Ah the joys of watching your baby master new skills. I remember very well how excited I was to introduce solids to my little girl and watching her eat a mix of raw avocado and greek yoghurt pleased me no end. She still doesn’t believe me that she really did love to eat those two together.
Without stating the obvious, babies learning to eat is a very messy business. We always had a bunch of $2 shop shower curtains when my little one was small that I threw down under the highchair to save having to wash the floor after every meal where what seemed like 50% of the food would end up flung on the floor.
Some highchairs like our Stokke Tripp Trapps are very easy to clean, others have a nice puffy cushiony cover which can have tiny little folds and corners and hidey-holes where food hides and is very hard to get out. You’ll be using your highchair for quite a bit of time so cleaning it is a job everyone is faced with at some point. Here’s our guide on how to clean your highchair – hope it helps.
- A small vacuum
- A couple of rags (old towels with a bit of texture too them work best)
- Cleaner (we use a solution of 1/3 disinfectant, 2/3 water, and a hefty squirt of dishwashing liquid)
- A large bowl of warm water (or do it near to a sink with hot and cold taps)
- A bucket of hot water with some laundry liquid in;
- An old toothbrush;
- A butter knife.
- Remove the tray and harness belts from your highchair.
- Drop the harness belts into the bucket of hot water and let the laundry liquid do its work. You may need to come back to these after half an hour and give them a scrub with the toothbrush to get them entirely clean;
- Remove any loose bits of food in the seat by hand or with a small vacuum.
- Remove the seat padding, and push it inside out so all the hidden bits fall out.
- If your seat padding is machine washable, go forth and let the washing machine do the job. If that’s the case add the harness belts to the load and let them have a good wash too.
- Now your highchair is naked, spray the whole frame with your cleaning solution and leave it to sit for 5-10mins till it all softens and loosens all the yucky.
- Wipe down the frame of the seat and clean the spaces that were covered by the pad with a rag and cleaner. Where there are tricky parts, the toothbrush and the knife can help to get into any cracks and crevices;
- If there is any extra-stubborn stuck like glue food, spray again and wait until it loosens up and give it a poke with the butter knife to gently lift it – take care not to cut yourself.
- Let it dry, then put it back together.
NOTE: Doing this outside in your yard or a space where water splashing on the floor doesn’t matter is a good idea.