32 out of 32 people found this review helpful.
Fisher Price Aquarium Healthy Care High Chair does everything but feed your baby!
Date of Review: Mar 9, 2007
The Bottom Line: If you want a high chair, this one is definitely top-notch!
As a first-time expectant mother, I registered for everything I had ever heard of, including a high chair. How could you have a baby without owning a high chair? When the kind salesperson at Babies R' Us informed me that the Fisher Price Aquarium Healthy Care High Chair was the Cadillac of high chairs, I knew I should scan it right into my registry. In addition, it would match with all my other wonderfully aquarium themed baby goodies. A few months later, I was fortunate to receive this high chair at my baby shower when a generous guest shelled out $89.99 in honor of my soon-to-be-born son.
What made her say it was a Cadillac?
I stole the title of this review from my mom, who, when she saw this high chair, exclaimed "that chair will do everything but feed the baby!" In reality, this is a true statement.
The Fisher Price Aquarium Healthy Care High Chair is a steel-framed high chair that can be used with babies over 3 months old and up to 50 pounds. It has the ability to adjust to 7 different heights and 3 different reclining positions. The seat has a vinyl padded and machine washable cushion that is decorated in the Aquarium theme with a dark blue ocean background and colorful fish. There is a 5-point restraint system and a foot rest.
The tray has a one handed release button in the front and includes a blue snap-on feeding tray that is dishwasher safe and has separate built-in food compartments. Two teether toys snap onto either side of the tray and there is a removable aquarium toy that plays music and water sounds and can be activated by the baby or the parent. The high chair folds up for storage with the tray snapped onto the back.
Assembly
I didn't personally assemble this chair: my husband did. According to him, it was a fairly easy assembly requiring only the use of the directions and a Phillips screwdriver. The instruction manual that accompanies the high chair is well-written and easy to understand. Bullet point instructions correspond to pictorials for each and every step. My husband had the chair up and ready to use within about 25-30 minutes. The toy for the tray does require 3 AA batteries that are not included.
Fitting the baby – Comfort
This chair could potentially be used prior to a baby having complete head control because of the high back support seat. However, we didn't start feeding Kid solids until he was almost 6 months old, so our high chair sat unused for many months. Don't ask why we had to assemble it right away! By the time Kid began using it, he could sit up on his own.
Getting him in and out of the chair is a breeze. The one handed release on the tray really is one handed, so I could remove the tray and set it aside while hold Kid in the other arm. The seat was pretty big for him at 6 months and he still has plenty of growing room at 10 months and 21 pounds. I've always used the 5-point harness in this high chair, primarily because Kid is a squirmy eater and wants to reach out for anything he can see, so the harness keeps him better in place.
The footrest on the high chair has never seen any use. Kid is in the 70th percentile for height and has been most of his life, but his legs dangle at least 2 inches above the foot rest when his back is against the seat. Of course, most of his height is in his torso, but that's still quite a distance. I imagine the footrest might be more for toddlers, but then it's also at a 90 degree angle and doesn't look all that comfortable to me.
We usually have the chair in the middle reclining position when Kid is just snacking or waiting for me to get his meal ready. When he's eating it is in the furthest forward position. I can see how younger babies might be able to snooze in the reclined position, but Kid has always needed to be in a "bed" for sleeping. The recline feature is easy to operate by pushing up on a red button at the top of the seat's back and gently pushing or pulling the seat into position. When the button is released, the seat will lock into place.
Feeding Time
The tray on the high chair sits about 7" up from the seat bottom. Kid was able to easily reach the tray to play with toys or grab things from the time we started him in the high chair at 6 months old.
As I said previously, the tray is easy to remove or put back on with the one handed red release button located right in the front. Pushing in on the button with the heel of my hand while pulling in or out on the tray will adjust its distance from Kid or remove it from the chair all together. The tray is easy for me to handle one handed only if the toy is not connected. With the toy's added weight, it's a strain on my wrist. We haven't had any issues with the tray not locking and, although he has tried, Kid has been unable to push off or remove the tray himself.
We always use the blue snap-on feeding tray during meals to keep the main tray cleaner. There are crevices where the toy and the teethers snap in where food could accumulate easily. Besides, I'd much rather throw the tray in the dishwasher after a meal. The feeding tray is slim and snaps on tight so that Kid has no chance of removing it himself. We do not have the largest dishwasher and it fits just fine in our bottom rack. It's held up very well over the last 5 months.
I love that the high chair has the 7 height adjustments. No matter what the height of your kitchen table, this chair will most likely be one that you can pull right up to it. The lowest height has the bottom of the seat just 17" from the floor and the highest height is 26" from the floor. Most recently, we used this high chair without the tray as a sort of booster for Kid to eat right at the table with us. The height can only be adjusted by pressing levers on both sides of the high chair at the same time, so I don't worry about Kid accidentally pressing one and dropping the seat by himself.
The wheels on the chair all have locks. They are little red tabs that can be pressed down to set the chair in place. This helps to keep Kid from pushing off the table to move the high chair or, when it's not in use, from using it as a walker.
Toys
Fisher Price markets the toys on this chair a whole lot as something to keep your baby entertained while you're busy. For us, they worked quite well until Kid got to about 9 months and became bored with them. The Aquarium toy is actually quite neat. Kid is able to activate the music, which is either songs or ocean sounds depending upon the setting, by rolling a scroll bar at the bottom of the toy. He can also make the fish in the water move by pressed on one of two pressure buttons or move a few colorful beads across the top of a pole. In the beginning, Kid was fascinated by the music and would stare at the fish and play with the beads quite a bit. But after 3 months, he would give up on the toy after 30 seconds. A plus is that we never have had to change the batteries.
The teethers are nice because they snap into the side of the tray so that the baby cannot throw them off of the high chair. They are just long enough to reach Kid's mouth when he is centered on the chair. One is a yellow plastic smiley face with a green rubber teether on the top. The other is orange with a clear rotating ball filled with beads in the middle and blue teethers on the either side. I'm not a huge fan of the teethers because they are marked as not dishwasher safe and Kid has his grimy hands on them all the time so they always require cleaning. I've ended up throwing the yellow on in the dishwasher top rack anyway, but I cannot with the orange because water would accumulate in the center ball with the beads.
Care & Storage
All this chair needs is a good wipe-down after meals. There are not many crevices for food to hide, especially when we use the removable feeding tray. I've removed and washed the padded seat cover many times (on gently cycle in cold water) and it has no fading, tearing or other visible wear.
The chair is easy to fold up by pulling back on a lever on either side while pulling the frame together. The tray snaps onto the back. We don't store it this way very much because it's not all that compact either way. Our dining area is large enough that we just push it into a corner when not in use.
Final Thoughts
If you want a high chair, I'd recommend this one in a heartbeat. But I've learned a lot since creating that baby registry and we are in the process of replacing ours with a plain old booster seat. Kid uses a booster at his grandma's and a daycare and it takes up so much less room and is just as easy to use. Sometimes all the extras are just unnecessary.
