My Review of Carter's Classic Comfort Reclining Wood High Chair - Safari Friends

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

The Carter's Wood High Chair features a classic hard wood design that compliments any home decor. The High Chair offers all the traditional features that parents have come to expect including recline, storage, adjustable tray with removable dishwasher safe insert tray, and an easy to clean viny...

Carter's Classic Comfort Reclining Wood High Chair - Safari Friends

Beautiful chair, but just not safe!

By Asher's Mom from Boston, Ma on 8/30/2010

 

1out of 5

Pros: Decorative Design

Cons: Unsafe, Poor quality

Describe Yourself: Midrange Shopper

Primary use: Personal

I bought this highchair because it looked like furniture and seemed sturdy, like something that would stand up against more than one child. However, we used it only a handful of times and the last time we used it, it fell apart with my baby in it! The back support and side bars became detatched from the base when we tried to recline it. Thank goodness our baby wasn't hurt. When we brought it back to the store we asked if we had properly put it together and we were told that we had. So instead of exchanging it, I bought a different highchair, its just not worth finding out if we got the lemon of the bunch!

(legalese)

The Good, The Bad, and the Sorta Ugly!

I took Asher to see his GI specialist today and the nutritionist that specializes in rare allergies. I didn't even need to make my case for food because Asher is now in the 100% for height, but still in the 35% for weight. 27" and 14.5 LBS.
So the good news is that Asher is able to eat vegitables that make up less than 7 Ammino Acid strands. I guess the reason he had a reaction to Alimentum is that Alimentum is broken down into 40 complex Ammino Strands and Asher is reacting to Amminos grouped larger than 7. We have a whole immunology report explaining this stuff that I completely do not understand...I have some research to do.

The bad news is that they believe Asher's Allergies are due largely to a Immuno Disorder, so we've been refered to an immunologist who will work in conjunction with the allergist, nutritionists, and GI specialist to help us feed our kid. Sigh.
The inbetween news is that we've got a list of def proteins that he is allergic to. They are Milk Protein, Soy, Lactic, Wheat, Whey, Eggs, Tree Nuts, Peanut.
We've been cleared to eat the following first foods after a skin scratch test done in the office today followed up by some blood tests: Organic...Carrots, Sweet Potatos, Apple, Pear, Sweet Pea and Beech Nut Rice Cereal because its the only rice cereal that does not contain Milk or Whey.

We were told to introduce Carrots first because very very few people are allergic to carrots and carrots make up only one Ammino Strand. So the first set of trials will be at home. 1 Food for three days, in the morning and in the evening. If theres no reaction we can try the next food.

We did Carrots tonight. This picture makes my heart very happy

Christopher's Corner

When I was pregnant with Asher I posted on a message board for pregnant women. When I was about halfway through my pregnancy, I woman who was maybe a few weeks less pregnant than I was, lost her first child Christopher to an unknown virus. This tragedy has stuck with me since it happened. I am heartbroken for Christopher's family. This week Christopher's family would have been celebrating his second birthday.

Christopher's family are honoring Christopher's memory by creating a special corner in his local library filled with books for young children. This week Asher and I will be sending a couple books to Christopher's Corner in memory of precious Christopher. If you have the means to do so, please consider sending a book!


http://www.causes.com/causes/493305?m=9e4cc0c7&recruiter_id=48450197

A Swift Kick in the Butt and a Giant Smack in the Face!

I've already posted this on my Facebook, but in case you missed it its worth mentioning here as well. A couple days ago Asher was bouncing around and kicking his legs like a madman in his bouncer. Kylee walked by and got kicked in the butt...totally an accident, but you can't get a 19 month old to understand that. She got all huffy and grabbed Asher's foot, riped off his shoe. Then she turned her body and stuck her butt in his face, looked over her back so she could see Asher, took her free hand and pointed to her butt while shaking Asher's shoe at him. She said "This my butt! My butt!" Poor Asher just stopped kicking and looked at her like "Okay sheesh, yes thats you're butt" Haha these kids crack me up! Heres a picture minutes before this event happened!

