of the chair – that would seriously hurt if there was no padding.

Cleaning – the tray

Many high chairs have a tray that can’t be detached, and to me that’s a problem. After some meals I can get away with just wiping the tray with a cloth, but more often it must be washed in a sink (or even in a dishwasher once in a while).

Some trays have a cup-holder which I seriously dislike, because my kid puts there anything but the cup. All the unwanted food, the juice and what not, all goes there into the cup holder and makes my cleaning job harder. Take it from me, a tray is much easier to clean when it’s just a tray.

Another observation, from experience – the tray needs to be as large as possible (to avoid food landing on the kitchen floor) and it needs to be tilted forward, not backward. Imagine that you spill a cup of water on a tray. The water should flow forward away from your child, instead of flowing back and gathering in front and right under the hands of your child.

To be continued, come back for the rest of the tips on how to buy a high chair you won’t regret buying.