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I'm sorry, but I'm not going to pay $90 for a placemat. I have a high chair that hooks on to the table and we just use a regular plastic placemat (found at the clearance table of a local housewares boutique for $2). I'm not worried about spills running off the placemat b/c since we're all at the table I can steer a bowl back on to the placemat instead of it getting dumped on the floor or table. I also tape paper to the table for crayon time. I use painter's tape so it doesn't damage the table.

$90 is ridiculous.

We own the Tripp Trapp chair and the lack of tray (even though we were initially charmed by the "child at the table" concept) has proven to be a bit annoying in the early stages of learning to eat.

We're currently using the baby rail for the Tripp Trapp and I was able to rig up a temporary tray solution by affixing our Bumbo playtray to the chair with some duct-tape. It's working just fine and didn't cost $90.

$90 for a placemat?
No way.
Plus babies & kids have a way of pulling up things that are supposed to be suction cupped to the table.

ridiculous. I like the high chair, but it is also overpriced. We got the Ikea Antilop this weekend (found out abut it here) for $20 and it can be pulled right up to the table...and for another $5 you can get the removable tray.

The idea is great but the price stinks. No way. We are lucky to already have something similar made years ago by IKEA, which a friend gave to me. Too bad IKEA doesn't still make their version of the tray.

I like the Trip Trapp a lot but it really isn't designed for the youngest eaters. We wanted a chair that we could pull up to the table but also wanted a tray option so that our son could eat/play in the kitchen while we cooked dinner, etc. We choose the Arginton version for this reason, with the optional tray. We really like it and (often use a "Tiny Diner" on top) but look forward to the day he doesn't need the additional stability of the tray.

We've had great luck with our Tripp Trapp. It's a perfect design for our dining table and we enjoy eating meals with our son close to us. I realize it's expensive, but I'm very excited about the Table Top. I think, thanks to the suction cups and the raised edge, it will be a perfect solution for allowing him to feed himself with (relatively) contained messes. I've been so pleased with Stokke products so far - I'm looking forward to using this product as well!

we've had the Tripp Trapp since our daughter was 4 months (she's now 10m) and are still in love with it. i like that it doesn't have a tray and she can eat at the table with us, as we're in a small apt we don't have room for a tray to eat up more space. and we have an inexpensive IKEA table anyhow, so she can't really destroy anything 'precious' to us (although i will give the IKEA table credit for not looking too shabby with all her beating on it.)

The lack of tray is slowly ruining our table as we are in the mash everything into the table phase at nearly one year. I tried a suction type placement and my son then became more interested in figuring out how to remove the suction placemat than he was in his dinner. In theory I like this chair but in practice, it's kind of driving me crazy. I don't have the space or sensibility for some plastic alternative but I'm annoyed that now I'm supposed to shell out another $90 and the chance exists that my Houdini could still remove it?

It comes with 6 different templates, if that helps on the price.

I love our Tripp Trapp chair. I bought a tray off of ebay that clips right on to the chair for son's first 6 months of eating which worked quite well. Son loves to sit at the table with us and I don't think we've had any issues at all with food going everywhere. Or at least no more issues than people with a standard high chair.

kritikat -- what kind of tray can you get on ebay for the tripp trapp? i love ours, but went out to ikea and bought the $20 chair so we could have the tray. something i didn't think about needing or wanting when i registered.

I've was given the "Piggy Platter" (created by the parent-inventors at Smarty Parents http://smartyparents.com/ ) by a friend when my daughter was about 3 months old. This looks like a pretty direct, um, appropriation of that idea. My girl Sophie is now nearly 3 years old, and we still use the thing almost every single day - now mostly as a coloring and craft surface. The price? I saw a listing via a Google search for $28.95.

We have the Trip Trapp and have been using the Kiddopotamus suction placemat for over a year. It works perfectly and is only $11.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2908461

Can't speak highly enough of the Trip Trapp! Our daughter's been quite comfortable in it since she was 7 months. It's surviving the abuses of toddlerhood quite nicely and we expect to keep using it for years -- such a pleasure in the disposable world of kid products. We're also using the Kiddopotamus placemat. We have it on a recycled wood table so it doesn't suction but it's still quite functional. Besides, no suction will deter the toddler determined to throw everything off the table. We also keep an extra Kiddopotamus in the diaper bag for eating out.

i second the Kiddopotamus placemat... love ours. the tray is great for catching food dropped on the way to the mouth.

We love our Smarty Parents' Piggy Platter. We've had it for years, when our son started eating at the table. Now he uses it for crafts and practices his writing on top of it with dry-erase marker. It's dishwasher-safe and costs only $28.95.