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- If your baby looks like this or this
or this or this in high chair, I'm sorry to tell you,
but the high chair is simply too big for your baby.
Now, you might be thinking, is that really important?
Yes.
When a baby is sitting in a high chair
which is too big for them, they tire easily
because they're using so much more energy to sit upright
because they have no postural support.
They also are less likely to touch and interact with food,
which is extremely important when they're learning to eat.
And that's simply because they're using their arms
to either hold themselves in sitting
by holding onto the tray of the high chair
or wedging their arms into the side
or hooking their arms around the side of the seat.
They simply cannot see their food well
because the tray is up too high,
and the physical skill of eating
is significantly more difficult
'cause they're using all their energy just to sit upright.
Now, I know you might be disappointed
that you bought a high chair which is too big for your baby,
but don't worry, in this video,
I'm gonna show you how you can make some simple adjustments
to the high chair by using items found around the house,
which is going to ensure
that your baby is nice and supported
when they're sitting in this chair.
Which means that they're gonna be more likely
and happier to explore and eat food.
But before we do, make sure you click
on that free PDF document in the description box below
which covers the developmental milestones
you can be expecting for your baby
in their first year of life.
This will give you an available piece of mind
as you'll know what to be expecting
and when to be concerned.
Also, if you wanna make parenting significantly easier,
make sure you subscribe to my channel
where you learn all the tips and tricks
I've learned over the last 10 years,
practicing as a pediatric occupational therapist,
and also being a mom to two children,
and make sure you hit that bell so you won't miss a thing.
Now, to set up your baby's high chair
so that you know they have the postural support they need
to sit upright, which in the long run means
that they're going to be more willing to explore food
and less likely to be a fussy eater.
The very first step you need to do
is check the overall seat height of the high chair.
So, to adjust the overall seat height
what you need to do is firstly,
check your baby when they're in the seat.
So you place them in the high chair
and you check where their arms are positioned.
As I said, generally, high chairs are too big
so your baby's arms are most likely gonna be up
near their shoulders.
That tells us the overall seat height
of the high chair is too low,
so we need to increase the overall height.
Now, the first thing you wanna do when you're looking
at adjusting the overall seat height of the high chair
is check if your high chair has the ability to adjust
the height like it does in the Stokke Tripp Trapp chair.
If it does, you simply change the level of the seat height.
If it does not, then you would remove the cover,
if it does have one,
off the high chair and then you would get a folded towel
and place it where your baby would sit on the high chair.
Now, you wanna place as many folded towels required
so that when your baby is sitting in the high chair
and the arms are resting on the tray or the dining table
their elbows are at 90 degrees.
Now, once you've done that,
the second step to adjusting the high chair
is ensuring your baby has some backrest support.
When you're babysitting in a high chair,
we want them to be sitting upright
or slightly off to upright.
We don't want them to be reclined at all
because that makes it difficult for them to eat.
And we don't want them to pulling themselves
by holding onto the tray.
So they're pulling themselves forward in the chair.
If they are doing any of these things
then you need to provide some back support.
So again, how you do this is simply check first,
whether or not your high chair has the ability
to make that adjustment or change that level of recline,
which is often using a lever at the back of the backrest.
If it doesn't have that ability,
again, make sure that cover's removed from the high chair
and you simply placed again, another folded up towel behind
where their back would be
when they're sitting in the high chair.
And that just ensures it brings the backrest
a bit further forward.
So we'll ensure your baby gets full contact
with the backrest and more support.
Now the third step in adjusting the high chair
is ensuring your baby has some trunk support.
Now, high chairs, as we said, are generally way too big.
So babies will often fall to the side
because the high chair itself is too big
and they don't have any side support,
which makes it difficult for them to sit upright.
Because, remember, sitting is a skill that they're learning
to do at six months of age.
So as they fall to the side,
it makes it really, really difficult.
