We chose not to get a highchair. I just could not commit the square footage in our dinky condo to a ginormous high chair. Modern high chairs are like plunking your baby on an island in a sea of liability prevention. Remember the high chairs of our youth?? My parents still have the tiny rickety one we were in as kids. Having watched it recently called into action for guests, the high chair of old did something modern chairs can’t. Its small footprint let it scootch right up to the table.
The Child in the Easy Diner back in 2005.
Our family tried a seat that clamps directly to the table or counter. We got the Easy Diner made by Regalo, but there are many other versions of the same principle. It worked like a charm and we never got a real high chair. The seat typically stayed clamped to the kitchen countertop, but it easily moved to the table when we chose to eat there. The 5-point harness was sturdy enough to use as early as The Child could hold her head up on her own. And sometime after her 2nd birthday she outgrew it amid tears because she loved it.
Any claims to the seat being machine washable are false – but it did unfasten in enough places to take a good soapy rag to it and let it dry in the sun. And at $25 a pop, we easily replaced it once when the first one was beyond scrubbing clean. I would recommend purchasing from a retailer with a good return policy, because there are a few table configurations that might not let you get it hooked on properly. I also would not advise using this if your only table is a family heirloom. There are some small circular dents on the underside of our kitchen table which no one but an appraiser would ever notice. Our dining table is vintage IKEA so I don’t mind the dents.
We quickly realized having The Child right with us for both cooking and eating was a huge benefit, both to our ability to keep her contained, and to her development. She has had a bird’s eye view of the full cycle of food preparation in our home, from watching it come out of the grocery bag to consuming it herself.
Kinda off topic but I just thought of a question (hopefully it’s a good idea for a future post.) What’s your feeling about cereal? I love oatmeal, cream of wheat, granola, and also packaged cereals like puffins and cheerios. But I wonder if the glycemic index is too high for the packaged stuff, or if it’s even a good idea to start the day off with so much carbs (oatmeal included). As a child I remember being ravenously hungry well before lunch, and I was a cereal-for-breakfast child. And when I was on a diabetic diet during pregnancy, I was not supposed to have more than like a quarter cup of oatmeal for breakfast. What has your experience been?
I’ve never had to regularly eat or prepare a diabetic diet, so I don’t worry about glycemic index at home. We ate a lot of cream of wheat and McCann’s Oatmeal for breakfast when The Child was small, and original unflavored Cheerios were a go-to snack. We typically have eggs and toast for breakfast, or a banana with Straus Whole Milk Plain Yogurt and a sprinkle of Cheerios or granola on top. You’re right. Answering this fully needs a post of it’s own! More to come…
Nice post. We relied on a similar chair when Sam and Toby were toddlers. But as I recall it didn’t have a harness though it may have had a seatbelt!
Have you taken this seat to restaurants? Is it nicer to use than the high chairs provided? I already got a high chair (shoot!) but this looks good…
Nope. We never spent much time in restaurants with The Child before she outgrew the chair. But, it should work for most tables, it collapses easily without needing to be disassembled, and it comes with a drawstring bag. I’d be wary of cantilevering that much weight off the edge of a tippy cafe table – but that’s a case by case judgment call.