Highchairs. Essential features & waste of space gimmicks.

[2pumpkin2pumpkin1]

Hi,

Trying to decide on a highchair for DD3. Te one I want (Chicco Polly) is too expensive. My second choice (Mothercare antigua) either gets very good reviews or very bad reviews - nothing in between.

Any experience as to which features are necessary or unecessary features would be appreciated.

Here are my thoughts so far (in order of preference)

1. Height adjustable to allow a snug fit at teh table for later use
2. Reclining - I know how babies like to fall asleep in hte middle of tea
3. Don't like wooden chairs
4. Crotch bar. Good idea if part of tray - but don't think it looks comfy when part of seat.

Easy to clean - not too many nooks and crannies!

Agree with you on all points and the order of them, including the crotch bar. If it's part of the seat then it will just get in the way when the child is old enought o climb in by themselves.

Dirt traps: some chairs have tiny lips or screws, likewise the trays, and you wouldn't believe where food can end up! A removable traytop sounds a good idea (we don't have one), but you'll probably end up removing everything and scrubbing the chair down once a day at least in any case.

Fiddle with the chair and look for fingertraps. We found one which we thought was ideal, but realised that as you adjust the recline there was a glorious fingertrap just under where the tray attaches to the chair - so we chose a different make.

Some people like harnesses that attach at the bottom of the chair, but I find them spaghetti. Personally I prefer a harness like a carseat's, where the shoulder straps come out of the back of the chair.

I wish ours had wheels.

People say the folding is a waste, as once it's up you never fold te chair. Not if you have a small kitchen! We folded ours up every night, and often during the day, in order to give us room to manouever.

Any more wisdom greatly appreciated. I don't want to be paying for features that I think I will use.

If only using for it for one child personally i'd go for 1) cheap & 2) easy to clean. Can you check the height of your table now to get one that fits without adjustment? Mine had a crotch strap as part of the harness which worked fine. Didn't recline - TBH if they were that tired i could hoik them out and into bed without them waking up

The fisher price healthy care one is good - think it's in argos.

I had it in a small flat and it was brilliant for folding flat to go in cupboards, had rmoveable tray, was hight adjustable. reclined etc. Sad I couldn't bring it with me when I moved.

Have now got a toys R Us wooden one that will split into table and chairs. Very basic but excellenat. Dosen't recline or hight adjust but it fits up to the table perfectly, DS 19months has been climbing in himself for 2-3months. Thought it would be a disater but it is probaby better than the fisher price. it still has the removeable plastic tray but none of the other features.

IKEA
its costs £9
its fab
reclinging is crap dont need it fgs height fine

ikea chairs look good and are easy to clean and cheap as chips.

hmmm.

My other reasoning for reclining was that DD3is only 5m & although I don't want to start weaning I do want her to sit at the table & watch ready for BLW.

Otherwise I am torn between tenner @ ikea & £50 @ mothercare...

IKEA
I tell you three kids down i wish i hadnt botheres iwht prima papas you can be the coolest mum in your gang and blow the rest on two LRGE bottles of champers

WHEELS ! for gos sake
what a piel fo crap
you dont need allt hese gimmicks

here adn htere a table too to go on it

Could someone please measure the height of the Ikea Antilop to the top of the side bits.

(so I can compare it to my table height IYSWIM).

Thanks.

nio
we havent go to one e nymore
hooray hooray

yes we have ikea one its soooo fabby

If it has a harness it needs to be removable for washing.

Height thing seems pointless - we have now ditched ours at 18 mths and he just sits on a normal chair at the table

about 74cm

ohg od dont wash the harness
it needs to m be made rigid by nice lots of crusty food

we have tray on ours though

then they move to handysitt at the table

thent hey move to a chair in the fish house of hard knocks

TY enid

I have to admit I would I have gone for a booster straight off (which we did for DTDs) but don't have a spare chair at the moment.

Just told DP about Ikea one - he's made the decision!!!

Sorry TY for everyone else comments.

We had that mothercare Antigua one for ds and it was a nightmare - don't get it!! It took up too much space, we didn't use the height adjust, or recline features so they were a waste for us, and there were too many spaces to get food lodged into - it was disgusting - plus the straps didn't remove for cleaning - yuk!. We then bought the IKEA one and it has been fabulous - we are now using it for dd. We have the tray for it (an extra couple of quid), but if we remove the tray then it can be pushed up against the side of the table.