High chairs

[vvviola]

(Probably a very daft question, but I find myself asking a lot of them when it comes to allergies)

How thoroughly do you clean high chairs when you are out and DC with food allergies are using them?

Up to now I've just wiped down the tray and left it at that, but we had a scary reaction today, everywhere that DD2's bare skin touched the chair came out in hives & went red. Even some areas on her face where she had touched the tray (which I had wiped) and then her face. I'm having quite a lot of anxiety in relation to DD's allergies (dairy, egg & possibly peanut) which my family are not entirely supportive about, and this has knocked me back a bit to the extent that I'm now wondering if my only option is to keep her in her buggy when we're out or scrub each high chair before we use it

Hi, no experience of allergies but I think you can buy little portable high chair contraptions that fit onto a normal chair? That might be an option for you as then you'll know you can keep it clean and safe?

Ds had not been diagnosed with his allergies when he was using high chairs but looking back, he definitely had reactions to food on them (lots of photos o him in restaurants with red blotchy face).

Certainly when flying with him when he was young, I thoroughly wiped down all hard surfaces of his seat and tray with wet wipes before lettu
Ing him touch anything.

I wonder whether that particular restaurant used a cleaning product that your dc is allergic to?

It took a while for my family to take on board ds' allergies too. They are great now.

Not a daft question and it's okay to be slightly anxious about this sort of thing. You are just taking sensible precautions to keep your child safe.

I scrubbed all high chairs thoroughly with wet wipes. If the tray was removable, I took it away and just pushed DS up to the main table with us (easier to wipe the table and less chance of yoghurt residue etc.) If the high chair was too mucky to scrub, or had unscrubbable nooks and crannies, I sat DS on my lap instead. He was usually carried in a ring sling rather than in a pushchair, so keeping him in the pushchair wasn't an option for me.

DS is 4 now and I still always have wet wipes in my bag. Maybe I am paranoid, but I give all restaurant/cafe tables a quick clean, even if they look spotless. I check all cutlery for bits of egg that may have survived the dishwasher. I have also taught DS to keep all food on his plate and not play with it (e.g. if he drops a chip on to the table, he is not allowed to eat it afterwards).

It's a shame your family haven't been supportive. Mine weren't either, and it did make me feel that I was sometimes making a fuss unnecessarily. These days I have got much tougher, and I perform my basic safety checks almost without thinking, certainly without worrying about what other people may think.

I agree with greenbananas, definitely not a daft question! With my first (no allergies), I never worried about dirty high chairs and thought parents who spent ages wiping them down in restaurants were bonkers but when DS came along (multiple allergies) I found myself having to carry antibacterial wipes and spray wherever we went as he often had reactions to touching tables/chairs/highchairs etc. In fact, he's now 5 and still tends to come out in hives when we go anywhere food is served (cafes, restaurants, soft play etc etc) - I'm just used to having to give him a spoonful of Piriton every time now!

You're not being paranoid and it's a real shame that your family are not being supportive. I've been very fortunate in that respect (although MIL still doesn't really understand it all but at least she tries to!).

Thanks everyone.

I'm probably being a bit unfair to my family. DH is great but leaves all the allergy stuff up to me (choosing food, medical appointments, deciding if if we need to give antihistamine or not) which is a little draining. Mum is a nurse so is probably a little more blasé about it all, so finds my anxiety a bit hard to understand.

Good to know others scrub high chairs too shall feel a little less neurotic doing it now!

I don't think it was a cleaning product - we'd been at the cafe 3 days earlier and she had been in the same (only) high chair, so unless they'd changed their cleaning products over the weekend.

Just when you start thinking you might have the whole thing under control, something like that happens.