Need Help Cleaning Baby Trend High Chair

[besaunders]

We purchased a Baby Trend Zanzibar high chair for our daughter, mainly based on the looks and the cloth seat. We've had a few major problems with the chair, though. One, it is easy to pinch your fingers or thumbs in the buckle, and it can be painful. Two, the chair is difficult to clean.

Even though manual suggests not machine-washing the seat cover, we do so, as our washing machine has one of those extra-gentle "handwash" cycles. So far, this seems to have worked well. The main problem we are having is cleaning the straps and the seat itself, though. Most of the straps can eventually be pulled out of the chair, though the bottom strap seems to be fixed. In order to soak that strap, I had to have the chair laying on its side, with that strap hanging down in a bowl of soapy water.

Cleaning the nooks and crannies of the chair itself seems nearly impossible, though. Normally, this probably isn't a big deal, but when your girl vomits twice in one week while eating dinner, you sort of want to clean things as well as you can.

Does anybody with this chair have any useful suggestions as to how we can approach this problem? Should we go after a FP chair instead? :)

[britchick]

I clean my high chairs by removing the cover and soaking in the sink and then put the chair in the shower and turning it on hot.Leave it under for a few minutes and it should come clean -the steam also helps loosen any stuck on gunk..good luck

[nfowife]

We've had this chair almost a year now and I'm very happy with it. However, I do not use the straps and haven't since DD was too young to have the tray on (like right when we started solids around 6 months). With the tray on and the seat upright, there is virtually no way for her to stand up in the chair- I have to pull the tray out in order for her to be able to sit in it, then I push it back in. I leave the straps underneath the pad so they don't even stick out. I wash the pad when it gets yucky in my machine, and dry it in my dryer with no problems on low, it still looks new- but for a while when DD was being really messy I used the vinyl side of the pad. I also used to put towels underneath the seat pad when I started to use the tray but DD was still too short to be at the right height for it, and that was a nice way to keep the underneath of the seat clean, since it's easier to throw a towel in the wash than the chair. For the nooks and crannies of the chair I use the mr. clean eraser, it is good at getting dried gunk out of the sides where my DD tends to put her dirty hands while eating :).

[daniele_ut]

We have had a Baby Trend High chair for 18 months now and have been really pleased with it. We have the version with zoo animals that was the predecessor to the Zanzibar pattern. Our directions allow for machine washing the seat pad on gentle, and we've done so many times with no problems. There is some controversy about ScotchGard and it's safety around children, which I didn't know at the time, but I treated the seat pad before we used it and all the stains have come out with no problem.

Unlike the pp's child, my DS has no trouble squeezing his way out of the chair if he's not strapped in, even if the tray is on as tight as possible. Thus, we always had to use the straps. I always take the straps off and toss them in the wash in a lingerie bag when I wash the seat pad. The crotch strap is riveted to the frame, and that has been my only complaint, but I just made sure to clean it with a wet cloth frequently so nothing would get set in.

I've also never had the problem you've described with the buckle. The Healthy care high chair has a similar buckle, so I don't think it would be any different.

I second the PPs suggestion about using the shower. I've only needed to do this once in the 18 months that I've owned it, right before I packed it away last month. The only places that food got stuck on ours were in the fold of the footrest and near the crotch strap. Our chair looks brand new, with the exception of the logo on the front of the tray, which has rubbed away a bit with frequent washing.

[american_mama]

Hmm, I have the predecessor to this high chair and it looks very similar except for the tray and pattern of fabric. I've had it 4 years and it's been in use for about 3 years.

My high chair no longer looks new by a long shot, but I think it's kind of inevitable with a high chair. Food will spill on the seat and I'm not sure how you would prevent crumbs from getting underneath a removable seat cover. On mine, the padding is removable, so you can clean under that eaisly. I wash the cover in the washing machine and it's faded some (mine is navy blue cotton print, not vinyl). The Baby Trend logo came unglued in one place and rubbed off in another. Food does fall in the cracks of the foldable leg rest and is hard to get out except by running a knife in the crack. I have gotten pinched buckling my DD. My DD1 would stay in the seat no problem, but my second DD can climb out of it easily no matter what I do.

I don't worry much about cleaning the straps. I would scrub them with a cleaning toothbrush or other brush if I ever bothered, the same way I'd clean the straps on my stroller or car seat.

I never noticed all these flaws until you pointed them out. I've always liked the high chair for its easy maneueribility, easy on-off tray, foldability, decent looks, and comfortable reclining seat (good when they can't quite sit yet). It's not hard to clean if I sit down with a scrub brush and/or hand ac and do it. I just rarely do anything more than wash the cover and clean the tray.