In other areas...my poor child is always starving! Neocate is so thin that sometimes he wants to eat every hour and its just not possible. I feel bad for him, his stomach makes noises and he whines....and then if I'm not quick enough he screams for food. I feel like I'm always washing bottles and I live in fear that we'll run out of Neocate before the end of the month. Neocate is $85 a can and you can only get it at a pharmacy.....and not all them carry it. At our pharmacy they have to special order it and since it has a shelf life they only order enough to cover your prescription, so if you go through more of it than the script calls for you're pretty screwed. I brought this up to Asher's pedi and asked if she could write the script for a few extra cans a monthy so that we're never without food, but she said that she wrote it for the max ammount that my insurance will cover....so if we run out of Neocate we have to give him pedialyte until the new month begins. Pedialyte is not a substitute for food!

I get very jealous when I read about other babies getting rice cereal and other first foods. It totally sucks that even on regular formula or breast milk we would have been thinking about these things anyway. But now when hes starving all the time, I can't help but feel saddness and frustration over the whole allergy issue.

The allergy issue has sparked debate amongst the forum that I post on reguarly. Should other parents be expected to not send their kids to school with products containing peanuts in order to safe guard against a serious allergy in other children. Some mom's say "No" and that its selfish on my part to ask them to do that just cause my kid has serious allergies. I can't help but feeling more than a little hate towards them. Its not the big a sacrifice and it could save my child's life. But Whatever.

I'm hoping for a food trial soon. I believe the first food trial will be carrots and sweet potatos because those are the two foods he is least likely to have a reaction to. I'm not looking forward to going back to Tufts for that, especially if we end up having to spend the night. But I would very much like to be able to feed Asher's something that will make his belly feel satisified!

A Sad Realization...

Today someone posted a picture of Phill, Asher, and I on my Facebook page. And it made me sad because I realized that it very well could be the only picture of the three of us together. Whats sadder about it, is that I know its totally because Phill and I are feeling fat and don't want to be in pictures! Poor Asher is going to look back on his baby pictures and wonder where the hell we were! Sigh. So for fun, here is the Family Cole Slaw.

Things people don't believe until they see it with their own eyes!

I get the side eye very often when I tell people that Asher is already standing up very well holding onto our hands. No one believes us, they also don't believe us when we tell them that if hes really stable we can let go for several seconds and he can stand there by himself, support himself holding onto furniture, and walk across the room holding onto our hands. That is until they see him do it! I'm not bragging on my child for no reason. He'll probably be an early walker. Hes been doing this stuff for well over a month.

The truth is, every baby has strengths and weaknesses. I don't know why people like to generalize infant development and say "No way, its not possible!" Get over it. Asher has amazing standing skills, but still can't roll over consistently and sucks at tummy time. He doesn't even try to sit...so I may end up with a 7 month walker, who can't sit on his own and refuses to play on the floor. Who knows...but seriously when I tell you something, don't accuse me of making it up.

Oh and on a side note...I did promise pics of Asher all dressed up.....

Fish, Trains, and other somewhat related topics.

On Monday Ali and I took the boys into Boston to meet up with a friend that we made online. This trip was a special trip, because its the first time that we met Melissa and the first time that Aiden got to hang with his "baby soul mate" Miss Riley. Ali and I decided to take the train into Boston thinking it would be easier than trying to navigate in the city and easier than worrying about parking.....I'll come back to this sentiment in a couple paragraphs.

Anyway we all decided that it would be fun to go to the Aquarium since the babies are at the point in development that they like bright lights and colorful things. The Aquarium sounds like something that would be fun and peaceful.....but really...its not. First off, there were like a million people milling about...not really watching where they were going and not really caring if you have a baby with you. Gone are the days of people holding the doors for a woman with a carriage.

When we first got there, the three of us and the babies posed for a picture. We tried getting our own just in case it didn't come out well, but it was almost impossible to get all three babies to be awake at the same time, happy at the same time, and all looking at the camera. I really feel for mothers of triplets! We walked around for five minutes before stopping in front of the large tank. Aiden was a sleep, Riley was hungry and not having any of it, and Asher was being his normal freakishly happy self and totally standing right up against the glass waiting for great things to happen. And he loved it....at first. The fish, they were great, the Shark...meh that will probably give him a nightmare of two...but the Sting Ray, I think he might traumatized by it. I had him standing up holding onto my hands and as the Sting Ray got closer and closer, Asher leaned further and further away from the glass and into my chest.

