Product reviews

It's the eternal dilemma - fashion or function? A comfy pair of Cornish pasties, or a fabulous pair of stilettoes?

When it comes to highchairs, I fear that the Chicco Polly is firmly in the camp of the beetlecrushers. It's big. When you fold it out, it's a whopping 80cm deep by 60cm wide, which is not the sort of size you can discreetly tuck under your kitchen table. What's more, it's got great, big, knock-your-eye-out patterns, and it's not pretty, Polly.

What it is, however, is jolly useful. If your baby is young enough still to fall asleep when you've fed them, you can just recline the seat. (Big orange buttons make it child's play to use the seat's numerous adjust functions.)

It's all wipe clean. There's a great big tray, with a removeable wipe-clean top, in front of your infant where she can play with her toys and slobber over her rusk while you are getting your brekker.

There's a removeable, padded inner that you can take away when your baby gets bigger. The height adjusts, the height and rake of the leg rest adjusts.

It folds up easily, and slimmer than you'd think. But it's still not small. This is a highchair that screams: my baby has taken over my life. If you don't fancy that, try a Svan.