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After a fresh round of testing, we remain confident that our long-term high chair picks are the best. We’ve also added a clip-on option: Phil&teds Lobster Clip-On Highchair. Commercial Furniture Design
A good high chair should be simple to use and, above all, easy to clean.
After testing 21 high chairs with infants and toddlers—including cleaning up dried smears of pureed sweet potato and smushed Goldfish crackers—we’re confident that the simple IKEA Antilop will make mealtime easier than using high chairs costing 10 times as much.
We also like the affordable and compact Fisher-Price Healthy Care Deluxe Booster Seat; the Phil&teds Lobster Clip-On Highchair for travel; and the Stokke Tripp Trapp, an adjustable wooden chair with a long life and great resale value.
This functional, compact, lightweight chair is easier to keep clean than models costing 10 times as much.
This wooden chair is harder to clean and much more expensive than our top pick. But it can truly grow with a child, and it’s especially suitable for preschoolers.
This versatile seat buckles to an adult chair, can work with or without a tray, and folds up for the road. But it’s tougher to clean and less comfy than our pick.
This foldable clip-on chair is small enough to pack in a suitcase and sturdy enough to attach to a picnic table. Plus, the cloth cover zips off for (fairly) easy cleaning.
The most common high chair injuries involve falling. We looked for steady chairs with secure harnesses.
Many parents we spoke with who’d bought pricey high chairs ended up wishing they had something simpler and easier to clean.
We considered how long a family would be able to use a chair, as well as its resale value.
Whether you’re packing a suitcase or headed to dinner at the local brewery, you might need a high chair you can take with you.
This functional, compact, lightweight chair is easier to keep clean than models costing 10 times as much.
At 7.9 pounds, the IKEA Antilop chair is lighter, smaller, and easier to move around than most high chairs. Yet it’s still sturdy, durable, and comfortable to sit in. The smooth, plastic-and-steel construction is simple and functional, without the grime-collecting fabric or crumb-catching crevices that cause problems in other chairs. Compared with some competitors, the Antilop can accommodate slightly bigger children, though it’s not a chair that kids can continue to use as they hit preschool. Assembly is simple, but removing and reconnecting the tray can be a pain. And although the price is impressively low, you’ll have to buy the chair in person at IKEA or pay extra for shipping.
This wooden chair is harder to clean and much more expensive than our top pick. But it can truly grow with a child, and it’s especially suitable for preschoolers.
If you want a high chair that blends in with adult furniture and can serve your kid well from 6 months through the end of childhood and beyond, we recommend the Stokke Tripp Trapp. Compared with our top pick, this chair is much pricier and more complicated, requiring add-on purchases for use with infants and some effort to assemble and adjust. But it’s far easier for bigger kids to climb into by themselves. And it’s an unusually attractive piece of furniture that you may want to keep forever; otherwise, it should be easy to sell secondhand.
This versatile seat buckles to an adult chair, can work with or without a tray, and folds up for the road. But it’s tougher to clean and less comfy than our pick.
The compact Fisher-Price Healthy Care Deluxe Booster Seat buckles to an adult chair and is a versatile spare to keep at the grandparents’ house. It can work as either a high chair with a tray or a booster pulled up to the table. It isn’t as comfy to sit in or as simple to clean as our top pick (it has buttons and seams that can collect grime or allow spills to drip through to the adult chair underneath). But compared with other chairs of its type, this one is easier to clean and less expensive.
This foldable clip-on chair is small enough to pack in a suitcase and sturdy enough to attach to a picnic table. Plus, the cloth cover zips off for (fairly) easy cleaning.
Phil&teds Lobster Clip-On Highchair is small and lightweight (about 4 pounds), so it’s easy to fold up and pack into a suitcase, or even to wedge into a diaper bag when you’re on the go. Yet it’s also sturdy enough that it feels safe for use at a restaurant, regardless of the construction of the table it clips onto.
We consulted various experts, including pediatricians, occupational and physical therapists, and product designers.
We spent several hours researching high chair safety online, using the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s database to see which chairs had been recalled recently and why.
