High chair or booster seat

[MMG]

Hi all, if its not one thing its another!! now 17months my little boy will no longer get into his high chair without a screaming fit since he discovered his new found freedom and climbing onto the dining room chairs. my dilema is do i....

1. buy a booster seat and insist he sits still in it and strap him in.

2. he has a mini plastic table and chair set, could put that in the kitchen at meal times and let him eat there, but that means he can get up and down and woneder around!

3 or something else!

At the moment he is sitting at the table on a normal chair but he can only just see over the table and can`t reach his food so then he stands up and transfers from one chair to the other which drives me mad. This has been going on for just over a week and i desperatly need to sort it out and stick to whatever i choose, please help!!!!!!!

If you can run to it financially, I would suggest something like this . You can take the front bar and strap off it and it is just like a normal chair, but higher. It should last him until he's a lot older.

thats a good idea but i wonder if he will sit and stop transfering seats, i think he finds it fun getting up and own all the chairs on his own! i will consider this, thanks :-)

MMG. i've used booster seats for all of mine.(4)Tried the highchair with removable tray with 1st ds,but he still didn't feel part of (the big table). i've got 2 seats as my ds(6) still feels too low! Make a big fuss over it."look at your big boys seat" Aren't you a big boy know" etc. Does take a while for them to sit still,with their new found freedom! but persevere as with all the hurdles.

ds3 is 13 months and has been a booster seat for months now. The highchair is just so bulky and the booster seat means he is sat right up at the table with everyone else. Once they can sit up properly they really don't need a big padded highchair imo.

DS2 has been in a booster seat since he was about 10 months old. I like having him at the table with us rather than some way off - I think it teaches hims how to feed himself, what to do etc and he feels like he can join in.

I got a Handysitt booster chair secondhand on ebay - they sell really fast but are great and quite portable when you go away. They cost more than the plasticy ones but look nicer, last longer and are more hardwearing. Apparently they're suitable up to age 4.

Hi we have a couple of booster seats that we use, one that clips onto the table edge, and one that has an inflatable base so you can adjust the hight. They both have the advantage of restraints so you don't have the fight about keeping them at the table, but also include them in the meal at the table properly.

inflatable booster
the only thing I found with this was that DS used to throw himself from side to side and the straps really didn't do up high enough to stop me being concerned he might fall out while he was being silly. You can't see from the pic but it does have straps to attach the seat to a chair round the back and underneath.

attach to table

the inflatable one was from Asda, the other off ebay.

good luck

H x

thanks everyone, im going to try a booster seat and see how it goes, i am going to have to be very firm and insist he stay sitting in it, i can imagine he is going to try and climb out but im fed up of him messing about at meal times. I usually end up giving in when he cries and screams to get out, as he used to do with the highchair!!

I found with my Ds's that the shorter their mealtime the better. I try to put their meal on the table first,"if your sitting in your seat",and when they have finished(if they have eaten enough) i say "have you finished" "do you want to get down"(encourage them to ask).Then we don't have meal time battles and they gradually stay at the table longer.All of mine now stay all through the meal.Try to talk about other things aswell,so they dont feel they've got an audience.

Iuse boosters ,but it has a stra1p to hold him in!!and a tray too

i find he hates being restricted, thats why i think he hates the highchair. For exapmle at night he hates his feet covered and kicks of
the duvet or blanket etc. even if its cold

can I just ask - people who use booster seats without trays for babies around a year old, how do you stop the table getting covered in food? I don't mind ds spreading food all over the tray of his highchair, but i'd be really irritated if he did it on the dining table. Is there a solution, or do you just put up with the mess?

Just put up with the mess.

I put a plastic/oil-cloth type table cover on. You can get some quite nice designs and you just buy the material by the metre.

thanks wordsmith. Not sure I'm that brave

Wait till you get round to potty training. Feeding will seem a picnic in comparison (excuse the pun)

CarolinaMoon why don't you buy some large plastic mats - think I've seen some in Tesco that have farm animals or flowers on, then most of the food will end up on that and can be easily wiped off?

H x

MMG the mats might work for you too, we bought some that have garden birds, insects and animals on, when DS starts to get fidgety we play i spy type games with which ever mat he has that meal time. Works well as a distraction and keeps him at the table longer.

H x

Problem I found with table mats at that age is that they pull them off. DD has been in a booster chair for months but with a removable tray which just fits under the table. So we have it part way under the table with her bowl on the tray and her cup on the table so she is pretty close to the action. For snacks and activities (colouring/playdough etc) I take the tray off and pull her right up to the table.

I would try and cut out the wandering around at mealtimes myself. But think he will feel more grown up on a booster chair - and you can take it to other people's houses etc.

Umm hadn't thought of that Oops!! we didn't have that bridge to cross

Sellotape? only joking.

instead of a table mat use a large cloth. Or just wipe the table afterwards!!

Hi - Fascinating thread as have been thinking about buying first highchair for 4 month ds and never even considered just a booster seat. Someone gave me one of those squidgy seats which I'll probaby use first.

Wordsmith I Like the look of your Handysitt, but does it fit on dinig chairs with a curved, rather than straight backrest? And what asge do you think they can go in it from?

auntymandy and harrizeb - you don't mean literally put the food on the table?? I tend to use the highchair tray as a kind of giant plate atm. If I give ds (11mo) a bowl, he'll just throw it on the floor because he's at that kind of age. I doubt this approach would work with the dining table, cloth or not (mats would definitely end up on the floor pretty quickly).

i like the idea of the picture mats, he does get bored easily and loves to look at pictures.animals.

i got him the booster seat and we have screaming and tantrums at dinner last night...see my new thread (tantrums made me cry). we sat and ate and ignored him...5 mins later he stopeed crying and started to eat. this morning he got into the chair one his owen with no fuss and ate his breakfast!

:-)

Wow well done MMG - sounds like a step forward .

CarolinaFullMoon - No I didn't mean literally on the table, we used a set of plastic plate/bowl for DS. We didn't have a problem with him throwing plates on the floor it was usually just the food/drink that went, when he'd got fed up with mixing his drink into his meal that is .

A friend used suction bottomed bowls for her 3 and had one that was so effective she could pick up the high chair using it.

H x

Hows your little one doing MMG

option 1 deffo
child MUST be able to sit up at table to learn decent use of cutlery etc.
Strapping in is good: stop mealtime wandering.
with a plastic tablecloth

I cannot imagine how people have children without wipe-able table or tablecloth.