The Sunday Post ~ Carter's Safari Friends Reclining High Chair

Buy it here

If you read my blog then you'll probably see this chair in half of the photos I post here. It's that integral in our lives.

We originally bought it to match a dining room set we intended to purchase. Of course, we don't own it and the chair doesn't match our current set. But it still looks great and is more dressed up than the plastic high chairs. Here's what we love about it and what we don't:

We love the 2 tray design. Honestly, when I'm really lazy and the top piece isn't clean, it's awesome to have the secondary tray underneath. And I run the top piece through the dishwasher every time I run that machine. So, that function is great. However, a lot of chairs have this feature- not all, but a lot.

We love how heavy and sturdy it is. Now, for some that might not be a plus. But we almost never move the chair, except to clean. And the sturdiness is a major plus with a toddler around. He can hang off of it and not tip it over. This is great because he's often trying to climb into the chair by himself.

We love the small profile. It doesn't collapse, like many of the plastic chairs, but it requires less space when set up than the standard plastic high chair. And let's face it, the high chair is always up. So, the ability to collapse it is not a function we need.

What we don't love: There's not a lot to NOT love about this chair, but there is one major design flaw. The chair pad slips down and falls out. Now, it's not an issue if you strap your child into the chair, but I don't strap him in and haven't since he could properly sit up. I should but I don't. And the straps are the only thing properly holding the pad in place. I reverse engineered the pad and now it works great. I had some bias tape (that's fabric if you don't sew) in an accent color and so I cut some strips and tied them through the velcro loops of the pad and up over the back of the chair. It works great now.

We also didn't love the the reclining feature of the chair. It never worked right for us with our son strapped into the chair and reclined. It was awkward for us and we ended up using a smaller seat until he could properly sit in his high chair.

All in all, we love this chair. It's not for everyone, but if you need a sturdy chair, this is a great one.