We also surveyed over three-dozen parents from across the country to determine which high chair features were most important and to learn about chairs that people loved and hated.
Erica Pearson, this guide’s original author, is a former newspaper reporter with more than 15 years of experience interviewing experts in countless fields, including health, parenting, and safety. She’s also a mom of two. Jenni Gritters updated this guide in 2023. She’s also a mom of two and has a decade of experience writing about parenting, purchasing, and psychology.
A high chair is one of the few baby-gear items that’s pretty much a necessity. Most babies begin eating solid food at around 5 or 6 months and start using a high chair at the same time. Some families put the high chair away before a child turns 2, while others continue to use the chair through toddlerhood and sometimes beyond (if it’s a booster or a convertible model). In all cases, a high chair will help keep the child—and the child’s food—in place and contained.
Our research and interviews led us to conclude that a great high chair has several attributes:
Safe and stable: A high chair should not feel wobbly at all. Some chairs have three-point safety harnesses, which buckle just around the legs and at the waist; others have five-point harnesses, which include shoulder straps. The type of safety harness doesn’t necessarily make a chair safe or unsafe, said Dr. Heather Felton, a pediatrician and injury-prevention expert. She added, however, that “all of the straps that come with a high chair should be used.”
Easy to clean: Cleaning ease is the factor that makes most people love or hate a high chair. Tiny diners love smearing hands full of sticky puree everywhere they can reach, and toddlers are notorious for overturning entire bowls of Cheerios and milk more often than not. A high chair has the potential to drive a parent crazy if it has too many crevices where crumbs can collect, spaces underneath the seat where liquids can pool undetected, or a seat cover that you can’t easily throw in the washing machine after a diaper leak.
Compact and manageable: If you have limited space, you’ll likely appreciate a high chair with a smaller footprint. A chair that’s easy to fold or disassemble for long-term storage may also be a plus, as is a chair that’s easy to pack into the car or even into a suitcase for travel.
Designed to make meals easier and more pleasant: A great chair should also be reasonably simple for a baby and a parent to use. The design of some chairs makes them easy to trip over, even if they’re not huge. The seat should be comfortable enough to keep a baby happy through mealtime. And, ideally, the chair should not be a total eyesore.
A comfortable chair will also allow a child to have their hips, knees, and ankles at a 90-degree angle. Over the past few years, the occupational therapist who runs the popular baby-led-weaning education company Feeding Littles has recommended that everyone buy a high chair with a footrest. But the experts we spoke with were split on the issue. Carrie Pagliano, PT, told us that kids move so much they’re unlikely to use a footrest. Occupational therapist Julie Barnes said that when kids have their feet resting flat on a solid surface, this “provides the best postural support, which is the basis for stability of the neck and jaw during eating.”
In short, you can buy a high chair without a footrest, and everyone will get by just fine. But a footrest might help your child use their energy for eating—which is a novel motor action for infants—rather than for maintaining their posture. (Many parents wrap an exercise band around our top pick as a hack to give kids a place to rest their feet.)
We carefully considered about 30 popular models during our first round of testing, and we considered another 12 during the second round, in 2023. We eliminated the chairs with many negative customer reviews that specifically described how difficult they were to clean. This process left us with a lineup of 13 high chairs to test the first time around, and we looked at another eight models in 2023.
Jenni and Erica tested the high chairs with their infants and toddlers. They timed the assembly of each of the 21 high chairs, noting any particular difficulties or frustrations. They measured each chair’s footprint and considered how easy it was to fold, roll, or lift out of the way between meals.
Then they used each chair with their infants (7-month-old Emilia and 10-month-old Lily) and preschoolers (Liam and Elise, both 3), when applicable. Jenni and Erica focused on how difficult it was to get their kids in and out of the chairs, and they noted any cleaning challenges.
This functional, compact, lightweight chair is easier to keep clean than models costing 10 times as much.
The IKEA Antilop high chair has a smooth, rounded plastic seat and tray. It’s easier to clean, simpler to use, and less expensive than every other high chair we tested.
