Babies R Us RightHeight High Chair

I’m not certain that we needed a new high chair for Worm.  The one we had worked just fine.  It was without bells and whistles but it did the job it was designed to do, provide an eating surface for the little man.  One fateful day we stopped by our local Babies ‘R Us to get a few other things and a plush new high chair found its way into our basket.  Maybe it was the store’s bright lights or the giant sale tags that coaxed us…or it could have been grandma’s magic purse.  Either way, we bought a Babies R Us RightHeight high chair and put our old one out to pasture.

The RightHeight can be assembled fairly easily.  Parts just snap into place and there are only two screws in the whole design.  After assembly, I gazed at my achievement and “kicked the tires” so to speak.  The whole chair wobbled.  The RightHeight high chair never feels stable, even without a little person in it.  It’s not like the chair will tip over or anything.  It just never inspires confidence.  I’m always checking to see if any part of it is broken.  Luckily, the 5-point harness will keep Worm safe inside should the thing just crumble to pieces.  (I think a 5-point harnesses would be more applicable on things that actually move, such as a car seat or stroller, not on a high chair.  But I guess if you’ve got a fast eater, you may need the extra restraints.)

The folding feature is one nice thing about this high chair.  With two hands, you can move the sliding locks down and bring the legs together.  It makes the unit take up a little less space in the house.  The only problem is that the wheels are very poorly designed and I end up just dragging or lifting the whole high chair to move it.  If you have any carpet whatsoever, the wheels will give you a hard time when you try to transport the RightHeight anywhere.  We’ve got berber carpet and I have to drag the RightHeight across it due to the poor wheel design.  Not good.

I like the ability to remove the tray with one hand or two.  I also like the ability to clip the tray to the back of the high chair when not being used.  (Although, if I don’t clean the tray before storing it on the back of the RightHeight, the dogs will do it for me.)  When installed for use, the tray never feels like it’s ever secure in the chair.  It has 4 adjustments to go from “in your face” to “get me the binoculars” distance.  Or if you’ve got one skinny kid and one portly one, you can find at least one comfortable tray position for each of them.  There’s no doubt that Worm will be able to comfortably grow with this high chair, but none of the settings makes the tray ever sit “right”.  I’m constantly wiggling it to make sure the tray won’t become a projectile if my son grabs hold of it in one of his berserker moods.

One of the features of the RightHeight high chair is a 3-position recline.  I have no idea why you would NOT want your child to sit upright and eat.  But, I guess 3-positions sounds more dazzling than 1-position and so now, baby can lie back and eat, simulating perfect couch potato posture.  Reclined eating at the dinner table is now an option.  (Back when I was a kid, slouching was bad manners at the dinner table…)

There is a 6-position chair height adjustment.  This feature is very useful.  The aptly named RightHeight does deliver a wide range of height adjustments to work with various table sizes.  It also gives us the option to have Worm eat off of the table instead of the tray.  We really like this feature as it makes Worm seem much more adult-like and proper.

The Babies R Us RightHeight high chair gets average marks all around from me.  Some of the features are good and others make you scratch your head in wonder.  I’m not sure that this chair was tested in multiple houses before it was put out on the market.  On the other hand, the Worm does like to climb into and sit in it, so there is a major comfort factor that applies to my specific case.  Getting Worm to sit and eat is less of a chore than it used to be and that is a huge benefit of the RightHeight in our household.  So, in short, it will probably remain with us until Worm’s out of college (or at least out of pre-school).

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Overall Rating:  5 Worms

Ease of Use: 5 Worms

Performance:  5 Worms

Features:  5 Worms

Durability:  5 Worms  (We’ve only used it for about 3 months now.)

Manliness:  5 Worms

Retail Price:  $99.99

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Pros:

Washable seat pad, dishwasher safe tray liner, one-handed tray removal, tray storage on unit, towel drying rack, 6-position chair height adjust,

Cons:

Wheels don’t roll over carpet well, every part of the RightHeight wobbles, two flimsy screws in the entire design (which is a bit too minimalist in this case), 5-point harness (overkill for eating)

Things I would modify:

Make wheels that actually roll on surfaces other than hard floor, use screws instead of rivets, add a more convenient handle for transport it from room to room.

Where to find:

Babies R Us