Beautiful & good through child's lifetime!
Written: May 04 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful beechwood chair melds well with adult dining table & other household furniture.
Cons: Beechwood means more complex clean-up than plastic; belts are not machine washable.
The Bottom Line: We do love this chair and recommend because of its expandability over time. Hard wood sits like a stool with curved back--child's feet rest firmly. Nice.
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| lisandrea's Full Review: |
My husband and I are about 80% happy with this product. Ok, maybe 78%. It is very attractive & sturdy. My son's been sitting in it for 2 1/2 years, so my review covers a long period of time using this seat.
The version we purchased has attached straps on the back & seat to belt a child in for safety. I have two main complaints with the straps: they cannot be removed for cleaning, and they are very hard to adjust. The strap belts have an unusual locking mechanism, and when caked with dry food, they are exceptionally difficult to loosen & adjust it for a growing child. However, because each side is hard to unlock, that should give assurance to the parent that once you set the length in place for your child he will not be wiggling out on his own. The three-part belt has a single thumb release on the clip (attached to the seat), but takes adult-pressure to open, so it, too, is safe for wiggly worms.
We bought this in the natural cherry color (also comes in raspberry & rosewood)--it is so attractive and blends well with the rest of our Ikea scandia furniture throughout the house.
The premise of this chair is that it is adjustable for child through adult. I have personally sat in in many times when my son has chosen to steal my chair for the night (he's trying to be a Big Boy too fast!). Each flat panel (there are 2--seat & foot rest) is easily raised or lowered with a simple loosening of the screws with either the supplied allen key/wrench, or one of your own (metric). We have adjusted the seat & foot rest several times for our too-tall son, and are due to do so again. It is nothing to fear! Simple & quick.
There are two back panels--one is clean with no attachments, and the other holds two-parts of the seatbelt strap. I mention above that the belts are not removable--but the wood back panels are. So, when your child has outgrown any need for the straps, you can remove the lower of the two back panels & with it goes the straps...BUT the seat has the clip that cannot be detached even when the seat, itself, is still needed with the footrest below. Once the footrest is unnecessary you can use it as a seat, but between the time when a seatbelt is needed and a footrest is not, both seat AND footrest are needed, so I think we'll have to buy another seat to replace the clip one (hope that wasn't too confusing--a product picture with this listing would help clarify. I feel like I'm trying to write about how to tie shoelaces...).
CLEANING the chair is a problem--children spill food and drinks as they learn how to eat/drink properly at the table, but this chair is made of solid beechwood wood with a clear finish. You ought to clean it immediately after any spill and then treat it as you would other wooden furniture. This is a little too much maintenance for most people, including me! I tend to leave it up to my husband (grin!). Stokke does make cushioned covers in various prints that are washable--might be the best solution for you if you chose to go with this highchair solution. We didn't purchase the seat & back cushions, but I am considering it, still, since we will likely get a second one of these for our daughter, who is not yet ready to sit up in a chair.
I hope my son uses this chair all the way through high school--it will adjust to accommodate him if we take good care of it. As a solution to the food-on-the-seat problem, we often cover the entire chair with a clear plastic garbage bag & poke holes for the belt to come through. Not very classy for guests and company...but it protects the chair & can be cleaned up easily--we just toss the messy bag & cover it again with a new one. Presto.
Again...high maintenance. My husband takes care of that part, too. Am I blessed with a good man, or what!?
Final thought--the design of this chair does make it very stable. My son has always been able to crawl up into it on his own, or climb back down on his own. HOWEVER, he needed supervision for a long time doing that because he did like to try to rock his chair back like Daddy. First we corrected Daddy's leaning habit so he didn't demonstrate that to our son, and then we had to work on teaching Logan not to push back from the table. He did so once & knocked his head on the window sill behind him. So, even though it has a wide & very stable base, it is NOT foolproof for tipping. I suppose my son could have done the same with many other chair solutions on the market--he's a wiggly toddler boy, after all, so we are always keeping on hand nearby to catch his falls when possible. Just don't be caught off guard thinking this is a tilt-proof chair. It is only a nearly tilt-proof chair.
Still, I do love it! Attractive, eternally adjustable, brings your child right up to the table with the rest of the family, where you can enforce good table manners & behavior from a very early age...these are worth the extra trouble to me (& even my dear husband!!). It's like a big boy chair for little people. Enjoy & pass it down to your grandchildren.
[Addition: There seems to be some confusion about this seat. As far as I can tell from all my research on it, there is ONE chair with additional attachments. Those attachments ought to be reviewed separately. For example, there is an available rail: http://www.babybungalow.com/stbaraftrtrc.html but it does not come with the Kinderzeat. The chair's other brand name is Tripp Trapp. They are the same chair, available in the USA as Kinderzeat; in Europe as Tripp Trapp. Neither currently comes with a tray & the cushions are add-ons.]
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
lisandrea
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Location: Virginia
Reviews written: 45
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
AP, NFP, WAHM/SAHM but NO SPAM (thank you, Ma'am)! :O)
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