High chairs - which type would you recommend?

Question

I need to get a high chair for my baby. I'm a bit nervous about this because he HATES his bumbo and his bouncy chair and when I've tried him in a high chair, he hated it too.
At the moment I feed him on my lap, but obviously I can't carry on with that forever.

I fancy one of the nice looking wooden ones but have heard they are a bit impractical!

Answer 1

Start by thinking where you intend to use it - I have one that fits UNDER the kitchen table, and one that fits OVER THE DINING room table - the heights vary! Consider one with a good harness (some are merely lapstraps which my little one soon learnt how to get out of) Also consider how easy they are to clean - day to day one in my kitchen is all plastic so quick and easy to wipe down daily, and light enough to fling outside on a nice day and give a good hosing down!

THEN start looking at colours and brands!!!

Answer 2

Hi, I have various contraptions for my 14 month old daughter depending where she is! Our highchair at home is a normal one with a table but is very impractical because it's not one you can wipe clean - big mistake!

At my mum's my daughter sits in one that attaches to the table with clamps, she loves it as she feels like a grown up (and she can feed the dog quite easily!). It depends on your table though because if it has a ledge underneath it may not fit. You can get them from mothercare for about £25.

The best thing I bought was a chair harness, which is a piece of material that slots over the back of a chair and then you sit the child on it, pull the material up through their legs & tie it around the back of the chair. It's great, cheap and very portable, plus the child is sitting on a normal chair and can still move their arms and legs withough falling off. You could sit them on a cushion quite easily to boost the up a bit. Mine was about £6 on ebay but John Lewis do a better version for £10. The only problem is if you have a really high backed chair.

Answer 3

We've had the Chicco, bought from Mothercare and it's been great. It folds up easily and wheels away, and it's adjustable to suit a growing baby/toddler. The tray has a removable panel so it's easy to clean and it feels well padded too.

We had a look at one of the fancy wooden ones - the Tripp Trapp if I'm not mistaken and find it really impractical. It's difficult to get the child in and out, you'd have to buy a separate baby pack at £20 (which really doesn't make sense as it's supposed to be a high chair for babies) and cushions at another £20 (plus the fact that you'd have to take the chair apart to get some of the cushions off to clean).

So keep it simple and try out various high chairs. Bear in mind that you're going to be using it on a daily basis, and that your child needs to get used to it - especially as you've said he/she doesn't seem to like sitting in chairs.

Answer 4

I have a wooden high chair. It's great as it works for all ages. You have a base that has a removable chair that fixes into place, attached to the chair is the tray. If you don't sit at a table to eat or when feeding baby this type of chair is brill as you can remove the chair and stand it on the floor so babe is sofa height. when baby turns in to toddler the base can be turned over and works as a table and the tray can be removed from the chair so the child has his own personal table and chair. my one has a cute picture of Winnie the pooh on it. I have had this type of high chair for both my sons and they both loved it. I highly recommend getting one.

Answer 5

I have two small children myself, that are under the age of 3 years old. I found that with both of them the Graco brand available at walmart are very practical and comfortable for baby. The wooden ones didn't work out for me personally because they cost more and do not adjust to their growth like plastic high chairs do.

Answer 6

We didn't buy a high chair. They seem to be rather top heavy and we weren't sure if that was safe. Instead, we bought this:
http://www.babeetenda.com/safetabl.htm
Admittedly, we did buy it after attending a baby product safety seminar sponsored by Babee Tenda, but I was eying it before the guy said what it was. (I talked my husband out of buying the crib. Yes, it looks nice, but somebody at our church kindly gave us their son's old one for free. Since I'm all about using what is already available than buying new, it didn't seem right to buy it. Not to mention the added price.) I also liked the table use as well. We only got one chair, but I figure we can buy kid size chairs to go with it for extra kids. Also, since we don't live too near grandparents, I liked that it folded for travel. (I don't remember what my sister used for travel when her daughter was a baby.)

However, if somebody had been generous enough to give us their high chair (I think my sister had already passed hers on, but she offered us her old stuff after we bought the table) before we bought this, we may not have bought it.

Answer 7

We have the Prima Pappa Diner from Peg Perego - our friends gave it a glowing recommendation because of the seat adjustment, height adjustment, table, durability, convenient storage and stowaway capability, etc. We haven't taken it out yet as our 5 month old just started on solids the last week or so, but we'll be taking it out pretty soon.

Answer 8

We have the Eddie Bauer wooden highchair at home and love it:
http://www.target.com/gp/search/601-2718889-9205726?ie=UTF8&ref=tgt%5Fadv%5FXSJH1060&afid=yahoosspslp&lnm=eddie%20bauer%20high%20chair&field-keywords=eddie%20bauer%20high%20chair
We use this one for travel (and while my Aunt watches him during the day) and it works really well:
http://www.target.com/Safety-1st-Recline-5-Stage-Feeding/dp/B000LSWX2Y/sr=1-5/qid=1192543855/ref=sr_1_5/601-2718889-9205726?ie=UTF8&index=target&rh=k%3Atravel%20highchair&page=1

You didn't mention how old your son is. My son did not like the Bumbo & wouldn't stay in a bouncy chair for longer than 5 minutes.
When we first started feeding him we used to hold him on our laps too. We eventually moved on to feeding him in his walker (with the wheels locked) & then finally to the highchair at about 6 months. It took a couple of tries till he was good with it & now he loves it.
Good Luck!

Answer 9

i would recommend on that converts into a chair and a table so he can use it for years. let him eat his favorite foods in the chair and the others in your lap and after a while you find he will get comfortable eating in his chair. the one i used was by jane and you could recline the seats easy to clean as well.

Answer 10

Look around for one that has a removable toy insert so maybe he will be distracted about being in a high chair and you can feed him while he plays.