| High Chairs Picking out a seat for your clubfoot baby will require just a little extra thought. |
As a first time new mother, I didn't realize the worth of a good high
chair. After three children, I now feel that high chairs are one of the
most valuable "tools" a mother can have at her disposal as they do
up so much more for a child than just act a place to sit the kid eats.
Much like a sling, a high chair (or a "Tall Chair" for Everett who
doesn't want a baby-name associated with his anymore) allows a
child to be up in the action when it comes to doing things with you.
Babies who are wearing casts or braces are often very limited to
what they can climb up on where another child might just monkey
on up to stand on a regular dinner chair to watch or help.
With the high chair, you can set your baby up to the table or
counter top to "help" you wash dishes, cook, decorate holiday
cookies, do craft projects with the other kids or just break the
boredom they feel always confined to looking up at the world from
floor level.
Because a high chair is so handy to have and use, it is important
you pick one that IS easy to use, and, one that fits easily in your
home. Some of the new chairs on the market are incredibly huge,
taking up gobs of storage space. I look at them and wonder who in
their right mind would design such an atrocity? Certainly a person
who has never raised, nor lived with, small children in real life.
Some chairs do not allow a parent to have one-handed operation
of the tray - another major inconvenience. Some chairs won't fit up
to the dinner table at all leaving the resident who sits in it detached
from the family at meal time; other's are designed along the lines of
a grocery cart seat, where a baby in casts, or a child wearing his
foot abduction brace cannot slide easily in and out of the seat.
Avoid those for sure! A busy kitchen and a busy family is no place
for the smallest and most demanding member's chair to be a major
hassle for everyone.
A high chair on wheels is another consideration. On the one hand
it would be a breeze to scoot the chair from room to room, place to
place... On the other hand, if you can scoot that chair, so can the
baby sitting in it! Babies are curious little animals who will reach
out and grab everything in sight. If one should reach a table, chair,
cabinet top or other solid object, she could easily roll her chair in to
dangerous ground while you are not looking.
Other children in the house would also have great fun pushing a
chair on wheels - a game that could quickly lead to dire
consequences for one or all involved.
Wheels on a highchair is something I decided against the first time I
took Everett to a restaurant and put him in a seat with wheels. Big
brother Brian had waaaaaaay too much fun pushing the infant
around and I could see right away this was not a game (fight!) I
wanted to have in my own house each day.
In our house, we have a wooden high chair. At first it had a tray
that swung up and down over the child's head which was nice, easy
one-handed application, but also easy to bonk the baby on the
head if he moves as you are swinging the tray up or down. A tray
that didn't detach from the chair was also a pain to keep clean.
I took it off and asked my husband to cut the legs down short
enough that the chair could slide up under the dinner table allowing
the children (Everett first, and currently Garrison) to simply sit at
the table with the rest of the family.
This lead to another issue - with out the tray on, the baby tended to
slump and slide right out of the chair! Our next alteration was to
get a one-inch dowel rod, about six or seven inches long, and
screw it firmly to the seat, so a leg went on each side, preventing
the baby from sliding out. This modified version of a high chair has
been in business here for a long time and works beautifully for
us.
Garrison will be able to use this as his dinner chair until he's big
enough to sit in a regular seat. He is also right there beside us at
the table, not shoved off to the side to accommodate a large tray,
where he can learn from the very start that there are certain rules
and manners one must use at meal time.
When you start to shop for your own high chair, remember to look
for one with these features:
chair. After three children, I now feel that high chairs are one of the
most valuable "tools" a mother can have at her disposal as they do
up so much more for a child than just act a place to sit the kid eats.
Much like a sling, a high chair (or a "Tall Chair" for Everett who
doesn't want a baby-name associated with his anymore) allows a
child to be up in the action when it comes to doing things with you.
Babies who are wearing casts or braces are often very limited to
what they can climb up on where another child might just monkey
on up to stand on a regular dinner chair to watch or help.
With the high chair, you can set your baby up to the table or
counter top to "help" you wash dishes, cook, decorate holiday
cookies, do craft projects with the other kids or just break the
boredom they feel always confined to looking up at the world from
floor level.
Because a high chair is so handy to have and use, it is important
you pick one that IS easy to use, and, one that fits easily in your
home. Some of the new chairs on the market are incredibly huge,
taking up gobs of storage space. I look at them and wonder who in
their right mind would design such an atrocity? Certainly a person
who has never raised, nor lived with, small children in real life.
Some chairs do not allow a parent to have one-handed operation
of the tray - another major inconvenience. Some chairs won't fit up
to the dinner table at all leaving the resident who sits in it detached
from the family at meal time; other's are designed along the lines of
a grocery cart seat, where a baby in casts, or a child wearing his
foot abduction brace cannot slide easily in and out of the seat.
Avoid those for sure! A busy kitchen and a busy family is no place
for the smallest and most demanding member's chair to be a major
hassle for everyone.
A high chair on wheels is another consideration. On the one hand
it would be a breeze to scoot the chair from room to room, place to
place... On the other hand, if you can scoot that chair, so can the
baby sitting in it! Babies are curious little animals who will reach
out and grab everything in sight. If one should reach a table, chair,
cabinet top or other solid object, she could easily roll her chair in to
dangerous ground while you are not looking.
Other children in the house would also have great fun pushing a
chair on wheels - a game that could quickly lead to dire
consequences for one or all involved.
Wheels on a highchair is something I decided against the first time I
took Everett to a restaurant and put him in a seat with wheels. Big
brother Brian had waaaaaaay too much fun pushing the infant
around and I could see right away this was not a game (fight!) I
wanted to have in my own house each day.
In our house, we have a wooden high chair. At first it had a tray
that swung up and down over the child's head which was nice, easy
one-handed application, but also easy to bonk the baby on the
head if he moves as you are swinging the tray up or down. A tray
that didn't detach from the chair was also a pain to keep clean.
I took it off and asked my husband to cut the legs down short
enough that the chair could slide up under the dinner table allowing
the children (Everett first, and currently Garrison) to simply sit at
the table with the rest of the family.
This lead to another issue - with out the tray on, the baby tended to
slump and slide right out of the chair! Our next alteration was to
get a one-inch dowel rod, about six or seven inches long, and
screw it firmly to the seat, so a leg went on each side, preventing
the baby from sliding out. This modified version of a high chair has
been in business here for a long time and works beautifully for
us.
Garrison will be able to use this as his dinner chair until he's big
enough to sit in a regular seat. He is also right there beside us at
the table, not shoved off to the side to accommodate a large tray,
where he can learn from the very start that there are certain rules
and manners one must use at meal time.
When you start to shop for your own high chair, remember to look
for one with these features:
- safe with no missing or broken pieces
- easy to clean
- fits in to the space you have in your kitchen and/or dining
room to store it - easy one-handed operation of any tray apparatus
- will accommodate the casts and/or FAB if you are seating a
baby with clubfoot.
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| Neither of these two chairs would work easily with a baby wearing either casts or a foot abduction brace because the child's legs must fit through the constrained openings. |
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