Help Choosing a Highchair

I love that my highchair has wheels. I don't like where there are plastic seams? I have to get a knife to clean out those areas.

We have the Fisher Price Rainforest high chair which I love. My daughter is almost 7 months old and loves playing with the attached toy while waiting for her food. The seat is big, wide based (so not easy to tip the chair over), very easy to clean and has attached toys. We have a lot of the other FP Rainforest baby things so it goes well. It was a shower gift which we are very happy with. The seat cover can go in the washing machine and trays in the dishwasher if needed. There is also a extra head pillow for smaller babies which can be taken out once the baby is bigger. It's also really easy to put together.

Dear D., you sound as excited as I am to be a mom! Hands down the best, and safest, "eating chair" on the market is a Babee Tenda. It is wooden, square, with a low seat, and straps. Be sure to order the "all over bib" which makes clean up a breeze. this is a lifetime heirloom, too, as it turns into an activity table w/a chalkboard and dry erase board later, and eventually can be used as a utility table. It is amazing and the best purchase you can buy for your curious 5 month old. Many blessings. By the way, we bought the Babee Tenda crib, too. And sooooo loved the side door. Take care, Angela

Hi,

I have a beautiful PegPerego high chair that reclines and rocks that I will sell you at a great discount! It is leather too, looks nice in the kitchen.
K.

We love our Eddie Bauer wooden high chair -removable plastic tray. We're on our second child with it and it looks nice and has held up well.

Hi D.,

I am the mom of four boys, ages 12 - 3. When my oldest son needed a high chair, I was a young mom, and we did not have much money. I went to Babies R Us and bought the cheapest Graco high chair I could find. It was plastic with a vinyl seat cover. There were no frills. It did not recline or anything like that. I have to say, of all of the baby gear I have ever purchased (and there has been a lot!), that high chair was the BEST buy! It held up extremely well, even through four boys ~ and I let a girlfriend borrow it for a year with her son. Honestly, I felt a little guilty at first that it was not very nice. I was afraid that my son would be uncomfortable, but none of my boys ever cared. It was easy to clean because it was plastic and the seat cover was vinyl. My kids ate in it. They colored in it. They played with Play-Doh in it. Last year I finally sold it at our garage sale, and other than a couple of scuffs on the legs from moving, it was still in great shape ~ after 11 years.

My advice is to get something sturdy, but cheap. Take the savings and put it in a college fund or go do something fun & memorable as a family. Your son won't remember (or care) what kind of high chair he had, but you'll all enjoy pictures from his first visit to the zoo or aquarium. Good luck!

L.

I have been very happy with my Baby Trend high chair...vinyl pad is very easy to clean & tray pops off to clean in sink or dishwasher. It reclines with one button & folds flat for storage.
Good Luck!

We loved our Peg Perego Papa Primo with all three of our kids.

Hi D.,

I would recommend the Stokke (High)chair with babyrail and cushion. It is on the pricey side (199 usd), but it grows with your child and you can even sit on it as an adult as long as you adjust the seat and footrest. It is a sturdy wooden chair and the baby rail easily attaches in plastic and is very sturdy, not bulky or space eating and looks hip. I used it for my son since he was 5 months old and he is still using it, but as a normal chair (he is now almost 3 years). The neat thing about the Stokke chair is that your child sits with you at the table. There are no trays in front of the child chair. http://www.stokke-highchair.com/en-us/
Browse around and you might find deals on free shipping.

Enjoy your baby!

I can tell you that I regret having bought what I did. Knowing what I know now, I'd go with a Stokke wooden chair, even though they are pricey (especially if you think you're going to have another child). Eventually it pushes up to the table as they grow. The fabric cover in the one I had (Babytrend) got gross fast, and wasn't the best to wash. And we traded one for a vinyl covered Fisher Price on that was even worse. When you graduate to a booster, I recommend a Kaboost, that fits on the bottom of your chair.

LESS IS MORE! I have tried soooooooooooooooooo many highchairs and hate them ALL except one!

Both my kids were very squirmy, and with those big expensive padded highhairs with adjustable height, reclining positions, removable double trays, wheels that can lock or unlock, etc. etc., there was just too much room for them to squirm out of the straps, turn around and stand in the highchair like they were riding a chariot. And then try to sit on the tray, but I usually picked them up in time. And no, I wasn't going off into the other room for a long time - they bothy learned to do this quickly.

They also got to the point where they just refused to even use the highchair - much earlier than I would have liked. They just spread their feet out when I tried to put them in and... they wouldn't have it!

We tried one big "Babies R Us" one that cost something ridiculous (like $70 or more). We tried a simple wooden one at a friend's house. (My son managed to get his foot caught through the rungs on the side and couldn't get it out, panicked, then the grownups had an awful time getting him out because he was freaking out.) Let's see, there was one that strapped onto a reglat kitchen chair that was impossible to clean because it had little holes where the kids could stick the food and you couldn't get to it! There were another 3-4 at the daycare that had the same problem of being so big that they could turn around in it...

