This Is Why Placing Car Seats on Restaurant High Chairs Shouldn’t Be on the Menu

Quick and convenient doesn't always mean safe and secure.

It’s a common sight at restaurants: a wooden high chair flipped over and used as a stand for a baby still sitting in their car seat , perched near the table as their family eats.

While generations of parents have used the upside-down high chair trick—and it seems like a good solution when you don’t have a stroller —one mom’s scary restaurant experience is reminding others of the danger of doing so.

In a viral TikTok video, posted by @inghowshar , that's garnered more than 1.6 million views, Ingrid, a mom of two boys, films herself at a restaurant eating with her family. She lets out a scream and quickly reaches over to catch something off-camera.

What she catches is her 5-month-old son, Sebastian, who is in his car seat. The wooden high chair his car seat was sitting on broke. She luckily caught the car seat by its handle, and the baby was unharmed.

In a follow-up TikTok, Ingrid talks about how she didn’t think twice about perching the car seat onto the high chair, because the waiter serving her family had set the chair up for her.

“Granted, I had never put the car seat on a high chair like that,” she said. “That was the first time, and that’ll be the last.”

Ingrid went on to explain that she made the mistake of not bringing the stroller because she felt the restaurant was too cramped for it. She also admitted that seeing other patrons in the restaurant using the high chairs in a similar way eased any fears of it being unsafe.

“It was an honest mistake,” she noted, addressing the mom guilt she feels from the incident. “We are just doing the best we can.”

And she’s right. It’s easy to start pointing fingers and say someone “should have known better.” But the reality is so many people have been in a similar situation and the statistics show it.

“About 10,000 kids in the U.S. visit the emergency room each year with head injuries, due to drops and falls from the car seat,” says Alisa Baer, MD, pediatrician and co-founder of The Car Seat Lady. “There’s at least as many, if not more babies, that get hurt in their car seats out of the car, than in the car."

Part of Dr. Baer’s mission with The Car Seat Lady is to educate, not shame parents about why these injuries happen and specifically what puts babies at risk for car seat injuries .

She has been running a car seat fitting station in New York City since 1999 and has installed more than 15,000 car seats (and counting). Her community education program focuses on car seat safety, in and out of the car, which includes understanding correct car seat usage , and promoting best safety practices in everyday situations.

Why an Upside-Down High Chair Is Not Safe

While it may seem like a “perfect fit” when putting the car seat on top of an upside-down high chair, Dr. Baer warns it immediately becomes unstable and imbalanced, almost like a rocking chair, because it was never designed for that.

“Even if it was stable, people are walking by and it takes just a little bit of a bump to then set the very top heavy feet off of the chair,” she explains.

The baby's movement or unintentional contact from a nearby sibling could also be a recipe for potential falls.

Anytime the car seat is placed in an elevated location, the risk of head injury becomes greater, particularly if it is on a high chair in a restaurant or sitting in the front portion of a shopping cart at a store, which Dr. Baer also warns against doing.

There are other dangers of simply leaving the baby in a car seat when it's not being used for travel. Particularly, if the child isn't properly secured and they happen to move or slide down in the seat, they could be at risk of strangulation or asphyxiation.

“It’s just like a drowning: It is quick and it is quiet,” Dr. Baer explains. “Unless you are closely watching, you will not hear it.”

She goes on to advise that there should be only three places that a child should be in a car seat:

• In a moving vehicle (car or plane) where the car seat can be secured
• On a stroller designed to secure that particular car seat
• Securely buckled and placed on the floor away from any potential tripping hazards

If the baby is in the car seat outside of the car, make sure, “they are never loosely buckled, they are never partially buckled, and they are never unbuckled,” she stresses.

Safe Seating Alternatives When Dining Out With a Baby

Dr. Baer points to a lack of family friendliness at many establishments that make it hard for parents to make the best decisions about how to dine with their babies. She foresees the high chair trick continuing to be an issue because of the lack of storage space in restaurants for things like strollers.

Some of the safer alternative dining practices she recommends include:

• Select a child-friendly restaurant: Choose a restaurant with high chairs that can fit a younger infant.
• Opt for outdoor seating: Outdoor seating allows for parents to bring a stroller and park it next to or near the table.
• Tap into your community: Ask other parents about their experiences at restaurants. An establishment’s social media page may also have more information about seating.
• Wear the child: Dr. Baer says keeping your baby in a carrier is one of the safest options if you aren’t eating extremely hot foods, like soup.
• Ask for booth seating: The car seat can stay secured in the stroller and be placed alongside the booth as you eat.
• Bring your own booster seat: Consider portable high chair options like the Inglesina Fast Table Chair or other chairs that properly snap and buckle onto restaurant chairs.

Dr. Baer also says that if you are only able to have the car seat with you while dining out, look for an area on the floor where it can be placed safely away from any potential trip hazards.

“When all else fails, just hold the baby,” she adds. “Take turns and pass the baby around to other adults you are eating with."

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