Although this model is lightweight, it’s also sturdy, and its neutral, white-and-silver design and clean lines look presentable in just about any decor. This high chair stacks easily with the tray removed (great for parents with twins or closely spaced kids, or for use at day care), and it’s simple to take apart for storage or travel. Though it has none of the extra features that many high chair designers consider standard—such as different height settings or a reclining seat back—we still preferred it over nearly every other chair.
This inexpensive back pillow is easy to attach, and it can be paired with a stain-resistant cover that can be thrown in the wash.
Easiest to clean: The Antilop is just one piece of plastic, with no hard-to-reach areas where liquids can pool, and no crannies, cracks, or seams where grime can hide. It has no fabric (unless you spring for the optional support pillow, which has an also-optional stain-resistant cover). The tray fits in the dishwasher, and the safety straps are relatively easy to remove and toss in the washing machine. We love that you can bring the entire chair outside and spray it down with a hose.
Attached tray: Unlike the trays on most high chairs, the Antilop’s tray is designed to stay in place most of the time. We found that this design makes starting mealtimes simpler and easier, and it reduces clutter around the kitchen and dining room. And the tray’s 1-centimeter raised edge prevents many (but definitely not all) spills from ending up on the floor. When you do need to remove the tray, though, it can be a pain.
Light and simple: The 7.9-pound chair is lightweight yet sturdy, and with the tray removed, it’s easily stackable. It is very easy to assemble—we clocked two minutes. All you need to do is slide the chair’s legs into place and click on the tray. It has a smaller, 22-by-24-inch footprint and a three-point safety harness, so there are no shoulder straps to get messy. This chair doesn’t have wheels, but it doesn’t need them because it’s light enough to easily pick up and move around. (Many of the other chairs we tested weighed 25 pounds or more—we could easily see why the designers added wheels.)
Attractive and adaptable: The Antilop has a plain but attractive look. Though the chair is about as basic as can be, you can modify it in two important ways. First, the optional support pillow gives babies who are first learning to eat solids a little boost up to the tray (though the cushion quickly becomes unnecessary for many). Second, the high chair can also work without the tray, if you prefer to push it close to the table so that your baby or toddler can eat there with the rest of the family. (To make cleanup even simpler, you can add a silicone placemat from Etsy that fits perfectly inside the tray. Or consider adding handmade cushion covers in cute fabrics.)
Jenni has been using the Antilop since her son was born, 3½ years ago. It’s a bit scratched up, but it remains entirely functional. She’s taken it on road trips, carried it through four rental homes, and is now using it with her second child. For the price, this chair’s durability is something to behold.
The most common complaints about the Antilop tend to be about the tray. Removing the tray for the first time will leave many parents wondering if it’s actually intended to come off. This is a common question posted to online forums, and there are YouTube videos showing how to do it: You push down with one hand on the center of the seat, and then yank the outer edge of the tray upward, with force (this is harder than you might think).
Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy enough to remove the tray and then snap it back in after running it through the dishwasher. Trying to remove the tray when the baby is in the chair, however, is dangerous, and IKEA warns against this behavior in stickers on the tray itself. Jenni removes the tray to wash it every evening (and has done so for the past three years).
The tray does not adjust to move closer to or farther away from the baby’s tummy, so more food may fall onto the seat than if you were using a chair with an adjustable tray. (IKEA’s optional back cushion helps with this problem, and it can bring smaller babies closer to the tray and allow them to sit up straight.) The seat puts no padding under a baby’s bottom, but it was comfortable enough for our littlest testers. It also does not include a footrest, though you can add an aftermarket footrest or strap an exercise band across the legs to give your child some extra support.
Parents of older babies and toddlers will also find that the IKEA Antilop requires some cooperation, especially with heavier toddlers (whom you will have to lift way up and slide in, much like when you’re using a typical wooden restaurant high chair). IKEA does not provide a specific age or weight limit for its chair, but Jenni used it for her son until he was 2 years old.
The Antilop does not fold or adjust in any way. It stands at a fixed but comfortable height that lets you pull it up to the dining table (the tray sits at the 29-inch mark), but it’s too low for eating at a breakfast bar or taller counter.
