Do I need a cushion for the Kinderzeat?

[casey118]

First, I think I am going to order 2 Kinderzeats for my boys, ages 3 1/2 and 18 mos. I feel a little crazy spending so much on these chairs! Am I alone? I have read all of the posts and think my 3 year old in particular would really like it, and I'll do anything to get him to eat so I'm hoping it helps. I also want to buy now while I can get a Kindzeat instead of a Tripp Trapp because I don't want the 5 point harness.

So onto my real question. Do I need the cushions? I assume the straps are attached to the chairs, and thus come with the chairs, but I haven't seen any posts about whether the cushions are desirable, or just more of a pain.

TIA for your opinions.
Kimberly

[jadamom]

We've never had the cushions and haven't missed them.

[Momof3Labs]

The cushions are a pain. They are always used as napkins, therefore dirty, and get lumpy in the wash. Skip them and save your money.

[casey118]

Thank you!!! That saved me $60 and so I feel a little better about the cost of the chairs. For what it is worth, the Great Beginnings code of gbbaby is still good for 15% off. I love it how you ladies help me spend and save my money. :)

[shilo]

wow, i was just coming over here to ask the same questions!!

i just found a EUC cherry kinderzeat at my local children's resale shop ($100!!! i'm still freaking out about finding that there today!!! they'd only put it out on the floor 15minutes before i got there - yay!!!). anyway, it has the three point harness and i was just coming over here to ask about whether or not it was worth it to upgrade to the 5 point or get a cushion. looks like we're good to go! now i just have to decide if i'm going to save it for xmas (when i was originally going to get it for him), or just start getting my money's worth out of it now... decisions, decisions...

lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[jenjenfirenjen]

Start using it now! The only thing I regret about buying one was that I didn't do it much earlier. It's really that great.

[wimama]

I am thinking about getting a Tripp Trapp or Kinderzeat for my son instead of a high chair.

He is only 4 months old, but I am just thinking ahead. We have a Fisherprice Healthy Care Booster we can use for a while. I don't want to buy a traditional highchair. I don't want to waste money on one and we don't have alot of space for one. I would rather save the money and buy a Kinderzeat or Tripp Trapp.

Is the Five-point harness a positive or negative as your little one gets older? I think it would be a positive for a little one, but would the five point harness be cumbersome for an older child?

Would you buy the Tripp Trapp attachment and use it for a small baby around 6 months old? Should we wait, use the booster seat for a while and then by the Kinderzeat?

[Momof3Labs]

Why wait until Christmas? He is too young to really understand the difference, so I'd start using it now. What a find!

[brittone2]

no cushions here and we never missed them. I remember reading that a few people didn't like theirs, so we skipped them. No problem at all.

We started using our KZ when DS was around 16-17 months old I believe.

As far as the Tripp Trapp vs. the KZ, I'm debating the question myself as I'm sure we'll get one or the other for child #2. DS loves his.

I'm not sure if I want a baby kit (so would need the TT) or not. We have a FP healthy care deluxe chair from DS. He never really was a child that enjoyed his high chair, but I'll probably use that with child #2 and see how things go. We switched over to the KZ when he was no longer in the mood to sit in his high chair much at all, and we were all significantly happier once we made the transition.

The 5 pt. harness could be a pain with an older child, but I found that once DS was 2ish (I can't remember when), he was able to climb in/out on his own, and he was able to stay seated without any problems, so we started using it without the harness. Before that, I don't know how he would have tolerated a 5 pt harness...maybe that's part of what he didn't like with the high chair? No idea. But bad mama that I am, we pretty much don't use or need the harness at all at 2.5 and haven't used it in months.

I'm kind of torn on the issue myself ;)

[casey118]

I have used a peg perego highchair with two kids and it has a 5 point harness. I specifically ordered a KZ instead of a Tripp Trapp to get the 3 point harness. If I didn't have another highchair I may have made a different decision, but I really don't think the 5 point is necessary with older kids.

DS1 didn't like his high chair after about 15 months and would wiggle out of the shoulder straps and try to stand up, so I didn't think the shoulder straps helped at all. DS2 is 18 months and is still happy in the highchair, with shoulder straps. I use them, although am not totally convinced they would keep him in if he really wanted to try to get out based on experience with DS1.

The biggest downside is that the shoulder straps get a ton of food spilled on them- much more than the lapbelt. Even with a bib I think the shoulder straps get spilled on if the bib gets moved around at all or pulled off. Depending how easy it is to clean the straps they can get pretty disgusting pretty quickly.

For a baby there are probably some advantages to the 5 point, and if you are using it with a little one (maybe younger than about 18 months?) I would probably get the Tripp Trapp for the baby attachment, not necessarily for the 5 point harness. Of course, this is my opinion based on what I have read and my highchair experiences, not because I have used the Tripp Trapp.

[wimama]

Thanks for the info. I think if I get the seat when my little guy is still pretty young I will get the Tripp Trapp.

[holliam]

For what it's worth our highchair only had a 3-point harness--the Eddie Bauer wooden one and she did fine with that starting around 7 months. She was not the type of kid to try to climb at an early age though.

We moved to the KZ around 16 months or so and now at 2 she easily hops in/out like Beth said but apparently she is a safety nut because she buckles herself in. LOL

Holli

[n2ou]

Both of my children have never had a regular highchair but went straight into the Tripp Trapp with the baby attachment.

It works great (I did add an Ikea highchair cushion).

HTH

[lilycat88]

Guess I'm a worse mama...um...about 3 months ago I just totally removed the harness. I was tired of it getting in the way and Susanna wouldn't have anything to do with it from about 20 months.

[casey118]

I wouldn't mind a safety nut.... My ped has joked that my 3 year old DS "seems to be missing a fear gene." We blame it on his dad, but still!

[smilla653]

I have a Tripp Trapp with the 5-point harness and a cushion.

I'm not completely thrilled with the harness. We're having problems adjusting it so that it stays on DS, who is 16 mo. I'm looking forward to the day when we can just take off the harness. My thinking in buying the Tripp Trapp, though, was to eventually get the baby insert for #2.

I do like the cushion, actually. It's not a big deal to wash it and I like the way it looks. We probably won't have it on all the time, but the cherry wood with the orange cushion in our orange dining room looks really sharp. You don't *need* a cushion, though.

[brittone2]

LOL. Logan still spontaneously buckles himself in at times (he just did it this morning actually) but it has to be his idea ;)