FUN IN THE HIGH CHAIR: ACTIVITIES FOR BABIES

At a Glance

• Your baby’s high chair isn’t just for meals. It’s for play, too. 
• High chair sensory play can support your child’s development from birth to early childhood, fostering cognitive growth and gross and fine motor skills.
• Fun high chair activities include painting, pom-pom play, and sensory play with ice or food.
• Our plastic high chair tray cover at Abiie® is removable and dishwasher-safe for easy cleaning post-high chair fun.

Your to-do list feels miles long, and there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to tick all the boxes. Add entertaining your baby to the mix all day long, and getting through your list seems impossible.

Don’t fret. Keeping your child entertained while you handle urgent tasks around the house is easy. And no, it doesn’t have to involve screen time. Bypass the tablet and TV and stick to one of the best ways to keep your child stimulated in a healthy way: their high chair.

High chair sensory play and activities are an excellent way to keep your little one entertained, create adorable memories, and give yourself some much-needed downtime during the day. Let’s explore the top high chair play ideas for wee ones at Abiie®.

WHAT IS SENSORY PLAY, AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Sensory play is any activity that stimulates your child’s senses: touch, sight, sound, smell, or taste. Great for in and out of their high chair, these activities allow them to explore everything from their senses to movement in a fun, unstructured setting. 

High chair sensory play offers many benefits for babies and young children. It can:

• Help children understand cause and effect
• Promote independent thinking
• Boost cognitive development
• Support language development and social skills
• Encourage creativity and exploration
• Develop fine motor skills

As occupational therapist Suzanne Meser, MS, OTR/L, shared, “Sensory play is a way for kids to become more flexible and adaptable in other areas of their life. By engaging their senses and developing these skills, the world becomes much less scary because they have developed the right tools for whatever comes their way.”

HOW YOU CAN GET STARTED

You can make sensory play easy by using your Beyond Junior® wooden high chair. Its dual restraint system keeps your child safe and secure, while the high chair play tray keeps any messes contained to one place. Even better, your plastic tray cover, made without BPA or phthalates, is removable for easy cleaning.

1. PAINT TIME

Is your little one the next Pablo Picasso? Find out by adding painting to your list of top high chair activities for your little one. Both water painting and yogurt painting are excellent high chair play ideas for your budding artist.

For watercolor painting, your child will need construction paper in their favorite colors, a small bowl of water, and a children’s paintbrush. They’ll be fascinated to see their papers change shades while painting. Remember to tape the paper to your child’s high chair play tray so they don’t throw it, and wet the paintbrush for your child if you think they won’t keep the bowl of water on the tray.

Elevate your child’s high chair “painting” activities by replacing the water with Greek yogurt. Using yogurt will make your child’s painting time a little messier but a whole lot more fun. Add one drop of yellow food coloring to a bowl of vanilla yogurt, and let your child add one drop of blue coloring to the bowl and watch the mix change to green. It’s an excellent way to teach them their colors.

2. PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD (THIS TIME!)

Give your child an opportunity to do the one thing they’re usually not allowed to do: play with their food. Let them engage in high chair sensory play by introducing foods with different textures for them to experiment with. They can squish frozen corn or peas with their fingers or roll them around their feeding tray. 

Another fun food-related activity involves stringing macaroni noodles on a 12-inch-long piece of yarn, which will help them develop their fine motor skills.

3. ADD A LITTLE COLOR

Coloring on construction paper is one of the best high chair activities, as it will further hone your child’s fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, grip strength, and visual perception. Give your child jumbo crayons, as they’ll be more difficult to break and easier to hold. Consider taping their paper to their feeding tray to keep it stationary. 

Let them use stencils while coloring to add fun designs to their drawings.

4. TICKLE YOUR TASTE BUDS

No list of the top high chair activities would be complete without eating, the primary use for the majority of high chairs. 

Surprise your child with their favorite finger foods, like cooked apples or diced grapes, or think outside the box by creating edible sand, a delicious treat they’ll never forget. All you’ll need is sugar, nuts, cookies, or crackers. Use a food processor or rolling pin to break your desired food into crumbs. Then, let your child dig in.

We suggest using children’s dishes featuring suction cups, like our Octopod® baby plates and bowls at Abiie®. The suction cups will keep the dishes secure on your child’s high chair feeding and play tray, making mealtime cleaner, particularly if you have a lively eater.

5. ICE, ICE, BABY

Introduce your child to cubed or crushed ice as they sit in their high chair. Activities involving ice are some of the best high chair play ideas since ice can offer an excellent high chair sensory play experience. Your child can explore various sensations, temperatures, and textures while holding, squeezing, and touching the ice.

6. START SOME STICKY BUSINESS

Looking for a high chair activity that may make your child giggle time and time again? Give them some used sticky notes and let them post them all over their high chair tray. 

Fun with stickers is also one of the top high chair play ideas: The stickers will go on their chair rather than your kitchen cabinets or walls.

7. PLAY WITH POM-POMS

Parents seeking easy high chair activities love pom-pom play for their little ones. Add several pom-poms to a whisk and let your child practice pulling them out. It’s one of the best high chair sensory play recommendations for keeping your child engaged and focused for extended periods. 

Another fun pom-pom play idea involves letting your toddler sort several of these balls by size or color. You can also let your child soak a few pom-poms in water, practice transferring them from one bowl to another using a spoon, or glue several to pieces of construction paper for a refrigerator-worthy work of art.

8. ADD A LITTLE DOUGH

Kids love Play-Doh, so don’t forget to add this to your list of high chair activities for your mini-me. They’ll enjoy creating shapes and objects, especially if given cookie cutters for the activity.

FIND YOUR CHILD’S NEW FAVORITE HIGH CHAIR PLAY IDEAS

Your high chair is great for mealtime. But that’s certainly not its only use. Get more from your Beyond Junior® high chair with sensory play. It’s a wonderful way to not only keep your little one occupied but also support their development. 

You can use high-quality, easy-to-clean baby gear like our Ruby Wrapp® silicone baby bibs and baby feeding essentials at Abiie® to protect your child’s clothes and make cleanup after meals and other high chair activities a breeze. Try them now.