Highchair advisor
Trays and highchairs
When you sit at the table to eat you do not use a tray, so why should your child? Most highchairs come with a separate tray for your child, but a tray keeps your child away from the table where we eat, play, talk and work.
Your child learns from watching, observing and interacting with you. The single, most natural place for this interaction is around the family table. Whether eating, sitting, playing or talking, the family table is a central hub of interaction for every family. In essence, the tray of a highchair is designed as a separate table for your child which may reduce interaction by creating distance from the family table, and making a personal table for your child. One which cannot be shared with you.
Research tells us that, "the family dinner table is an ideal place for language development and social skills to evolve" (Tarkan 2005). "Children who eat dinner with their families develop better eating habits later in life" (Eisenberg, et al. 2004).
It has long been a popular misconception that the real value of the highchair tray is to reduce mealtime mess. However, if your child is seated further away from the table and in greater isolation from you, they will become increasingly agitated and attention-seeking, resulting in more noise, messes and fallen food.
For these reasons, the Tripp Trapp highchair from Stokke is not supplied with a tray. Because after all, the family table is the best tray your child will ever have.
Sources/references:
Marla E. Eisenberg, et al, "Correlations Between Family Meals and Psychosocial Well-being Among Adolescents." The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 158: 792-796 (2004).
Tarkan, Laurie. “Benefits of the Dinner Table Ritual.” The New York Times, May 3, 2005; via www.bridges4kids.org
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