So, we eat out a lot, probably more than we should, we know. We had no idea how much we'd like this chair until we saw one as a deal one day and just impulsively popped on buying one. Immediately, we began to realize the benefits and now we keep one of these chairs in each vehicle and have taken it on flights as we travel for vacation. It's become a must-have for us, and it has become one of our most talked about items we use and best discoveries we've made yet as newbie parents. We also have bought several for others who have had babies on the way. It's brilliant. Wait staff at restaurants are always amazed. Common problems with high-chairs in restaurants are numerous... Chairs are often unclean and buckles don't work frequently. They're too roomy and your baby/toddler wriggles and spins around and can be standing before you realize it. Restaurant style chairs are pretty standard, but table heights vary a little from place to place and are often higher than working height for baby. They often stick your baby at the end of a booth where's there's a lot of traffic from the wait staff or other patrons, which is especially bad in a busy restaurant. Experienced parents have all been through this, but us newbies tripped and stumbled to discover all these things. Sometimes, the wooden restaurant chairs are rickety and need some wood glue or screws to firm them up. If you look in the restaurant they are usually stacking them onto the other chairs, meaning that the bottom that was on the nasty floor brushes or makes contact with the working surfaces your baby eats at. Gosh, enough said right... let's just all agree that restaurant chairs can be just super-gross. We are surprised there are not more rules or enforcement in place by the health department or management at restaurants to dictate cleanliness surrounding these public chairs. We go through such efforts to clean and sanitize bottles and pacifiers and then stick our kids in these nasty chairs... makes no sense... SMH! Plus, there are so many illnesses that can be transferred from other snotty-nose babies using them... FLU season is especially scary. I know, I know, it can be good for babies to be exposed to germs to build their immune system, but we don't want to be haphazard about it either. We are no germ freaks, but we do employ some common sense tactics and this is one of them. This has either helped a lot or our baby has a super-good immune system. I'll just say that she has not been sick with a fever except for 1 time that she had a 24hr thing and that's it and she's 15 mos old now and we have had her out and about frequently since day 1. No cabbing up for this mobile family! It seems other kids we know about her age are constantly coming down with something. I know she'll get all the common illnesses, but I'd rather her get them as she's like 4 or 5, not 12 mos and 15 mos. She's even in daycare and has remained relatively illness free. I attribute much of that to this little chair, I really do. This chair provides a fairly consistent surface for you kid to eat on. It fits nicely in most booths, taking up the same space as might an adult. We don't buckle it in the booth. When using it on a chair, we usually just use one buckle, though it comes with 2, the little rubber feet really do most of the work to hold it in place on a wooden style chair. The tray itself becomes the eating surface instead of bothering with trays, bowls, etc. When done, we simply wipe it off into a plate of food with napkins, then we use a wet wipe to further clean it and put it back in it's little bag for the next time we use it. It's really very little trouble and we are fairly routine and quick about it since the first use. We carry little plastic utensils we can clean similarly and we then place them back into the zipper pouch on the side. We also carry disposable bibs in the pouch and the clips we use for them. The chair can get a little more dirty than a wet-wipe can handle after a while and it can periodically be placed in the dishwasher for a good wash if you just mind the proper settings and don't use heat drying. While a smaller object like this seems like it could have a smaller price to go with it, this is a huge value despite it's diminutive size. Can't say enough about this thing. Love it!
