Product Review: Infant to Toddler Reclining Feeding Seat by the First Years

I couldn't wait for my son to grow out of his high chair and move into a booster seat. The Infant To Toddler Reclining Feeding Seat By The First Years was our second booster seat we tried. I didn't like the first booster seat we bought. It was called the Safety 1st Recline and Grow 5-Stage Feeding Seat. My son kept hitting his head on the back of it because there was no padding on it. I quickly wrapped it back up in the box and returned it to the store. I did more research and learned that the Infant To Toddler Reclining Feeding Seat By The First Years might be a better choice since it did have padding on the back of the chair.

My first step was putting it together, not so easy. I pride my self on being pretty mechanical and very good at putting things together. This chair gave me a hard time. It took almost half an hour to get everything to snap it place the right way. What I don't like about the chair is that once it is snapped into place, you can't unsnap it. This makes it very difficult to clean the chair too. When your child drops food into the chair, it falls into the sides and you can't pop the seat out to clean it. My mom had to take a Q-tip to clean the old food out. I am sure there is even more food under the seat. The chair comes with a padded cushion that I do like. The only problem is that the cushion needs to be washed. You can't just wipe it clean. Who is really going to wash the cushion after each meal?

My son does seem to fit comfortably in the chair. Now that my son is over 30 pounds and is almost two and a half, he has outgrown a booster seat. When he was younger and weighed about 25 pounds, he seemed to enjoy sitting in the chair. It wasn't tight around his sides or anything. The tray is easy to wash. You can even throw it in the dishwasher. No cut outs for drinks or anything though. I liked the other chair's tray better because it had a cut out for my son's sippy cup. What I didn't like about this tray too was that my son was able to kick it right off. It didn't stay snapped into place. It does come with an alphabet placemat. It is cute for your child to learn the alphabet while they are eating. I didn't use the placemat because I figured it was just something else my some would be preoccupied with instead of eating.

The seat comes with a tilt feature. It is supposed to recline into four different reclining positions. You can use this seat for a newborn all the way up to a toddler. I didn't have this chair when my son was a newborn but I can tell you that it was nearly impossible to adjust the seat. I ended up keeping it in one position the whole time. The seat belt had a recall on it. Every time my son would sit forward, the seat belt was come out of the back. I had to order a new seat belt to prevent this from happening. Unfortunately, we had already owned the chair for quite some time before the recall came out and had to deal with this problem on a daily basis. This could have been very dangerous. There were times when the seal belt strap popped out and he kicked the tray off at the same time. It was a good thing I never left his side and I was right there so he didn't fall of the chair.

In the beginning, I was happy with the chair because of the padding so my son didn't hurt his head. However, in the end, after rereading my own review, I probably would not recommend this booster seat. Thankfully, my son is old enough now to sit in a regular adult chair and we don't have to worry about buying a third booster seat.

You could purchase this booster seat from Babies R Us for $29.99.