We moved on after the Sting Ray and decided to get some lunch. It took us some time to get to the cafe, because people at the Aquarium don't believe in sharing elevators and think its okay to press the close button on the elevator as women with carriages are trying to get on. When we finally got up there and got our food, we decided that it was so nice to sit down and not be trampled and be able to hear each other, that we stayed there for the remainder of our visit!

Anyway, when lunch was over and it was time for Melissa and Miss Riley to hit the road, Ali got a call from her husband requesting a visit at work.....he wanted to show his boy off. This seemed like no big deal so we said "Sure why not?" and headed on our way. So first things first....I was surprised how many people didn't care that we were struggling to get in the doors of the train and find a seat....they didn't care at all. See, I'm the type of person who would offer up my seat to someone else who needed it more than I. I was especially disappointed when a pregnant lady had to wait two stops for someone to get off before finding a seat for herself.....there were many young college aged kids who were more than capable of standing so she could sit down...but that's just me.

I had the distinct pleasure of sitting next to a person who thought it was socially acceptable to rest her feet up on the lower bar of my stroller so that when they train lurched, the weight of her legs pushed my stroller away from me. She was "Awesome" and everything I wish I could be....note the sarcasm.

My other issue with the trains....a lack of elevators...at first we were thinking no biggie....we can make our way up some stairs.....or maybe not. There were like four different sets of stairs at one stations...I don't even know what we would have done had two nice men come along to help us. We were exhausted by the time we made our way to see Aiden's daddy at his office!

But the saddest part of the trip...and I saved this for last because it causes me great shame..... That lovely picture we took at the beginning of our trip? It was entrusted to me. When we parted ways, I promised the first thing I would do when I got home would be to scan it in and upload to Facebook. Well we should have known better than to entrust something like that to me, after all, I am me and everyone who knows me knows that things just "Happen" to me sometimes. But I'm wandering away from my story here, oh yes....the picture..... When I was struggling to get onto the train, I tilted my carriage and the picture slipped out at just the right angle to fall down the skinny little crack between the train and the platform....gone forever. When Ali told her husband what happened, he said "Sounds about right to me" So...stuff like this is pretty much just expected of me.

**Coming soon to Allthingscoleslaw.....Asher dressed up in a suit...you do not want to miss that one!

One year ago today!

One year ago today I found out that I was pregnant. It was a strange day. I was working at Phill's shop and on my feet all day. I didn't feel sick, but I didn't feel "right" either. I remember calling him and telling him "I feel weird" He said "go home and lay down if you're sick" and I responded "I'm not really sick...I just feel strange"

Anyway, after he came back to the shop I decided to go to the dollar store and buy a bunch of $1 pregnancy tests...just because thats what crazy infertile women do whenever they feel off or feel a twinge.... Anyway, I remember staring down at the test and thinking that I might see two lines...but I wasn't sure. If you've ever really wanted to be pregnant you'll understand what I mean about "ghost lines" sometimes it looks like there is a line there when there isn't. There had been times when I would hold a test up to the light to see it better and other times when I would take the test apart to look at the strip without the plastic covering.

So I thought that this was another case of the ghost line. Just to be sure I took another test. This one slightly darker than the first, but still questionable. So I took a third, and my heart stopped and then started beating really fast. I remember my leg started to shake and my hands were shaking so bad, I dropped the test and had a hard time opening up the fourth test. The fourth test had the darkest line. I burst into tears and sat there for 1o mins just saying "I can't believe it" over and over again. If anyone had walked in on me that day they would have thought I was nuts!

But those were dollar store tests and I was worried that they were faulty, even though I know tha a line is a line....so I ran out to CVS and purchased 3 more tests! I was almost afraid to buy the digital test because it felt like seeing "negative" would be worse than seeing a test without a line.

I rushed home to take those tests too...but had to wait because I didn't have to pee. About an hour later I rushed over to Phill's shop and busted through the door. I must have looked a mess because he stood up and said "What happened? Is everyone okay?" When I said "I'm pregnant!" He just looked at my dumbfounded for like three seconds and then threw his hands up in the air victory style!

I called my sister right after that and then I called Ali...both of them were like "wait what?" Now 1 year later I have the most gorgeous little boy on the face of the Earth! So much changes in a year!