Do you live in a smaller space and eat most of your meals around a tiny table? Then a booster-style seat that straps right onto one of your chairs or one that clips to a counter may be right for you so baby can pull up a seat right at the table. You may have a larger dining area or a multi-purpose space. A standalone chair that can be easily moved around from one room to the next is a good option. Parents don’t care about form over function, and will choose the highest-quality high chairs that suit their personal style. You may prefer a plastic, basic model or one with wipeable fabrics if constant cleaning is a priority. Other important factors to think about when selecting a highchair include durability. Planning on a large family and passing your high chair down from kid to kid? While they may be more expensive, a wooden high chair is a good investment. How long will you use it? Think about how long you’re hoping to keep your little one in a high chair. Many chairs can be converted to booster seats or an adult-sized version. Safety. Always consider your child’s safety when buying any piece of baby gear, but especially when it comes to choosing the best high chair. Your seat should have a safety system such as a 3- to 5-point harness or 5-point harness. It also need to be stable (if it has wheels make sure they lock in place), and a crotch pin. Nothing that could pinch your baby’s delicate fingers or catch on yours. You can find more help in our How-To video on how to select the perfect highchair for your family.

It’s important to choose the right highchair for you family. The following are some suggestions to help you choose the perfect high chair.


How much space you have. It is important that you are able to maneuver the chair and reach it easily so your child can eat while you’re sitting there. A portable high chair or booster that attaches to your chairs may be more suitable for those who have smaller kitchens.


The maximum time you can use the high-chair. It depends on what type of chair he has, it may be possible for him to use it until he is at least two years old. Many high chairs can easily be converted from an infant seat into a booster for toddlers and finally to a chair.


It is so easy to clean the high chair. As your baby grows up, the high chair will become easier to clean. It’s important to have a comfortable high-chair that you can clean easily. There will always be spills, splatters, and crumbs. Consider a high chair with removable parts or materials that can be wiped down easily to make cleaning a breeze.


You can choose the tray type. Can be adjusted? Disposable Is it dishwasher safe? Look for a wide, sturdy and removable option that offers easy clean-up.


This high-chair’s mobility is key. This is especially crucial for those with small kitchens. The problem with traditional models is that they can take up valuable kitchen space and are difficult to store. Include it on your checklist if stashability is important.


Comfort. It is unlikely that a baby will be interested in meals if they are not comfortable. Soft, washing machine-friendly padding or a well-shaped seat will help baby stay comfortable and ready to eat and explore.

IKEA’s Antilop High Chair is the most functional and lightweight high-chair. It can be used in a variety of ways, including as a portable, light chair that you can clean easily, unlike high chairs which cost over ten times as much.


IKEA Antilop, which weighs 7.9 pounds is smaller and more portable than many high chairs, but it remains sturdy, durable, comfortable, and strong at 7.99 pounds. Smooth plastic-and-steel construction makes it easy to use and doesn’t contain the crumb-catching crevices or grime-collecting fabrics that can cause issues with other chairs. It can hold slightly larger children than some other chairs, but the chair is not one that can be used by older kids. It is very easy to put together, but it can take a little longer than other brands. The chair is only $20 at the moment, which is quite affordable. However, shipping costs will be extra if you order it at IKEA.


Advertisement

Test your taste buds: Emilia is hard at work testing high-chairs.


The assembly took place in two persons using each one of the thirteen high chairs. I recorded any frustrations or difficulties. This process consumed three and a half hours of my life. After measuring each chair’s footprint, I considered the ease of folding, rolling, and lifting them out of their way during meals.


I then spent 26 hours evaluating the high chairs in everyday conditions with my two daughters, using each chair for at least two meals, and using the chairs that worked best for dozens of meals. It was easy to maneuver Emilia, my 7-month old test assistant, in each chair. I also noticed how difficult it was for Emilia to wash up the food after eating, especially when Emilia had spread avocado all over everything. I also checked to see how my almost-3-year-old daughter Elise fit in each chair. If the chair included the option of adjusting or converting to work for a preschooler or a bigger kid, I tried that out with her.


One of our favorite high chairs is the Fisher Price booster. Another one we like are IKEA’s basic but very functional Stokke Tripp Trapps. The Baby. Bjorn high chair (third left from bottom) was once a choice, but is now discontinued.


In addition to going through four weeks of everyday use and cleanup, I conducted some controlled cleaning tests to see how tough it was to rid each chair of crumbs, goop, and sticky liquid. In order to find out where the crumbs had settled and how difficult it was to vacuum the chair, I put one cup of crushed Goldfish Crackers on the top of each chair. To make sure the chair was clean and tidy, I spread 1/4 cup grape juice on each seat. The baby was also in the seats. These creations were left over night and I scrubbed them with a hand scrubber, washing machine or dishwasher in the morning. Some chairs proved difficult to disassemble and reassemble for cleaning. It took approximately 10 hours to complete the test, including time for baby baths after each round.

IKEA Antlop The most comfortable high chair.


IKEA Antilop


The rounded, plastic tray and seat of the ‘High Chair is Easy to Clean and Use. It costs $20 less than any other model we tried. Although this model is lightweight, it’s also sturdy, and its clean lines and neutral white-and-silver design look presentable with just about any decor. You can stack it with the tray out, which is great news for parents who have twins or other closely-spaced children. Even though the chair does not include any additional features such as height adjustments or a tilting seat, its versatility is important.


