antilop · footrest · footsi · fussy eaters · highchair · prints ·Jul 10, 2020

Australian Mum of 3 under 3, launches her latest product, the eco-friendly bamboo, height adjustable highchair footrest

First you teach them to sleep, then you teach them how to eat, which can be fun and well, quite messy too. One of the first steps of getting your little one to eat properly is to ensure they are comfortable in their highchair. Yes, that’s right.

It’s a fact that babies can concentrate for longer periods in their baby highchair when they are sitting upright and their hips, legs and feet are supported by a foot plate.

Think about it for a second. Legs dangling aimlessly, moving from side to side, blood welling into the lower legs, ankles and feet. Imagine if that was you sitting down, nowhere to rest your feet while you were about to eat a big plate of dinner. It would be uncomfortable, right? Well, this is one of the main reasons that Melina Howe, twin Mumma and Mum of 3, invented the Footsi® highchair footrest, for your tiny human to enjoy. You may have heard of her company, Nibble and Rest (formerly Pimp my highchair), has created a name for itself as the creator of the original highchair footrest, a product designed by a Mum and loved by experts. “I was always fascinated with the idea of creating something from scratch that could be used by Mums or bubs, around the world. It only really struck me one day when I noticed how much my daughters’ legs were dangling at her highchair and how uncomfortable it must have been for her”.

After a few prototypes and many man hours with help of her Aunty and Uncle, the Footsi® was born.

“I managed to convince my Aunty to help me stitch a few samples together so I could show my manufacturer. It was a big effort and we finally got some samples together after a few long nights” she laughs.

Her main inspiration when she setup the business 2 years ago was to focus on making highchairs look prettier, hence the original name, which effectively meant to “Pimp” out the highchair. However, Melina recently underwent a rebranding of her company to Nibble and Rest, as she has started to incorporate other products into her range that don’t necessarily need to be used in the highchair. “Well, it was kind of a natural progression, the Footsi® name was getting out there by itself now, and having more items available on my store, I needed to come up with a name that resonated with my customers but also didn’t take away any importance of the Footsi® name” she states. Nibble and Rest thus allows me to now showcase products that can help our “tiny humans” through their daily journey, from nibbling to resting.

As part of the rebrand, Melina has launched a new range of Footsi® highchair footrest prints, that come in five unique prints with matching cushion covers, along with Nibble and Rest’s new product, the eco-friendly, bamboo Woodsi Footsi™. “I wanted to give more choice to my customers going forward and not wanting to pigeonhole them to the original material Footsi® footrest.

Some customers have asked for a straight-out footrest, without the prints, which is why we started to offer the eco-friendly Bamboo footrest, whereas others will ask me what my next range of prints can be so they can show it off to their friends first! The level of support from my customers is nothing short of amazing, and I am so appreciative for this” she says. “We have sold to customers all over the world and many of them purchase the prints each time I launch a new range, which is just the best. I am so happy I get to share my range with Mum’s all over the world”. Melina uses the Shopify e-commerce platform to get her products out to other Mum’s, which she says is a really user friendly platform for people who aren’t tech savvy. “Using Shopify, I have been able to develop the site that I wanted to showcase my products on and make changes when I think something needs work, it’s such a user-friendly platform”.

Having pivoted only recently (during the pandemic) from her full-time role as an accountant into full-time e-commerce with Nibble and Rest she says “the environment is vastly different, but I am able to work the hours I want to work, which I manage to fit around time with the family, including the dinner, bath time and bed routine. It honestly feels like there’s constant work to do with this business, it’s hard to switch off sometimes”. Speaking about where she wants the business to go “I honestly just want to keep getting better, making products for my customers that they can use and see a lot of benefit from. I moved away from my accounting role and a little creative switch went off inside me” she laughs. Sharing her products with Mum’s all over the world is the biggest positive with this business and the reason she keeps working hard to develop cool and exciting new product lines.

The new range, including the bamboo highchair footrest is currently in stock and available right now, but only while stock lasts!

We look forward to more exciting updates and new product launches from Nibble and Rest.