“SO many things, so little money” is perhaps the mantra of every parent when it comes to purchasing a necessity for a child, especially when he or she is a baby or toddler.
If you are like me, you’d do your research, find out if the product in question is a necessity or a want and decide to buy something brand new or secondhand depending on the balance of your bank account.
The market is inundated with items for babies and toddlers that parents would find it confusing and overwhelming at the same time.
So when my baby started to sit up and began eating solids, I wondered what to buy to help him sit independently and eat.
I was looking at a potty-like chair that costs RM300 but it would definitely be redundant in a couple of months. The Ikea baby chair is cheap but flimsy and you could find that everywhere.
That was until a mother told me to put my money—that’s a good RM939 — on the Stokke Tripp Trapp. I was sceptical until I read up about the lifelong chair that was designed almost 50 years ago and is still a bestseller for the brand today.
CLEVER PIECE OF DESIGN
Tripp Trapp is a simple piece of intelligent design. Two slanted beech L-shaped legs hold the seat, back rest and footplate — all made of wood.
On the inside on the L legs, slots are carved to insert the seat and footplate. As your baby grows, you adjust the position on the seat and footplate.
There are optional accessories that suit a baby’s age. My son uses the baby set (RM234.90), which has a high back support and rail with an integrated crotch strap which lets him sit securely and comfortably at the table.
I can’t stress enough the importance of the footplate. As an adult, when I sit on a chair, I’d like to rest my feet on the floor (or if it’s a stool, on the foot rest).
Having your legs dangling isn’t comfortable. Most baby chairs don’t have a footplate. Can you imagine how uncomfortable that must be for babies and toddlers? Little wonder then that some don’t like to be placed into one.
The first time I put him on the chair, his face literally glowed. I think he realised that for the first time, he was at the adult dining table with his parents. Before the Tripp Trapp, he used his walker to interact with us while we eat, always having to look up to see our faces.
The Tripp Trapp became our focal playing tool — he loves the vantage point if I sit on the floor. He is now higher than his mum and that gives him a reason to laugh.
MEAL TIME
The Tripp Trapp makes meal time more interesting for my small family. We would eat together and my husband and I would take turns to scoop his porridge while we enjoy our food.
Our son, meanwhile, loves listening to adult conversation so he’s pretty much entertained.
And because we eat together with him — babies love to imitate — he eats more too, since he sees that we’re eating. As a mother, I like the mealtime bonding and conversation and I’m relieved that he’s no longer “alone” when we eat, moving on his walker and tugging at my pants or his dad’s kain pelikat, asking for attention. Now he’s part of the adults who sit at the high dining table.
Only after I have tried this did I realise just how life-changing a piece of furniture could be. It cuts short the feeding time because it elicits his interest in eating, gives him the privilege of being with adults and gives us a chance to talk and laugh with him at the dining table.
The chair definitely increases the time we spend with him and stops us from having shoulder pain if we feed him in his walker, something we experienced before Tripp Trapp.
Sure, it’s an expensive piece of chair but if he can use it until he’s 10, I figure that’s only about RM94 a year and I don’t have to get him any other age-appropriate chair as he grows.
But most importantly, it’s the quality time and the ability for him to enjoy his time at the dinner table with us that I appreciate the most. That glow on his face was something that money could not buy.
FAST FACTS
Stokke Tripp Trapp
WHAT Lifelong chair
MATERIAL Beech or oak
WEIGHT 7kg
MAX HEIGHT 79cm
COLOURS A wide variety from black to red to green
DESIGNER Peter Opsvik (1972)
WEIGHT LIMIT 110kg
WARRANTY 7 years
SELLING POINT Easily matched with existing dining set, brings the toddler to the dining table during mealtimes, easy to clean and can be used until the child grows up.
PRICE RM939 at Happikiddo stores
RATING *****