question to Baby Trend highchair owners and/or the Fields

[LucyG]

I received a Baby Trend high chair as a gift, and am glad to have it. Since dd is only 8 weeks old, we are not using the chair yet. From reading some reviews, I have heard that a common problem with this chair is the baby's ability to kick the tray off onto the floor. I called Baby Trend to see what they are doing about this, and I was told that it's really not a common problem. The customer service rep. I spoke to told me that IF my child can kick the tray off, they will send me an updated tray. Otherwise, I should keep the tray I have. She said Baby Trend may make a new and improved tray down the line, but she didn't know when. Two questions:

1. Is the tray kicking really a serious and common (and messy!) problem?

2. Does anyone know when the new trays will be on chairs in the stores? From my conversation with the Baby Trend rep., it didn't sound like it would be anytime soon. She seemed very blase about the whole thing.

I am trying to decide whether to keep the chair I have, or to return it and get store credit, which I will use to purchase the chair with updated tray at a later date.

Thanks for any help you can give!

[alandenisefields]

Well, they wouldn't be blase if it happened in THEIR kitchen! But Baby Trend is right---not every child does this, so they are probably right to just wait and see.

We haven't heard from Baby Trend if/when they plan to revise that tray. Since your baby is only 8 weeks old and most folks don't use a high chair until 4-6 months of age, you could return it and get store credit. Then later in the year, you could evaluate what model would be best (given your baby's size, etc).

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I have the Baby Trend high chair and love it. My tray has a angled spot on the bottom of the tray to keep the child's feet away from the release bar and the release bar is recessed. I think it would be difficult for a child to kick off. I bought this highchair 4 months ago, so if your high chair is new you probably have this too.

[daisymommy]

I just bought our Baby Trend high chair last month in the Breckenridge (Navy check) pattern, and it had the updated tray with the kick deflector shield! Josh does kick his feet around alot, and it works like a charm to keep the tray perefctly stable. I'm wondering if now that they are making this new tray, if all the chairs in the stores have been updated as well. You could open a box to check before taking it home. It looks like a little triangle that extends in front of the pull lever under the tray.

HTH,

We purchased a Baby Trend in Breckinridge as well and the tray problem seems to have been remedied as well. If I remember correctly, I think that someone on the Toys R Us web site wrote a review on it and confirmed that the newer models have fixed this problem. Also, they stated that a vinyl cover is available for purchase directly from Baby Trend! (sorry I'm not tech savy enough to figure out how to link the review here, but you can likely still find it on the Toys R Us / Babies R Us site).

I have a 5 month old baby, and delayed choosing our high chair. I researched it a ton before Maya was born, and concluded that the Baby Trend High Chair was potentially good, but I didn't want cloth. I was also intrigued by the Zooper Peas and Carrots, but haven't had time to schlep to the one store I could find for hours away that HAS one to look at.

I just called Baby Trend, and..............The reason BabiesRUs shows it being discontinued is Baby Trend is updating the chair.

The new improved chair will have:

VINYL COVER OPTION
The new versions will have one choice that is, in fact, a vinyl cover, not cloth, which was one thing I really preferred. It will be 8665, "Taylor Square", and is white/black. The cover is a white backgrand with plaid of khaki and black squares. There will also still be the cloth options in other styles.

KICK PROTECTION
Tray will have a complete cover over the hand release to block the baby,

DISHWASHER TRAY
and there will be a dishwasher top to the tray that you can take off and stick in the dishwasher.

I talked to 2 different customer service reps. One said mid-May, one said end of May for release of the new product. Sigh. That's cutting it way closer than I'd hoped. I want to get one soon. But hope this info helps others :)