Perhaps the most significant flaw: To get this chair for $30, you have to take a trip to IKEA (you can also buy it through the IKEA website, but shipping fees vary). Many IKEA products are now also available through Amazon but often at an absurdly inflated price. The chair has no warranty.
This wooden chair is harder to clean and much more expensive than our top pick. But it can truly grow with a child, and it’s especially suitable for preschoolers.
The solid-beech Stokke Tripp Trapp is the only chair we tested that’s truly comfortable and easy to use for both infants and preschoolers who are ready to climb into a chair by themselves.
It’s also the only high chair we tested that has been part of an exhibition at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, thanks to its iconic 1972 design by Norwegian designer Peter Opsvik. The aesthetics are clearly a draw and inseparable from this chair’s value. Unlike the IKEA Antilop and the vast majority of other high chairs, the Tripp Trapp is a piece of furniture you might keep forever: With its dozen configurations, it can grow from a first high chair for a 6-month-old to a toddler seat to a chair appropriate for most teens and even adults.
Works for a range of ages: The Tripp Trapp was extremely comfortable for Erica’s 7-month-old, and it was even better for her preschooler, who could climb into it herself. The safety gliders, which attach to the legs, allow bigger kids to push away from the table without tipping and to get down on their own. Overall, the Stokke seemed the sturdiest of the 21 chairs we tested.
Reasonably easy to clean: The easy-to-secure Baby Set attachment goes right in the dishwasher for cleanup. The safety harness needs a screwdriver to remove it, and the screw is tough to reach without taking the chair’s seat out, so parents will have to put in some effort to keep that grime-free. During our testing, though, the safety straps and buckle did scrub free of all stickiness and stains.
Can be used at the family table: Opsvik’s intent with the high chair (which he designed in 1972 for his 2-year-old son Thor) was to bring little ones right up to the table to eat with the rest of the family. “On a Tripp Trapp chair, smaller children sit on a higher seat than the taller ones, and these reduced height differences have improved the interaction between children and grown-ups around the same table,” he wrote in an email. “Mealtimes have become more relaxed, and children find it easier to concentrate on the activities taking place around the table when the physical environment has been adapted to their size and needs.”
In 2023, Jenni tested the new, less-expensive Stokke Steps, a plastic seat that mimics the Tripp Trapp’s design, and she found this to be true for her toddler as well. He loved the chair’s design so much that he declared it his “special seat” and refused to eat on anything else.
Expensive add-ons: Erica tested the Tripp Trapp with the add-on Baby Set, which consists of a plastic seat and back that attach to the chair’s wooden slats. Her little tester loved being at the table with her parents and her big sister. But without a tray, all of the mess ends up on the tabletop, so a placemat is key (we like the Summer Infant Tiny Diner placemat).
Stokke also has a newborn seat attachment, which can be used from birth up to a maximum weight of 19.8 pounds (most kids will probably want to sit up well before then). Parents who want their baby to eat apart from the table can buy an optional Stokke plastic tray; it’s lightweight, dishwasher-safe, and easy to attach to the Baby Set. There are also optional fabric cushions for the chair’s seat.
Once you get all the infant add-ons, the $220 Tripp Trapp can become a $400-plus chair. But you could forgo some of those extras (the tray, for example, isn’t needed if you want the baby to eat at the table). It may justify the investment to know that the resale potential for used Tripp Trapp chairs is strong—in New York, for example, they often sell on Craigslist for more than $100.
At about 15 pounds, the Tripp Trapp is heavier to move around than lightweight plastic-and-steel chairs like the IKEA Antilop. It also has a longer assembly time (36 minutes) than many other chairs we tested, but we found it was easier to put together and adjust than similar wooden competitors. It comes in 10 colors, both brights and neutrals, and in lighter “natural” and darker “walnut” wood finishes (all of the chairs are made of beech).
The chair has a seven-year warranty when you register it.
This versatile seat buckles to an adult chair, can work with or without a tray, and folds up for the road. But it’s tougher to clean and less comfy than our pick.
