Mystery Solved

For years I have been puzzled by the fact of children falling asleep in their highchairs during meal time. I’ve seen hundreds of pictures taken by other families with their babies or toddlers strapped into the high chair fast asleep.

This has never happened to my children. They eat, they tell me they are done, I wash them up, get them out and off they go.

I thought that these pictures of sleeping kids in the highchair were some kind of set up. Parents were hijacking their children out of their cribs in the middle of the night for the sake of hilarious pictures. It was the only reasonable explanation I could come up with.

Last week I was let in on the secret. I have finally experienced it. The answer to my biggest question has finally been revealed.

My 2 year old Cesar fell asleep in his highchair while I was downstairs getting laundry out. I came upstairs after 5 minutes to an eerie quiet. I peered in on him and there he was all slumped over fast asleep.

After further investigation I discovered he had eaten all of his lunch except for his kidney beans. Cesar hates kidney beans and yet I continue to give them to him in hopes he has a change of heart.

He clearly didn’t and clearly it is just easier to fall asleep than to look at a kidney bean or try to muster the energy to try to choke one down.

As if I wasn’t beyond delighted enough that I finally had my own “child sleeping in high chair” picture, it happened again the next day.

This time he ate everything except for his squash. Cesar hates squash too.

In case you have been as baffled by this phenomenon as me I’m here to report that this happens. It’s real. I didn’t hijack Cesar from his crib in the middle of the night.

I simply gave him food he hates.

And that is how you get a picture of “child sleeping in a high chair.”