A pillow add-on


This inexpensive back pillow is simple to attach to our high chair pick, and it has a washable cover that resists common stains.


$20* from IKEA *At the time of publishing, the price was $6.


Antilop was the easiest of all our tested chairs to clean due to its combination of features. The Antilop’s design is unlike the modular Graco Blossom 4-in-1 Seating System Fisher Price 4in-1 High Clean Chair. It has no areas that can be contaminated by liquids, which makes it a better choice than other chairs. This round-shaped seat is entirely made from plastic. There are no cracks, crannies or seams in which grime could hide. It uses no fabric (unless you spring for the optional IKEA Pyttig back pillow , which is simple to attach, has a cover that is easy enough to throw in the washing machine, and after a couple of months of use seems to be nearly impossible to stain). You can put the Antilop’s tray in your dishwasher. The safety straps on the Antilop’s tray are easy to take off and you can toss it in the washer. The entire chair can be taken outside to be sprayed with a hose. You can keep high chairs clean by cleaning it less often.

OXO Totseedling High Chair was the highest adjustable chair that we tried. It has five height settings. This robust, simple, affordable chair is currently priced at $120. Although it has a clean look and relatively easy maintenance, it’s heavier than other top-rated chairs and we struggled to keep it clean. The Seedling actually held its place, unlike all the four-wheeled alternatives we tried. The chair performed well in our testing, however, the cover needed to be dried on the air. This left us with no cover for next time. This chair also weighs in at 25 pounds. We found that the tray retained some water after we washed it in the sink. The Seedling chair is great if you need to eat at taller tables or use high breakfast bars and need an adjustable height.


Joovy Nook costs about $120. It opens on one side, so caregiver doesn’t have the need to pull it out and put it back. High chairs with separate trays that must be removed each time you eat make mealtimes so much simpler. The IKEA Antilop is our top choice. It has trays that keep in place as you move the baby in and out. You can also fold the Nook with just one hand, and it will lean against the wall. However, the worst part about the Nook? It’s difficult to take off the seat cushion in order to deep clean it. You. Youtube video. I did finally remove it. But, this was not something I want to do again.


Fisher-Price’s 4-in-1 Total Clean High Chair , which typically costs about $140, was new in 2016. Offering different height settings, this design is a modular chair that includes several parts stacked on top of one another. You can use it as a regular high chair, a space-saver high chair buckled to an adult chair, a booster seat, or a youth chair. The Total Clean has a seat, safety straps, and both a tray and an insert that can go right in the dishwasher. In our tests, it did feel great to just put all of that in my dishwasher’s bottom rack and press the start button, but those weren’t the only parts of the chair we had to clean. You could see the attachments to the base, where liquid, food and crud fell through to the booster and removable space saver. The chair was able to slide around quite well even when the wheels were locked.


Graco Blossom 4-in-1 Seating System , which usually sells for about $190, is similar to the Fisher-Price Total Clean but isn’t designed to go in a dishwasher. You can also stack it and make your own modular chairs. This gives you the same functionality but with some drawbacks. Because only the trays and not the entire chair can be washed in the dishwasher, the Fisher-Price Total Clean makes it more difficult to clean. Grape juice made it to the bottom of the seat during testing. If a parent removed the low-slung high chair seat, the mess could go unnoticed. There are slots in the footrest to allow parents to adjust their footrests height. However, food got into them during our testing and made it difficult for us to remove. The chair is a popular choice for modular high chairs on Amazon. However, we highly recommend it and all its competitors.


Ingenuity Trio 3-in-1 Chair one of Consumer Reports’s top picks (subscription necessary) in 2015. This high-selling chair is available at Amazon and other retail outlets like Walmart or Babies”R”Us. It was the least expensive modular chair we tested, selling for about $100 at the time of our review, and it did look and feel a little cheaper than similar models we tried. The tray was slightly tricky to slide on: Several times I thought it was secured and it wasn’t, so my baby was able to push it right off herself. Even though it was locked, the whole chair moved around on my wooden flooring just like other wheeled chairs. When we used it as a kid chair, it was just as awkward as the other modular chairs, and although the footrest clearly wasn’t designed for a preschooler to climb on in order to get in the chair, that’s exactly what my daughter tried to do. Still, the Ingenuity outperformed other modular chairs in one big way no juice slipped through to the bottom seat.


The Graco Duo Diner LX Highchair, which costs $150, is a modular, lightweight chair. It doesn’t attempt to be a youth chair. That means it has no hidden seat at the bottom to collect sticky liquid. The other downside is that the high chair itself feels more like a car than any of the other modular seats, making it more difficult to get off and toss into the sink. The areas that were most frustrating to clean included the footrest and feetrest-adjustment slots.


Phil&Teds Poppy High Chair looks like something out of The Jetsons and is reasonably priced at about $120 currently. However, the Aerocore seat cover is not completely waterproof. It also has many nooks and crevices that can collect juice. They are difficult to clean. The seat cover can become soiled quickly if it isn’t removed regularly by parents. Both my husband and I stomped our toes on the chair’s legs at the least once. The shoulder straps also fell off the baby’s shoulders, even though I had crossed them behind her back, as the manual indicated. A second issue: The Aerocore seat covers can be washed in the dishwasher according to Amazon. However, the instructions manual says that they should be scrubbed with soap and water. Turned out that it wasn’t a good idea to put the cover in the dishwasher it warped when I did so.