May 9, 2008

Review: Kaboost Portable Chair Booster

The folks over at Kaboost were kind enough to send me one of their chair boosters to review. The concept is simple: Put a chair's legs into a four-pronged booster so a little kid can sit at the table at the right height.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we took the opportunity to move Alex out of his booster seat and into a regular dining chair outfitted with the Kaboost. Set up was amazingly easy and took only a minute or two.

We've been loving our Kaboost ever since we got it. Especially Alex. The slogan, "Little kids sit like big kids," really applies to him. He especially likes being able to slide out of the chair since there's nothing tying him down. This is good and bad, of course. Tyler seems to be jealous of this aspect, but there's no way I'm letting him loose just yet.

If I have one complaint about the Kaboost, it's that it's difficult to slide in and out from under the table. But of course, this is also a good thing in that it's an important safety feature. Alex can't push his chair around by pushing on the dining table, nor will he topple over because the chairs legs slid out.

I would highly recommend the Kaboost to anyone who wants to keep from scratching their dining chairs up with a booster, or whose kid is ready to get out of a booster. Even if you are hesitant to give your child the freedom to climb off the chair at home, you might want to consider one for the grandparents' house, where protecting the furniture might be a bigger concern. The Kaboost is also easily portable and actually comes with a handy travel bag.

Check out this video to see what the Kaboost looks like in action:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...that's really interesting....and your little guy isn't too far off the ground in the end to get off his seat? Right now we're using the Fisher Price booster strapped onto the dining room chair and I'd LOVE to get rid of it (and get rid of ALL the food that manages to make it's way UNDER it!

To help with the sliding in and out of the dining room chairs for our kiddos as well as clean up we started using clear office chair mats. They clean up so well, they aren't as ugly as the patterned things you put under a high chair and they're durable. http://furoreandfrenzy.com/?p=29
I'm not sure they'd work well with hardwood though. :)

Great post!

Chief Family Officer said...

@Jennifer - That is exactly the setup Alex was using (FP Booster) before the switch to Kaboost. He's a good climber so he's able to get into the chair himself. He just slides out of it so getting down it's really not hard at all. I think if the child is old enough that you can trust his/her judgment not to throw him/herself off the chair, s/he's probably ready for a Kaboost. Alas, Tyler isn't trustworthy and hence, we still use the booster (and have to clean out the food from underneath).

Thanks for the tip about the chair mat. That's exactly what we have, however - I bought the biggest one at Staples and it's soooo much better than the flimsy high chair mats we used to use! And although it is hard to move the chair with the Kaboost attached, it really is an important safety feature so I can't complain too much!