The Fisher-Price Healthy Care Deluxe Booster Seat, which buckles to an adult chair, is smaller, lighter (4.7 pounds), and easier to travel with than our top pick. So it’s a great second chair to keep at the grandparents’ house. This inexpensive model cleverly folds into a compact little package with its own carry strap, and it can work either as a high chair with a tray or as a booster seat pulled up to the table. But it’s not as comfortable or as easy to clean as our top pick, which we prefer for everyday use.
Relatively easy to clean: We studied the half-dozen readily available chairs of this type and concluded that the Healthy Care Deluxe would be the easiest to clean (many similar chairs have large, often ruffle-lined fabric components). The tray insert goes right in the dishwasher—although we did find that it stains easily—and the seat itself is small enough to clean in the sink. Still, this chair makes more of a mess than our other picks, primarily because food and liquid tend to fall through the booster seat to the adult chair below. The seat also has some buttons, grooves, and other parts that collect grime.
Simple but versatile: It can adjust to three heights, which is helpful when you’re using it as a booster seat, since some kids need a higher boost to reach the table than others. The tray also has three positions. We tested the Deluxe booster, which includes a snap-on lid, so the tray stays clean when stored away. But the booster is also available without the tray cover for less.
A convenient spare seat: This chair can work with or without the tray, either as a booster seat pulled right up to the table or as a space-saver high chair. That flexibility makes this chair appropriate for 6-month-olds, toddlers, and preschoolers. (Erica’s preschooler liked to have it pulled right up to the table during a visit to Grandpa’s house.) After their children outgrow this chair, many parents will keep it in a closet to bring out when a baby visits.
The Healthy Care Deluxe Booster Seat is simple to put together (it took us less than two minutes). It won’t win any beauty contests, but if the tray isn’t attached, you can push the adult chair right up to the table and hide the booster from sight. As with other chairs designed for use next to a table, with this one, parents need to make sure babies aren’t able to kick or push on anything that might cause them to tip over. The Healthy Care Deluxe does not come with a warranty.
This foldable clip-on chair is small enough to pack in a suitcase and sturdy enough to attach to a picnic table. Plus, the cloth cover zips off for (fairly) easy cleaning.
If you’re looking for a high chair that can be packed in a suitcase or even slipped into a diaper bag, the Phil&teds Lobster Clip-On Highchair is the best choice. It weighs about 4 pounds, is smaller than a MacBook Air, and attaches more easily to more tables than other chairs of this type.
Compatible with more tables: The Lobster chair works just like any other clip-on chair: The arms slot onto a table, and then you use a tension rod to screw the clamps into place. This chair stands out because it fits on tables that are between 0.8 and 3.75 inches thick—a broader range than for other, similar seats.
But use caution: The American Academy of Pediatrics warns against everyday use of chairs that clip to a tabletop, because this type of chair involves so many variables: The table must be stable and heavy enough to hold the weight of the baby and the chair; the caregiver needs to lock it properly; and the baby may be able to kick and push, if they can reach the table with their legs. Be sure to test the table’s stability before you clip your baby on.
Washable cover: The chair comes assembled, but you’ll need an Allen wrench to remove several of the parts if you want to zip off the fabric cover for cleaning (you slide it over a few panels to fully remove it). The padded shoulder straps can also be removed for cleaning. Though the Phil&teds site recommends hand-washing, a company rep told us machine-washing is also okay. We machine-washed the cloth seat and the straps multiple times without incident.
Optional tray: Unlike other clip-on chairs we tried, this one has a slide-on, dishwasher-safe tray. This is a good idea in theory (less mess!), but it’s less useful in practice at a restaurant; Jenni’s daughter kept pushing the tray away from her, and it didn’t stay solidly attached to the chair.
The Lobster is a bit more shallow than other clip-on chairs; Jenni’s 10-month-old daughter is chunky, and her stomach was almost pressed against the table. Although the company says the Lobster can fit kids up to 37 pounds, we doubt that a bigger child would fit into the smaller frame. Phil&teds products have a one-year warranty.
