Don't forget to add White Glove Delivery Service to your Local Chicago furniture orders! Tripp Trapp by Stokke At some point, your baby will start getting his or her three square meals (plus what feels like a gazillion snacks) and you want a high chair that is comfortable, easy to clean and looks nice in your home. Whether you want a convertible chair (the latest trend) or something more classic, here are the best and best looking high chairs around. Steps Chair by Stokke - $279 (plus accessories) There's a reason Stokke's Trip Trapp (top) has been around since the 70's - it's a versatile product with timeless good looks. The company has finally introduced another high chair—Steps—with the same core mission: to grow with the child. Steps is designed to be used in conjunction with Stokke's Bouncer and Baby Set to work for a child from birth through the toddler years. (Image credit: Monte Design) Tavo High Chair by Monte Design - $345-445 With an upholstered leather seat and maple or walnut base, the Tavo is the most handsome high chair out there.
It's designed to be pulled right up to the table so your child feels part of the meal right from the start. Also comes in black leather. (Image credit: Phil & Teds) Poppy High Chair by Phil & Teds - $119.99 In cranberry, lime and bubblegum pink, the Poppy has an attractive curved tray and can be stored away easily by popping off the rear legs. To extend its life in your home, the Poppy converts to a child-size chair. Sprout High Chair by OXO - $249 OXO makes two high chairs (the other is the Seedling), but the Sprout is a much more attractive option. It grows with your child in two ways - it adjusts to three heights and then becomes a child's chair. Stack 3-in-1 by Chicco - $129.99 The Stack hopes to be the only child's dining chair you'll need as it converts from high chair to booster to youth stool with optional backrest. This chair comes in three colors, is relatively affordable and is exclusive to Toys R Us. The HiLo Chair - $399.99 The HiLo, created by Canadian company Age Design, debuted back in 2008 and is now sold in the US by Joovy.
The chair seat flips over to convert quickly from high chair to child chair. The chair comes in 7 colors. ANTILOP High Chair by IKEA - $19.99 IKEA sells a (slightly) more expensive high chair, but the ANTILOP is a great high chair so why spend more. Easy to clean with a simple, modern look. (Image credit: Mamas & Papas) Juice High Chair by Mamas & Papas - $149.99 Another high chair that converts into a youth chair, the Juice comes in three juicy colors - teal (shown), pink and apple green. High Chair by BabyBjorn - $299.99 This chair is folds up and can be put away easily making it a nice choice for small homes. The rounded tray is designed to fit snugly around the baby's belly to minimize mess. Rather than slide out, the tray pivots downward to make room for getting the baby in and out and the tray cover can be easily removed and put in the dishwasher. Nano by Bloom - $99 Although not as flashy as the Bloom Fresco, the foldable Nano is both affordable and ideal for small homes and apartments.
It comes in 10 colors. (Image credit: Summer Infant) Bentwood High Chair by Summer Infant - $179.99 Looking for something less modern? This chair is good looking and a great value. The height adjusts to four positions and the seat reclines for napping. And, apartment dwellers take note, it folds up for storage. Taste by BabyHome - $169 This is a good basic chair - lightweight at just under 8 lbs. and it folds flat for stowing away. The tray swings out to one side for easy in and out for your baby. The Taste comes in 5 colors. Lobster Portable High Chair by Phil & Teds - $79.99 Not only is the Lobster a great travel chair, if you live in a small home you should consider foregoing a traditional high chair and go for this legless version. It attaches right to your table and can be used with or without the food tray. Also available in red and holds children up to 37 lbs.There is a saying amongst lactation professionals, which I learned from I was studying to become a Certified Lactation Counselor: “Flex the hips to open the lips.”
