Of Cribs and Feeding tables

I mentioned Babee Tenda in the previous post, so I thought this would be a good topic to do as the first "meat" of the blog. The fundamental problem is that most cribs are really not usable for a parent in a wheelchair. We visited umpteen stores when we were expecting Number 1, and I tried every crib I could find. Not by climbing in and sleeping in it, you understand, I was merely trying to see if I could get a baby into or out of it, over the side. Almost every design involves sliding the side wall down a few inches to permit a walkie to lean over and pick up the child, or place them in it. It seemed to me that even with the sidewall lowered, there was no way I could safely transfer the child. I would be working from a sitting position, either lined up sideways to the crib, or at a 90 degree angle, and my balance is very poor once my arms are extended to the front. Add to that the weight of the baby and it seemed I would be better off trying to pitch the child from the other side of the room. It was utterly inconceivable that my wife would have to do all the morning and bedtime and naptime routines so we had to look further afield.

What we found was the Babee Tenda crib. This crib acts like any other, for the most part, with the important exception that it has a door on the side. So you have the option of moving the side up and down (which my wife preferred) or placing the child in the crib through the door (which worked for me). Even using the door was not a trivial operation due to my problems with balance, but it was possible and, most importantly, safe. (I guess if you had a lot of children you could afford to drop a few, but we had only the one at the time and I felt that it would be improper to toss her around like a sack of potatoes as she would be very hard to replace if we broke her!) We ended up purchasing a crib on eBay. It was described as "gently used by two beautiful children" - how any child can "gently use" anything is beyond me, no matter how beautiful they are! In any case, I drove to North Carolina to collect it (a 13 hour round trip) and, to be fair, it was in very good condition. It still is, having been "gently used" by a further two beautiful children, and as I write this Number 2 is happily ensconced therein, with one leg stuck through the bars and his head stuck into a corner. How do babies find the most uncomfortable positions to sleep in? So we have no complaints about the quality and durability of this product.

The catch that operates the door is more than childproof - most adults can't manage it either, and it took us a while to get the hang of it. It requires good finger dexterity and strength so if your disability is such that you have weak or restricted fingers you may have a problem locking and unlocking the door.

The door has some other great benefits apart from wheelchair accessibility. As the children became older and more mobile we could leave the door open and give them the freedom to leave the bed when they wanted. Number 1 liked to leave the door open for her afternoon nap, but wanted it closed at night, I guess to make her feel more secure. Number 2, at thirteen and a half months, is not quite at that stage yet, but even in the mornings all I need to do to get him out of bed is open the door and he will happily wiggle over to it, turn around, and slide his legs out until they touch the ground.

While driving to NC to pick up the crib my wife called to say she had also bought a Babee Tenda Feeding Table from the same seller. I had to stop at a bank to get some extra cash to pay the folk. We did less research into this, but it turned out to be a great buy also. The problem with feeding tables (and high chairs) is the same as cribs - it's very hard to get a child into and out of it when sitting and with bad balance. Indeed, the high chair transfer is a particularly dangerous operation. The Babee Tenda has an exceptionally large table all around the seat. I found that I could lean my elbows on the table, grasp the infant firmly and lever them out without lifting my elbows with no risk of dropping them. Then it was relatively simple to "walk" to an upright position with my elbows and grasp the child to my chest. This is still not a trivial operation, especially as they get older, and even now I prefer to let my wife take Number 2 out when he is done. But the point is that I can do it if I have to.

The unexpected side benefit of this table is that the feeding tray is so large that most of the food stays on it instead of falling over the sides onto the floor as it does with other feeding tables we have tried. Don't get me wrong, the floor can still look like a biology experiment after mealtimes, but less so than it does with our travel feeding table, or the other tables we have used in restaurants or friends' homes. So the Babee Tenda products get five stars for making life for this wheelchair Dad just a little easier.