If you like the design of the Stokke Tripp Trapp but want a slightly less expensive option: The Stokke Steps chair is worth considering. It’s similar to the Tripp Trapp, but it’s made with plastic, which is (arguably) easier to clean. Like the Tripp Trapp, the Stokke Steps chair requires multiple add-ons for use with an infant. But it has a long life, and the resale value for any Stokke product is quite good.
If you’re looking for a more stylish and versatile chair: You might like Lalo’s The Chair, which converts to a play chair and takes up less room than either the IKEA Antilop or the Stokke Tripp Trapp. The Lalo’s non-toxic plastic material is easy to clean (although we didn’t like having to wash the optional-use cloth cover). The brand also makes an attractive and useful set of dishes, and the chair’s bucket shape kept Jenni’s daughter upright. It’s also lightweight and has a reversible footrest and a removable tray. But the ribbon-like harness straps are tough to clean, and the tray is difficult to remove.
If you want a clip-on chair and don’t mind a slightly larger size: The Inglesina Fast Table Chair is more padded than either the Lobster chair or the Chicco Caddy, and it accommodates slightly larger children. The machine-washable cover unzips and is easier to remove than its competitors, too. But this chair is a bit bigger and heavier than the Lobster, which means it’s tough to pack in a suitcase, and it has a ramp-like effect that pushed Jenni’s daughter toward the table. Its clamp system is just as secure as the Lobster’s, though.
The Chicco Caddy Portable Hook-On Chair uses the same clamp system as the Lobster chair, but the material is tougher to clean. (It buttons on, rather than unzipping; Jenni has used this chair for years and finds herself just leaving it dirty versus taking the time to clean it because disassembling it is annoying.) The Caddy’s clamp system is also harder to use than the Lobster chair’s, and the Caddy chair sometimes felt wobbly because it wasn’t clamped tightly enough. The Caddy is also bigger than the Lobster and won’t fit well in a suitcase, although it’s just fine for a road trip.
The Evenflo Eat & Grow 4-in-1 Convertible High Chair has a huge footprint and is covered in fabric that’s machine-washable but a pain to remove. The tray is washable but tough to unsnap. And the materials feel cheap. Even though it converts to a toddler chair and a kid chair (and a table!), we’d still prefer the IKEA Antilop as an option that’s at least half the price.
The Graco Blossom 6-in-1 Convertible High Chair looks like a throne. But why, oh, why is it made with white pleather? We liked that it’s adaptable, with possible configurations for infants, toddlers, and beyond. The tray comes off and is easy to throw into the dishwasher. And it rolls nicely (which is important, because it’s big and heavy). But the materials are hard to clean, and it’s really huge. (We also previously tested the Graco Blossom 4-in-1 Seating system, which was also tough to clean.)
The Graco DuoDiner LX Highchair is a modular chair that doesn’t try to turn into a youth seat at all; it works only as a regular high chair, a space-saver chair buckled to an adult chair, or a booster. That means it has no hidden seat at the bottom to collect sticky liquid, like the Blossom. On the other hand, the high chair seat itself is much heavier and even more like a car seat than those of the other modular chairs. So it’s more difficult to take off and bring to the sink.
The Ingenuity Trio 3-in-1 High Chair was the least expensive modular chair Erica tested. But it also felt a little cheaper: The tray was tough to lock in, and the wheels had it sliding around the floor, even when they were locked. With misplaced footrests, it also didn’t transition well into a toddler chair. That said, it was the easiest modular chair to clean.
The best thing about the Joovy Nook is that its tray opens and swings out to one side, so the caregiver doesn’t need to take it off and then put it back on when seating a baby in the chair. The Nook also folds flat with one hand and leans nicely against the wall. The worst thing about the Nook is that it’s extremely difficult to remove the seat cushion for deep cleaning.
