Getting desperate, nothing works for us, please help?

[SaffronCake]

DD2 is now 9 months. I'm pregnant again so soon I will have 2 babies a year apart, she's is a total scamp and although she clearly enjoys her food she's not fond of keeping still. She eats what we eat, in the state we eat it, mostly self-feeding.

Attempt 1.
Had a Chicco Polly highchair. Hated it. Firstly because it took longer to get the food out of all the crevices than it took to cook and serve the food and bath baby afterwards put together. Secondly because it took up space I just don't have. There is nowhere to keep a highchair in this house without it being in the way, I can't even put hooks on the wall, I haven't got the wall space. I sold it.

Attempt 2.
Got a Bumbo. Was perfect, easy to clean, easy to store and secure. Or at least it was until she learned to escape from it. She can fire herself out of it in under a second even with the tray on.

Attempt 3.
Started using a wide variety of cafe's to test highchair designs. The only ones that she's secure in and that can be cleaned properly are the Rubbermaid ones in Asda like this. I would just buy one but we come up against the floor space problem again, argh!!!

Attempt 4.
Given that she's not secure in cafe highchairs (and besides most cafe highchairs are foul) I got a Totseat fabric highchair. I loved it for the whole 2 days when she hadn't yet worked out how to escape from it. She now escapes (by simply drawing her legs under her and standing) with a big beaming grin every time I put her in it.

Help me? What am I gonna do with this Scamp?

[HarrietJones]

Best highchair is the ilea antilop. It's wide but the legs remove easily.

When dd1/2 were toddlers I had a booster for the table , I used a harness strapped to the chair to keep dd2 on it.

[RandomMess]

ikea antilop and use some reins not just the waist strap........

[PacificDogwood]

I was going to suggest the Ikea Antilop with harness.

Or anything with harness really .

Re floor space problems though: How about this kind of fabric number? There is a number of different variations on this idea on the market.

Here is a pattern if you want to make one yourelf

FWIW, DS4 was an escape artist as well, but grew out of it, phew!

[SaffronCake]

PacificDogwood, that fabric highchair you linked is the exact one we're currently on, the one it took her 2 days to master. You're right, it's too expensive for what it is, I got mine on eBay for half the price of Mothercare et al.

If I try an ikea antilop, I'd have to keep it outside the back door, which means it'll decay faster and might need the ice/rain/bird poo removing before each use. That puts me off a bit. We have used one in a cafe where I thought it comfortable and easy to clean, but it didn't have any straps so you can guess what happened. It seems from your comments the straps are everything so I might have to give it another go. Ikea is 3-4 hours drive from here though and they haven't got this on the online delivery service. It doesn't mean it's impossible, but it does mean I need to rule out the alternatives first.

I'll try looking for booster seats that have harnesses or that can be used with harnesses first though. I'll look up some reviews now. Thank you all for the help and sorry to be so tricky. I fed her on my lap last night, at least it was safe.

[suzikettles]

why not just buy a cheap pair of reins and sew them on to the fabric one that you bought?

[StyleandBooty]

www.johnlewis.com/230675414/Product.aspx

I used something like this from Chicco, but added a John Lewis reins harness (without the rein bit, iyswim) rather than the waist strap provided with the chair. My little escape artist liked it because she was at the table with us and felt grown up. Takes v little space.

[PacificDogwood]

Oh bother about the cloth one.

How about a clamp-on one?

We had one second hand from BIL and it was fab. We only used it when going out/to someone else's house though.

It sounds like you might simply need a straightjacket reins

[SaffronCake]

Straightjacket and ground anchor even!

Meanwhile a girl I know at Uni in Bristol has been recruited to bring me back an Ikea Antilop and tray in a months time.

Also I've ordered a set of reins that I can screw to a dining chair for now. I reckon if I cut the handle/ rein part and screw it to the wood of the chair then she probably wont be able to stand up, but I can still unclip the harness part (including Scamp) in seconds. I just hope the harness part is small enough for a 9 month old.

It's all quite funny really, if you have that kind of sense of humour. I think i shall get OH to make a video of the electric chair new dining arrangement being fashioned.