If you can imagine trying to reach out and grab some food,
and also it makes it more difficult to swallow the food
once it's in your mouth.
So what you wanna do is, with this one,
make sure that cover of the high chair's removed,
and you would use some tea towels and you would roll them up
and then you would place it beside them at their side.
What you wanna do is ensure that the rolled up towels
only kinda come to their ribs.
You don't want it up to the armpit
because of when you bring in
the rolled up towels to their armpit,
it means that their arms are pushed out to the side,
which means that when they're trying to interact
with the food, it's quite difficult.
So we want their arms to be down by their side,
which means that the rolled up towel
needs to end at the level of their elbow.
So I would generally put the rolled up towels
on both sides of the high chair
to ensure that they've got equal support on both sides.
If your baby tends to lean to one side more than the other,
you might wanna pull that towel up a bit
or add in another towel to prop them up.
So after you've done that third step
in providing that lateral support or that trunk support,
what you can do is put the cover of the high chair back on,
and then this will ensure that the towels remain in place.
If you don't have a cover,
what you might wanna think about
is putting the rolled up towels
in something that you can wash.
So like a pillow case,
or you might be happy just to wash the towels as needed
and replace them with other towels.
But if it does have a cover, putting the cover back on
means that those towels will stay in place
and they will stay clean.
And the fourth step of adjusting the high chair
is ensuring your baby actually has some foot support.
Now, often high chairs claim
that they have semi-adjustable foot rests
or they have foot rests on the high chair.
If you put your baby in it and you notice that their legs
are not making any contact with the foot rest,
then we need to provide them with a foot rest,
a temporary foot rest.
And that's simply because they're learning to sit,
and to sit upright, they need to have that foot rest support
so that they can get more postural stability.
If you imagine I was making you sit on a bar stool
and not giving you any support at all,
you're gonna find that really, really difficult,
and you're gonna start tiring really quickly.
Your stomach muscles are gonna get very, very sore
and you probably wanna get out of the chair.
What is happening is the same thing for our babies.
They're sitting in this high chair,
they've got no support at all.
Sitting itself is extremely tiring.
So they're gonna start crying, and whinging at meal times
is just not going to be enjoyable.
So having foot rest support is definitely a must.
Now, how you achieve that in your high chair at home
is that you might be able to adjust that foot rest
like you can in the Stokke Tripp Trapp chair.
Otherwise you could use some temporary items
which you could find around a home.
I've used some pool noodles in the past.
I've got some high density foam and placed it there.
I've also used a nappy dispenser box or a shoe box.
What you wanna do is,
when you're using these temporary supports,
is that you wanna make sure
that when your baby is resting their feet on it,
their knees are at 90 degrees
and the hips are at 90 degrees as well as ankle.
And that ensures that it's at the right height.
Once you've found the right height,
I would just tape it on with tape to ensure it doesn't move,
and then as they grow, you'll just need to lower it.
And the fifth step in adjusting the high chair
is to make sure that if it does have a harness,
which is always recommended in high chairs,
that is set at the right height.
So what you want is that the harness
is level with the shoulders
or very, very slightly above or very slightly below
depending on where the slit is for the harness.
You do not want the harness so it's way above.
So, honestly that's very, very high.
That simply because it can cause a bit of tension
around the neck and kinda rub and cause some sheering
or some sores to develop
because of the harness rubbing against the baby's neck,
also it's not that safe.
So if you can ensure that the harness
is at level with their shoulder, that's amazing.
So that's how you adjust the high chair
to ensure that your baby's gonna be nice
and supported in the high chair,
and they're gonna be able to see the food,
smell the food, and interact with the food,
'cause they're going to be so supported,
they're to be at the right height,
and they're gonna be happy to stay in the high chair
for a longer period of time
because they're not using so much energy
to sit in a chair that's simply too big for them.
Make sure you click on the free PDF document
in the description box below.
And hopefully I'll see you next week
where I'll share more parenting tips and tricks.
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