The all-wood Keekaroo Height Right High Chair has a similar system for adjusting the seat and footrest to that of the Stokke Tripp Trapp, so it can be used throughout childhood and as an adult chair. It will likely work just fine for kids ages 3 and up, but it doesn’t seem ideal for the youngest eaters. The wooden tray was very heavy and clunky to slide in and out. And the combination of the seat height, tray placement, and three-point harness allowed Erica’s 7-month-old to lunge forward in the chair (the Stokke and the other wooden chair we tested, the Svan Signet Complete, both have a five-point harness).
The OXO Tot Seedling High Chair was one of our favorite adjustable chairs, but it’s been discontinued. If you can find it secondhand, we still think it’s worth considering because it’s easy to care for and sturdy, and it works well for a taller counter or breakfast bar.
The Phil&teds Poppy High Chair looks like something out of The Jetsons. But underneath its Aerocore seat cover, there are many hidden gaps, crannies, and slots in the plastic seat frame; in our tests they collected spilled juice and were a big pain to clean. The Amazon listing suggests that the Aerocore seat cover can go in the dishwasher, but the instruction manual advises scrubbing with soap and water instead. And indeed it wasn’t a good idea to put the cover in the dishwasher—it warped when we did so.
The Skip Hop Eon 4-in-1 has a deep bucket seat, which affected Jenni’s daughter’s posture. She wasn’t comfortable in the seat, and she tended to fuss and slouch rather than eat. With a silicone material that we could wipe down quickly and a tray cover that easily snapped off for the dishwasher, this seat was not a problem to clean. And it can convert to a shorter seat for a toddler. But it has a large footprint, and the footrest was too low for an infant and too high for a toddler. For a fraction of the price, the IKEA Antilop is a similar but far better option.
The Svan Signet Complete has a bentwood frame and can adjust to last throughout childhood, and even for adult use. We found this chair harder to assemble and adjust than the other wooden chairs we tested, though. And it wasn’t comfortable for Erica’s infant daughter, nor was it easy to clean: The chair has deep grooves and slots, and they were hard to reach with a sponge or even a scrubbing brush.
Before testing, we ruled out a few other popular chairs, including Peg Perego’s Prima Pappa Diner and Siesta, because their seat covers were not machine-washable.
Falling is the most common high chair accident that lands children in the emergency room—usually because caregivers don’t fasten the safety straps that come with the chair, or they leave them too loose, explained Dr. Heather Felton, a pediatrician and injury-prevention expert in Louisville.
“Injuries from high chairs are fairly common in general. About 24 children are treated in the ER every day in the US, or about one per hour,” Felton wrote in an email. “Most falls happen when a child is climbing or standing on the chair. The most common types of injuries are to the head and neck, with closed head injuries, including concussions, being the most common.”
It’s important to follow the specific safety instructions that come with each chair. For example, it’s not safe to try to remove the IKEA Antilop chair’s tray while a baby is in the seat. The Stokke Tripp Trapp’s manual explains that the chair is not for use on rough surfaces and uneven floors, such as areas with rugs or tiles, because the chair needs to be able to slide backward. With both the Tripp Trapp and any booster—including the Fisher-Price Healthy Care Deluxe—in which a child is buckled to an adult chair, parents need to watch for frames underneath the table that the child could push their legs against, causing themselves to tilt backward.
This article was edited by Kalee Thompson.
Dr. Heather Felton, Louisville pediatrician, expert in safety and injury prevention, and spokesperson for the American Association of Pediatrics, email interview, May 16, 2017
Betsy Holman, brand marketing, Graco, phone interview, May 18, 2017
Domenic Gubitosi, director of product design for Fisher-Price, babygear division, phone interview, May 18, 2017
Bridgette Kovacevich, marketing manager for BabySwede, the licensed North American distributor for BabyBjörn, email interview, May 24, 2017
Peter Opsvik, designer of the Stokke Tripp Trapp and author of Rethinking Sitting, email interview, May 31, 2017
Howard Greenspan, owner of SCS Direct, maker of the Svan high chair, phone interview, May 15, 2017
Dr. Carrie J Pagliano, physical therapist, email interview, March 1, 2023
Occupational therapist Julie Barnes, OTD, OTR/L, CPAM, CBIS, CLT, email interview, March 10, 2023
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