How I solved the problem of keeping my toddler at the dinner table by catering to his adventurous, freedom-loving nature. I raised the chair instead of the child.

My son is a very adventurous toddler who is very tall for his age. (He's not your 'average' 17 month-old; he's off the charts for height). He recently decided that he no longer wanted to be strapped into a booster seat to eat; he prefers the 'freedom' of sitting on a regular kitchen chair. He's tall, but not tall enough to be able to sit on the chair and see his food at the same time. And 17 month-olds want to be able to distinguish peas from M&Ms, before they touch them! To fix this issue, he would often stand on the chair to eat. This was an accident waiting to happen. Ergo-mom to the rescue!

The "Hisita underchair booster" promotes itself as the "next step in child seating." The kitchen chair sits on top of the booster and is strapped on. The platform raises the seat height by 7.5 cm (3") and has a 15 cm (6") "step" on all sides of the platform base. When he climbs onto the chair, it doesn’t tip over! By raising the chair, we've corrected the "working height" issue, and:

• He can sit to eat
• He can retrieve food with less awkward shoulder postures
• He can see the food on his plate. (No more picking up peas if he doesn’t want to eat them!)

An added bonus, the underchair booster has a wider base of support than the chair, so it’s less likely to tip if he does decide to stand up. The end result is two happy parents, one happy "freedom loving" toddler, and mealtime with one less battle.

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Tanya Morose is an ergonomics consultant with Taylor'd Ergonomics Inc. Taylor'd Ergo's services include office and industrial ergonomics assessments, physical demands descriptions (PDD / PDA), metabolic analyses, design reviews, training, customized workshops, and much more! Tanya is also a mother of a toddler and constantly searches for ways to tailor the world to suit his size and skills.