Stokke trip trap, advice needed from existing owners

[tiredAli]

Ds, 17 months, has never been strapped in, never needed to.
He's now worked out that he can stand on the reinforcing bar under the seat and can virtually climb out.
I'm not sure strapping him in will stop him doing this but DH thinks that taking out the reinforcing bar will solve the problem.
Anyone else had this problem and can offer advice, coz I'm not sure taking the bar out is the right thing to do - I don't want the thing to fall apart at tea tonight!

ds is 8 mths and doing this.
harness
only safe to take out one bar when used as a adult/older child seat with no footrest

I wouldn't take out the reinforcing bar. What I probably did when DD2 was about this age (which was only 7 or 8 months ago), was take away the baby bar and just let dd2 use it as a normal chair. She couldn't climb out because there was nothing to climb out over. But of course you still have to make sure they are old enough not to fall off of the chair.

I used a harness up until about 16 - 17 months.

never needed to be strapped in? how come?
you need a harness, put fastenings at back to ensure he can't undo it once he works out how.

dd never needed a harness but she never tried to climb out...

Used harness. Even to the stage when he was climbing in with assistance, even with baby bar on front - he'd turn round, sit down and then demand to have his harness on... . When he started climbing up on his own (not good to turn round when cooking his tea to find him standing precariously at eye level), took baby bar off front so he didn't have to climb as far - not used harness since.

I remember using harness until we removed the bar and dd could climb on and off herself. Piffle not sure what you mean about the footrest as it is meant for use all the time with older children aswell.

never used a harness, once DS started to object to going into the baby seat bit we made it into a chair. That was at about 17-18 months I think. he's been using it as a chair since (now 21 months) with no problems. Well, he's fallen off when being silly and standing up on the footrest, but now reacts very fast to "SIT DOWN".

never needed a harness is a bit like saying you never needed a seatbelt because you never had an accident

Thanks everyone.
May have a go at taking the baby seat off and see what he makes of that!
I guess not using the harness is a bit of naievety - I couldn't see what extra safety it gave him when he first went in the chair as I was always next to him or in the same room. Perhaps we were just lucky that nothing ever happened because of that decision!

I took the baby bar off at about 15 months and substituted a harness. I agree with others who've said that you should have one - it's different when they are tinies but once they are curious toddlers it would only take one slip for them to fall out and crack their heads. Unless you can honestly, hand on heart, say that you are never more than arm's length from your child in the high-chair you can't be sure they won't fall.

Also I find it exceedingly useful to be able to strap DS in and leave him colouring or whatever while I cook.

Incidentally you don't need to buy the stokke reins. We bought cheap-as-chips non-brand ones (somewhat along these lines although not exactly the same, and they work fine. Our local babyshop recommended them as a cheap substitute.

ok... here's the thing. Iknow this is an ancient thread but thought I'd revive it to ask my question.

DS is 10 months and too big for the baby bar, he is all squashed sitting behind it. Took it off but occasionally, he arches his back, stretching or wriggling or whatever and boompf, he's hanging there having slipped off the seat, past the footrest and dangling.

the reins are as tight as I can have them and still have room for them to go round him.

I'm a bit stumped.

Can't you tuck the chair right up to the table?

Leave him hanging! He'll soon learn not to wriggle.

That was a joke btw, just my warped sense of humour