A Tale of Rocking Chairs and Rug Burn

It's a cautionary tale, really.

When we were expecting Zander, we received a Fisher-Price rocking chair from two of my cousins. Zander loved it until he could sit on his own full-time...about 8 months old.

Zander
2 months old in the, now, infamous Chair of Danger

Now he has passed it on to his little brother, who has also had hours of enjoyment in it. Even though he is 10 months old and can sit on his own, Logan is still in it quite a bit. Because of his GERD, we can't just sit him on the floor after he's finished a meal. He needs to be upright for at least 30 minutes after he is done eating. But when he is sitting on the floor he often decides he would rather be rolling around, and tips himself over. So we strap him into the rocking chair until he's ready to play as he wishes.

When he was about 7 months old he realized that he could have tons of fun by rocking himself madly in his fave chair. The momentum this 24 pounds of cute boy can get going is really quite astonishing. And it was nearly his undoing this morning.

As usual, I had strapped him in his chair after his morning bottle in order to make his cereal and fruit. Carlos was in the kitchen with me, getting ready to go to work. That is when we heard a loud thud and ear-piercing shriek from the living room.

We ran to see what had happened. And there was Logan...hanging upside down, suspended from the harness of the up-ended rocking chair that was on top of him. It took a minute for Carlos to get him right-side-up again, since he was half-in and half-out of the harness...and he's quite heavy and unwieldy. It was awkward, to say the least!

I pick him up out of the chair and held him tight, trying to cease the high-pitched wail he was emitting. This took a few minutes. When he finally recovered from his panic, he looked up at us to reveal his face. His poor face!

My baby boy's beautiful round face is now a scratched-up, scraped-up mess. Just in time for a large family Easter gathering in my hometown this weekend. Joy!

I recently noticed that this chair has been redesigned. It now has small kickstands in the front and back to allow the child to remain sitting upright, but stop them from rocking the chair. It makes me wonder if this type of accident has happened before.