Friday, January 22, 2010

Junior's Adjustable Tray

A few years ago I was trying to figure out a way for Junior to use a tray in bed or while lounging in his recliner. The issue was it needed to be at an angle so Junior could see what it had on it.

This is what I came up with. It is a tray with a PVC frame and a leg in the middle so it is angle adjustable.
The tray itself is a piece of shower board which was cut to the size we needed. It was also measured and had the cutout added so it went around Junior(thanks to my dad, can you believe we brought the board piece back on the plane during a visit?).
I made a pvc frame just a little smaller then the tray itself and then attached the tray using velcro. I didn't have a drill or I would have used screws to attach it(if you do this be sure to inset the screws so your child does not scratch themselves on them).
I purchased a bunch of pvc and cut it to the correct lengths, cutting the top bar in half and adding a joint with three openings.
For the center leg a length of pvc was attached to the top of the tray frame(I cut several lengths that can be added for different heights if needed depending on where the tray is being used).
Using a three opening joint at the base. use a small length of pvc at the base of each side of the leg. I then used a section of a giant pool noodle to pad the leg.
When we use it the tray goes at Junior's waist and the leg goes at an angle between his knees(the cross portion at the bottom of the leg goes under his knees, a bonus is that it keeps his legs and hips correctly positioned). I added some clips to the top of the tray to hold paper for coloring, it also has a piece of velcro in the center to hold other items.
These pictures were taken this past summer after our lengthy hospital stay which is why Junior is in the bipap even while awake. I will get some pictures when he uses it later today so you can see the leg position.

Okay here are pics of Junior using his tray this evening. He is sitting in his recliner.

3 comments:

  1. This is my favorite. I'll show it to Jojo's Dad and see if he can make one for him. I hope you don't mind.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amazing....you need to patent this and get selling it!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is just what I am looking for. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete