High chair - time to move out of it?

[Maghag]

DD is nearly 19 months old and I'm just wondering if it's time we moved her out of the high chair. At nursery they all sit around a little table but I don't think I'd be able to get her to do that at home. She's a bit of fussy eater with huge appetite swings and not that adept at feeding herself so I'm wondering if I just keep the hc for a while.
Any thoughts?

Leave her in the highchair!

My DS3 will be 3 in May and is still in a high chair at home, but it is a wooden one which is pushed up to the table so he sits and eats at the table with his big brothers and me and DH when possible. He could sit on a seat but is higher up in his high chair and can reach the table better (so less mess).

As long as poss. I like my son to eat at the table with us to learn proper table manners and love our meal times too much for him to sit anywhere else. We've got a Tripp trapp and he grew out of the baby bit a long time ago. Although, I can imagine he would love a little set of table and chairs so that he can eat lunch with his friends together.

my two moved to a booster seat attached to a chair around that age and then they could eat up at the table with the rest of us.

I moved our twins out of their high chairs at about 18 months, because they started to resist being put in by raising their legs out of the way when I was trying to put them in.

We got these chairs from Ikea and they've been great. They're just the right height to raise a toddler up to the table, yet by 2 year olds can climb up and down off them relatively safely.

If your DC will stay in the highchair, then I'd stick with it as long as possible. Once you stop using it, you lose that place to put them and know they can't escape!

We got a booster seat for ours at around 16 MO as she was getting so upset about sitting in a high chair. She'd nearly outgrown the high chair anyway. The booster seat was about £8 and it says suitable from 6 months (has safety harness). www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productdisplay0_10751_-1_30423_10001
DD still uses it now at 2 and half years though she is now gowing out of that as well and wil just be able to use a cushion soon.
At some cafes she is fine just sitting on seat but depends on seat/table height obviously. Think at 18 MO most kids are tall enough to reach table sitting on cushion or booster seat so you could try one of these. We think ours just wanted to sit on an adult chair at table and be part of the family, not seperated by the high chair with its own little table so we got the booster seat and it's been brilliant - a lot more portable than the high chair for meals out/family visits too.

My DS has been in a booster seat at the table since about 15 months. No real difference between that and a highchair, really? They are strapped in across the body to the booster seat. We did the same with DD. She gave up the booster seat at about 3.5 so that DS could have it.

You only need to move them out of the highchair when they don't want it. My DD was out around 18 or 19mo. She wanted to climb out of it herself. I got her an ikea junior chair like happyasasandboy linked. DD loves it because she could get up and down it as she wished. I wouldn't want her on a booster chair since she's very very good at rocking. Adult chairs aren't stable enough. (She's toppled it before. We forbide her now to climb on our dining chairs).

DCs both became high-chair refusniks about 18 months and went staight to adult dining chairs, kneeling if necessary.

DD2 has always hated highchairs. She went into a booster on a regular chair at 12 months (poss earlier) and now at 2.5 sits on a normal chair at the table. Much easier in my opinion!

DD is still in hers at 26 months, but she doesn't use the tray, it's pushed right up to the table. But she's really little so if she didn't have it she'd have to be up on a high stool anyway, so we don't see much point getting rid of it. She doesn't need to be strapped in but sometimes she asks us to do it. Don't know why!