I recently came across a glossy photo of the “Nest” high chair. It’s a mod, almost Jetsons-style chair, looking something like a gum-ball on a chrome pedestal. First thought: very stylish. Second thought: my kids wouldn’t last a minute in that chair.
To be fair, I haven’t actually seen, much less tested a Nest (and given the price tag, I never will). Perhaps it is stable and fully toddler-proof. My skepticism is based solely on the rather, um, dynamic nature of my kids.
We started using “travel” high chairs when the kids were five or six months old. The type that clips directly to the kitchen table, like a canvas bucket hanging mid-air, is great for very young children who are just learning to sit up by themselves. It’s impossible to slip, lean or fall out of a well-placed travel seat. They also take up very little space, a necessity when you have three kids in high chairs.
Depending on the design (ours were from the UK) and provided that they are attached to a sturdy table, travel chairs can theoretically hold kids up to thirty pounds, or about two-years-old. But my kids, especially the twins, were too rambunctious for their travel seats well before two. With Alex at one end of the table, and Jon at the other, they would rock back and forth with such enthusiasm that the whole table would edge across the floor and the seats would bounce up and down on clips that suddenly seemed irresponsibly flimsy. It was a game for them – if only one child was seated the mood was much more subdued.
The travel seats were also impractical as the kids started grabbing their spoons, flinging cereal onto the table and finger-painting it into the canvas and metal clips of their chairs. I liked that the seats were not plastic, but not being plastic, they were a real pain to clean.
So we packed up the travel seats, and went in search of something more robust, easier to clean, small enough not take over our entire kitchen, and economical enough not to require a bank loan. We chose booster seats with detachable trays that attach to kitchen chairs. Ours are made by First Years, but there are many almost identical models.
These seats were great – at least for a while. They are very simple to clean, take little extra space, and with all the belts secured, seem safe. Within a few weeks, however, both twins learned how to remove the extra tray that comes with this seat (it’s like a covering for the main tray). We stopped using the extra trays. Alex then discovered that with the right leverage, the main tray also comes off. Faulty design or overly exuberant child? Either way, it’s pretty annoying. If the tray is off for any length of time, both Jon and Alex, apparently, stuff food down the open hole. There it collects, rotting or desiccating, between the booster seat and the kitchen chair, to be unearthed at a later date.
So, the new booster seats – as well as the chairs and floor underneath them – still require vigorous cleaning. And unfortunately, the competitive rocking and tipping of the high chairs has continued as well. Alex, being more boisterous in nature, started it, but Jon soon caught on. They rock with such force that the legs of the kitchen chair lift off the ground, and the entire seat, with child attached, is in danger of falling either forward or back. To prevent that, we nailed the kitchen chair to a piece of plywood on the floor.
In my prenatal class, I was told that twins are more than “double trouble”; that the mischief they create is not simply twice that of one child. Rather, twins act in synergy to achieve an exponentially greater amount of havoc. I suspect that is the root of our high chair problems. Individually, neither Alex nor Jon can be that far from the norm, and surely high chairs are tested before hitting the market. Perhaps they just need to be tested with twins….
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