The context was learning about baby’s motor skill and problems that arise from lack of baby skill, such as a baby who does not latch on well, poor milk transfer from mom to baby, poor weight gain in baby, and mother’s engorgement. Some of the interventions for babies with poor skill are sensory: provide skin-to-skin contact, provide sensory input to the baby’s mouth by stroking their cheeks and tongue, and applying pressure against the feet. Tickling a baby’s feet is often recommended and many moms try this, but what they don’t realize is that tickling/touching is different than applying pressure. Pressure is the application of continuous force, applied uniformly over a surface, by one body onto another body. Hence, applying pressure on the feet, such that the hips become flexed slightly. Since that class, I have also learned about a new technique for breastfeeding intervention, called Biological Nurturing (BN), which is a breastfeeding in the laid-back position.
The researcher who coined the term BN, Suzanne Colson, PhD, emphasises utilizing primitive reflexes, such as stroking the top of baby’s foot to help them crawl to the breast, as is the case when mom is leaning back and baby is on top. Regarding the feet, Dr. Colson states that there is a “strong foot-to-mouth connection” and when the baby’s feet and body are poorly applied to mom’s body, feeding problems are likely to occur. Although she is primarily interested in the reflexes on the top portion of the foot, remembering what I had learned in my CLC training, that got me thinking about feet and eating in general. When I went back to my notes, I noticed that I scribbled that the instructor also mentioned that pressure against feet was good for toddlers too. Since I had a two year old at the time, I was intrigued by this foot-eating connection. I noticed that when he was in his high chair (which was a high chair that attaches to a regular chair) he would always lift his feet and keep his feet resting on the underside edge of the tray.
Imagine sitting at a bar, chatting with friends, and your feet are dangling. It’s not very comfortable. We bought this type of highchair because I wanted something that could be brought close to the table and was not a separate entity so that our child could feel more included at meals. I knew that there were more expensive chairs, such as the Stokke Tripp Trapp and others, that provide adjustable configurations from baby to teenager and even adult. But as an employee of Stokke aptly stated “comfort and ergonomic benefits are not well understood by Americans who have a preconceived notion of high chairs as a single use item vs a chair that grows with the child.” And I was also insistent that chair was able to get to the table, but oblivious to the feet-comfort connection. So I was delighted when we inherited a discontinued high chair by KidKraft, a model that looks very similar to the Stokke Tripp Trapp. Stokke paved the way for the adjustable ergonomic high chair in 1972, designed by Peter Opsvik (The Tripp Trapp was previously knows as the Kinderzeat), but it has not really caught on until now, especially here in America.
Then we had baby #2. And although I wanted a new chair, we used the same add-on highchair that we already owned. But when he was nearing one, he kept struggling to find a place to rest his feet, and he also kept climbing into big brother’s chair. I have spoken to some Stokke owners about what to do for baby #2. Some told me that they buy another chair, and build a collection for each child, and some told me that big brother or big sister gives the new baby their chair. Well that does not solve the problem of dangling feet. So I was pleased when Stokke provided me with a chair to write this article. Reading about the history of Stokke, I was not at all surprised to learn that it is a Norwegian company and their slogan is “In the best interest of the child,” since Norway is well-known to have the best maternity and paternity leave in the world. I also found a class project by a group of Cornell University students (suported by Stokke), in which the students discussed various forms of children’s seating: low chairs with children’s feet touching the floor but separated from the table, high chairs and boosters which raise the child but may not provide lower leg support, and the Stokke Kinderzeat, which provides both.
The students designed a research study: “to test the claim that the KinderZeat’s footrest provides the “basic stability upon which movement is based” and is essential in “alleviating strain and reducing ‘fidgeting”. To do this we devised a series of tasks to be performed by young preschool children while sitting in the KinderZeat with the footrest, or without the footrest, a condition equivalent to the child sitting in either and adult chair with or without a booster. Tasks were devised to test the various reach capabilities and also the task persistence of young children sitting in these test conditions.” The results showed that children aged 3-4 were able to reach further when seated in the Kinderzeat, had more stability, and less fidgeting. ”When children sat in the chair with no footrest, they seemed to move more because they had less support for their body, resulting in fidgeting as they tried to get comfortable while performing the task. The body stabilization results between the two conditions also showed a statistically significant difference.