Tripp Trapp

Here is Ethan doing what he does best at the table...making a mess. Sometimes the food actually gets into his mouth, which could explain why he is still under 30 lbs...but hey what do I know.

From day one, Ethan has never been the easiest child to feed. Nursing him proved to be more difficult than the emergency c-section I had to bring him into this world!

Since then, he has been known as my "full-body extreme eater". He doesn't seem to be concerned with how messy he gets while eating, and certainly doesn't notice where all of the food goes once he is covered with...ie: the chair, the table, the floor, anyone who comes within a 2 foot radius of his "go-go-gadget arms"! You get my drift.

Well, we had gone shopping with my sister on Saturday to look at baby cribs as her and her husband are expecting their first child in October. My parents were there as well, because they wanted to purchase the crib as their baby present to them. So, off to Tiny Tot Land in Manchester. A rather crowded store with more baby stuff than Babies R Us could ever hope to carry, just not as well organized! However, we stumbled, (almost literally) over this chair that they sell there. It's made by a company called Stokke, and it's called the ZinderZeat also known as the Tripp Trapp. I've seen this seat before and come to find out it's been around for 30 plus years, mostly in Europe where it was originally sold. The company changed the name from Tripp Trapp because they found that us silly Americans weren't as willing to buy a chair for our children with this name...not sure why (hee-hee)! Anyway, they changed it to the ZinderZeat. Now that has been widely accepted in this country they are changing the name back to the Tripp Trapp.

Sorry for the back ground on the company, but it was confusing at first when I noticed the same chair with two different names.

So, I asked Ethan's therapist about this chair as it is supposed to help align the spine which is better for digestion and comfort while eating. It also helps with the fidgety child. For those of you who have witnessed my child eating a meal at the table, fidgety doesn't begin to explain his table etiquette.

Anyway, these chairs don't come cheap and after much searching we found that the price was the same where ever we looked. So, off to Tiny Tot Land to let Ethan pick out his chair. I was tempted to give him the choices of natural colors to match the kitchen table, but decided that if we truly want him to use this chair and enjoy it, I should relinquish my choices and allow him to pick his color. As you can see from below, Fire Engine Red is most definitely not one I would have gone with, but he appears to enjoy it.

How has it worked so far? Well, although he is still messy when eating, so far we haven't had as many dropped spoons, and spilled bowls. We are hoping that maybe we can give him regular cups to drink with now that he isn't squiggling around so much. As you can see it has a 5-point harness on it. Many of you may look at it as a problem on a 3 1/2 year old, but again for those of you who know him...he's fast. He can reach across the table, and jump down from his seat with lightening speed. Hence the spilled cups of milk and the dumped bowls of food. I'm hoping that the harness will only need to be used for a short period of time until he gets used to sitting on the chair to finish a meal. That's the other difference. It now takes him less time to eat his meals. It would take him forever to eat because he was constantly rearranging his body at the table to get comfortable. Now, that he is comfortable, he eats at a normal speed, and finishes what's in front of him. Granted we've only had the chair for 24 hours, but if it is any indication of what we can expect for his behavior at future meals, I will strongly recommend this chair to anyone with a child who is antsy at the table, or who is on the smaller size for most high chairs, or booster chairs. The website gives you a ton of information and it is : www.stokke.com . Check it out. Happy eating!