FINALLY!!!! I was at IKEA looking for kids furniture and we had lunch there. They have these minimalistic plastic high chairs that look like... no big deal. BUT when I set him in the chair... there was no room to turn around. It didn't have a high back that he could hold onto, so he didn't even TRY to squirm out. There were no rungs to get his feet stuck in. It was super-lightweight, so it didn't NEED wheels. There was no padded cloth cover to get mungy. It never took more than like 20 seconds to clean, no matter how filthy it got.
(They do have a little inflatable padded thingy you can add to it, but it's not really necessary.) The child needs to be able to sit up on thier own, but these days that's one of the "milestone" indicators that they're ready for solid food, so that's not a big deal.

Also, you can remove the legs and throw it in the back of the car for grandmom's house - it takes seconds. And the chair is so lightweight that I was able to hang it on one of those 3M wall hooks that use glue, they aren't even drilled into the wall.

And the whole thing is around $25. (You buy the chair and tray separately, but I think when I got it, it was $18 for the chair and $5 for the tray.) To be fair, we were a little rough with it and one day the plastic tab that keeps the tray on broke off, so when the new baby came, we replaced the tray. But that was only $5 - STILL a HUGE bargain, especially considering how much time I saved not cleaning those dopey ones. It also is the perfect height to slide up to our kitchem table if you want to skip the tray.

The only bad thing about going to IKEA is that you'll realize how much money you wasted at other stores buying baby furniture, or a baby tub, plates, utensils, etc. Every time I go to the kids section, I overhear people in the baby section saying "Oh, man! I wish I had known about this when we were getting the baby furniture!"

You can shop at IKEA online, too. Now that my boys are older, I got them a taller IKEA chair without the straps or tray, (called the GASSELL, I think.) They fought over it so much, I had to get a second one!

We've been pretty happy with our Fisher Price Rainforest Healthy Highchair. Its easy to clean, has a plastic covered cushion (so you can just wipe it clean instead of washing it every time something is spilled, which is pretty much every meal!). It reclines to 3 positions, its easy to take the tray on and off w/1 hand if needed. My only real complaints so far is that the harness that go over the shoulders are connected to the waist strap, which is sometimes a little difficult to get on and off a squirmy, messy kid. Now that our daughter is older, we just buckle the straps around her waist and forgo the arms. You also have to make sure the tray is completely on and snapped because otherwise, she kicks it off. Overall its been a good chair.

We love the Fisher Price Rain Forest highchair! Very easy to keep clean and put together.

I've used two different types of highchairs-the simple no thrills kind and the fancy does everything short of feed the kid kind! The simple one I had for my daughter was 25 bucks, didn't adjust in any way and had a removable vinyl cover. The fancy one reclined, had height adjustment, foldable with a cloth seat cover. If I had to do it all again, I'd pick the 25 dollar chair!! It was easier to keep clean, didn't have all the noocks and craines the fancy ones do to collect every crumb of food and after having to wash the seat cover every couple of days-was a pain in the butt!! We didn't even use half of what that highchair could do either so it was a waste of money in the end! So while I can't recommend a brand for you, I say keep it simple and save your money!

Good luck!
S.

We have a Svan chair, and I love it. (http://www.svanusa.com/) They're expensive, but they're very attractive, made of wood, and turn into a kid chair. It's also got a slimmer profile than those giant plastic monstrosities. :)

I love the highchair that fits onto my dining room chair. My son is 2 and is still in it. (It converts to a booster seat) The chair reclined for when we first started him on solids and was easy to clean. The tray has one hand removal and the vinyl that covers is easy to remove and clean. We also were able to take it apart and travel with it when we went on our first vacation with him! We are expecting our second now and by the time she is ready for a high chair, our son should be able to sit without a booster and we are planning to use it all over again! I think it's made by Fisher Price and is about $50.
Good Luck with your search!
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2508005

We bought an inexpensive high chair for our son and I think it worked great. One feature that I loved was the wheels. I would not be able to do without them. I also liked that it had an adjustable height, that way we could eat as a family all at the same level. The only thing is that it did not fold up very compact. It was practically the same size folded up as it was unfolded. Therefore, we just left it unfolded. I guess this is just another example of how your house changes with a child. Hope you find a highchair that works for you.

Hello D.,
I have three children and went through two different highchairs. I had plastic ones each time and liked them both. I found out that it is very important to make sure that the tray would close in tight against the child. My first highchair didn't do that and all the food would fall down my daughter. My advice would be to get one that pushes in far!! Good luck,
C.

ok I hated having an actual high chair for my daughter so when my son came along we got one of these. And it was SOO much easier.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2861764

It folds up and just straps right onto the regular chair so it fits right up to the table and can last through to toddler and even preschool years because it turns into a booster.

Don't have a specific recommendation other than get one that you can wipe out the cushion. Mine is cloth and it literally needs to be washed after every meal. Gross. My parents have a wooden one and it works great and is easy to clean. Mine is plastic and works great other than the cloth cushion. I have used the fold up flat function several times when we had company and didn't have room for the high chair or I just wanted things to look tidy.

Good luck!