October 24, 2007 by Katharine Branham - Archive of Katharine’s Articles
I have been dreading writing this article because I know as soon as I do many of you will e-mail me wonderful stories of where I can find clean highchairs . Please hold off on those and just spread the word among your friends. This is about DIRTY Highchairs, so let’s just stay focused.
I have been bothered by this for years and, with two children, have avoided second visits to establishments where I’ve found dirty highchairs. While I was in one place, I noticed an employee wiping down a table and grabbing a booster chair at about the same time. The booster slid out of her hand and hit the floor. It was obvious to me that it was greasy and needed to be cleaned with soap and water; but instead, she simply picked it up and stacked it on a pile of other dirty chairs. Some had food dried on them. I walked over for a closer look; and sure enough, the grease was thick enough to scrape off.
The highchairs often get overlooked unless the remnant of a drink is still dripping from the tray. The worst ones are usually covered with dried food crusted over with mucus of some sort. It is truly a breeding ground for nasty germs to attack their visitors. I even found one on which the tray would not slide properly because of food built up in the notches to lock it in place.
Nowadays, many baby supply stores sell portable highchair covers that can be toted from store cart to highchairs. That’s nice and all -- but wake up people, if the highchairs which are very visible are dirty, imagine what might be going on in the kitchen. YUCK!
What needs to be done is fill out a comment card or go online and complain about the dirty chairs. Then for everyone’s safety, find another place to dine.
