Where do you put your baby during the day?

[HelloVeraPlant]

Hey, our high chair broke and my 18 month old is getting heavy to carry around on my back. Im wondering if anyone could recommend either a high chair that’s durable and suitable for older babies/fiddlers or recommend products that’s safe to place baby in whilst getting on with house work.

Thanks

Do all of your babies help out when you’re cooking hot meals or using oil? Or boiling stuff?

I find that scary. As I said I know a few children and adults that were badly burned in the kitchen.

Honestly I just don’t attempt to cook an intensive one hour meal on my own with a toddler! We have a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs but otherwise he just toddles around.

Change your mindset from repelling/containing, to attracting the toddler to something safe.

We have a toy kitchen with mini pots and pans, in our real kitchen but on the opposite wall to the oven, and my toddler will happily play at it while I cook. So much better than some kind of restraint. He only gets to play at it while I'm cooking so that keeps it novel.

He can climb out of his high chair (and fall to his doom if not caught) and he's not yet 16mo.

I agree. When you're in charge of the toddler, it's all about heating pre-prepped meals or something quick and simple.

Save the elaborate cooking for when he's napping or dh is around.

Edit - just seen he won't nap long. But still, you need to batch cook.

Chopping onions should not be happening every day...!! You chop onions once a week and freeze them.

No of course not, I just wouldn’t attempt to make a meal that took an hour to make when I’m looking after my toddler. They really can’t be left alone for that long and being stuck in a high chair for a long time will be frustrating for them. Find meals which are quick to make or cook in the evening the night before and reheat. Most chores get done in the evenings and weekends in my house, were either both working or I’m looking after my toddler and so can’t do chores and extended cooking sessions at the same time as DS needs attention and needs to be safe, there’s no way I’d stick him in a high chair or play pen for an hour.

If your toddler hates all his available secured options when you’re cooking, and you’re too scared to let him roam around, then the answer is —obviously— to not spend an hour cooking every day. Change what you cook for the few months this will last. Roast chicken, jacket potatoes, veg all only take a few minutes to prepare. Spending an hour cooking ‘danger’ stuff is no where near important enough to warrant strapping a toddler down who just wants to explore.

i remember moving around where all my kitchen stuff was and making a low down plastics cupboard in my kitchen. I just sat her in front of it, and opened the door whenever I was cooking.

I think a certain amount of batch preparation can be useful to limit the daily use of sharp knives. Maybe chop double the amount and store a portion in tupperware in the fridge etc. Pan handles should never be within reach anyway, always turn them away from the front of the cooker. Hot oil I agree with you there, that's when you need eyes in the back of your head with a toddler!

As others have said, it won't last for ever, but it is so tricky at this age. Hope your DH makes a good recovery.

I do make quick meals - boiled or jacket potatoes, soup, fry an egg, quick pasta. Maybe not an hour, but where I’m preparing a baby friendly meal and a meal for myself and eldest (while OH is away) it does seem to take longer than 20 mins. I usually prep in the morning, then cook later in the afternoon. To split the time up.

Anyways I don’t need cooking tips - and a lot of microwave food irritates my stomach so I avoid.

This weekend I did try to fry an egg for 5 mins - I didn’t like him roaming around. But I did spend 30 mins making a pie and he sat on the high chair.

I’ll play it by ear.

Thanks for the tips

At that age dds were pottering around the house on their own, including up and down stairs. Usually they liked to be in the same room as me, and our kitchen is a large open plan with their toys at one end. Both much older now so they survived without incident. I often batch cooked after their bedtime to be able to do it in peace.

I would prepare dinner when mine napped. All chopping completed and in tubs in the fridge. Then the actual cooking was much faster and could be done with my toddlers roaming around my legs when it came to dinner time.

When I had an 18m old they wouldn’t have tolerated the high chair for half an hour - barely 5 mins tbh if there wasn’t a snack on offer 😂

Like others have said I just wouldn’t cook meals where I had to do lots of chopping, frying etc it was more stuff I could put in oven or air fryer or something quickish like pasta and a basic sauce. If I wanted to make something more elaborate I would prep and cook during nap time.

OP is perfectly fine to cook while her toddler is in a chair busying himself. She doesn't need to batch cook unless that's what she wants to do!

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with a toddler sitting safely and playing for up to an hour whilst mum or dad cooks, as long as they're happy enough. It's still possible to engage with them and it's good for children to learn to occupy themselves.

why would you leave them anywhere? Toddler proof the area, let them “help” by moving around after you! They should be active and engaging with the environment all around - do housework when they nap/sleep or set up little activity where you can see them.

You watch the child while you are doing it, it's not hard.

I did the opposite when we had a puppy who wouldn’t leave me alone in that I stood behind the puppy pen which we put around the cooker section as the puppy didn’t like the playpen set up. Would same thing work with an inquisitive toddler. Tbh when my teens were little they just had toys or safe cooking pans & spoons to copy me or laundry baskets to sit in near me and learnt not to climb on me if I was cooking. My youngest would never sit in a high chair they just used to climb out constantly so it wasn’t safe to leave them ever. Or I did all meal prep when they were asleep & just assembled / cooked food later

I’m amazed that it’s considered normal or okay to strap a child in of that age anywhere so you can get on with tasks. Both my children have just been with me while I have cleaned or cooked. I have an 18 month old now. She has a high chair but if I strapped her in and went to the bathroom to clean she would be distraught. I just let her follow me around.

We had the hallway as a play area with a stairgate in the kitchen doorway so the DC could see us but not get under foot. They couldn’t roam around the house unsupervised as it wasn’t safe but this gave them a larger but contained area.

A friend of mine with twins had low chairs with straps for hers, so if they had escaped they wouldn’t have fallen to their doom 😬

If your DC is happy in the highchair while you cook then it's absolutely fine. Toddlers will let you know if they're not happy with something.

If the highchair worked and nothing else does. Then you’re just going to have to buy another high chair. Ikea ones are super cheap. Unbreakable. And you can get acrylic wraps for the legs and stuff to make them more naice if that’s your thing.

It's easier if you and baby can eat the same thing so you're only prepping one meal.
I often give mine a pre-meal whilst I prep (peanut butter, hummus, soup, anything easy). She still eats her main.

That’s weird. I don’t ‘put’ my 20 month old anywhere, she’s far too old for that. She comes around with me and ‘helps’ with gardening, tidying, etc.

Though, in extremis — like if I really need to do something unsafe with her out of the way — I would let her watch some telly, though I know not everyone is comfortable with that. She does generally have minimal screen time though and is usually happy to play alongside me.

Or- if you get a bigger highchair - set up fun activities like play dough, crayons etc in it.

My ikea chair was around 12£ and it’s onto its 5th year of use on my second child

id just get one of those