Restaurant highchairs are next to useless - what to do?

[COElizabeth]

James has no trouble climbing out of the seat belt on the ubiquitous wooden restaurant highchair. Sometimes he does fine throughout the meal, but other times he starts trying to climb out immediately, even when I think he should be hungry and not too tired. He does the same thing with grocery shopping carts. What to do?

Elizabeth, Mom to James, 9-20-02

[brubeck]

With grocery shopping carts you can get a shopping cart seat to help keep the kids in. It's a pain to take in and out but it's worth it if you have a Houdini.

I've seen some shopping cart seats that supposedly can also be used on the restaurant high chairs. However a friend of mine had a Houdini child and she used one of those portable booster seats at restaurants. Using the tray on it also meant that she didn't have to wipe off the restaurant table with a towellette like I do.

[lizajane]

i got a grocery cart/highchair cover at BRU for about $15. it has a wide strap that velcros behind baby. it isn't the fancy ones that cover the whole cart. it is really more of a seat belt than a cover!

anyway... not making sense... but what i mean to say is that the wide strap makes a great seat belt and works really well for schuyler, who is at that "diving" age and couldn't really sit in a high chair or cart withtout it.

maybe it would help to keep him contained?