Highchair Retirement

Bree is growing up very fast. She no longer needs her highchair. It has been packed away. Her mum is not sure of what to do with the beloved highchair. She seemed to want to keep everything used by her precious little girl. Bree didn’t seem to miss her highchair. To her, she probably thinks that she is ready for the next thing to try.

Replacing the highchair is the Tripp-Trapp chair that has been sitting in the spare room gathering dust. The Tripp-Trapp chair was bought first but Bree’s mum didn’t think that the then 2/3 month old Bree was comfortable sitting in it. So it was prematurely and temporarily retired until now. Bree’s mum loved the old Prima Papa. I love the Prima Papa. Almost every family that I worked for had one. Bree was placed in it long before she started to eat solids. Her mum used to strap her in it while feeding her milk. (As a nanny, I recommend that bottle fed babies be held close to the carer when being fed.) Some people like the idea of their offspring gaining independence ASAP by reducing human contact.
Bree’s dad took away the safety bar on the Tripp-Trapp and adjusted seat height and foot rest so that his little daughter can sit comfortably at the dining table for family meals on the weekend. Bree will be able to get on her seat independently pretty soon. The old highchair can also be adjusted as well but the newer models of this particular highchair have a safety pole at the edge of the seat to prevent a baby from slipping. We all agreed that this particular feature might make it harder for Bree to get on and off by herself. Her clothes might get caught causing her to fall over if she is wearing a dress or a skirt.

Bree does not eat with her parents on most weekdays. (Some children I have looked after in the past hardly ever ate with their parents at all.) On the days that I look after her, she takes her meals at her own little table and chair. Come to think of it, she has not used the old highchair in my presence for quite sometime.

I always have my lunch with her by dragging a dining chair to her table. She enjoys my company. These days, she drags the dining chair across to her little table for me. LOL. Bree’s mum told me that she only started to do the same after seeing what I did. Sharing meals together, especially dinners, is a good time for adults to encourage conversation with the little ones. Sometimes people complain about the lack of verbal input and output from their children but never did they realise the importance of encouraging communication from a young age.