The right high chair can help mealtimes run a little smoother. Feeding your baby will always be messy, but with a good high chair and booster seat, you can keep your baby safe, comfortable and content and make cleaning up easy on yourself. This high chair buying guide will help you figure out how to buy the high chair that will best meet your needs.
Safety
When choosing which high chair to buy, it's important to take the safety features into consideration first. A good safety belt and crotch post are essential to every high chair. A 5-point harness is preferable to a 3-point harness or just a lap belt. A crotch post will keep your baby from sliding under the tray and out of the seat. Make sure the leg holes on either side of the crotch post are small enough that your baby cannot fit both legs through one side of the post.
Convenience
When it comes to convenient options like wheels, tray toys, adjustable seats and folding high chairs, there are some pros and cons and safety extras to take into consideration before you make your choice:
Wheels: If the high chair you choose has wheels, make sure all four wheels have a locking mechanism. This will make the chair safer for your baby and easier for you to use. It's much more difficult to get a wiggling baby into a moving chair than a steady one.
Folding high chairs: If you choose a folding high chair, make sure it is sturdy and has locking mechanisms at the joints to keep it from folding while your baby is in it.
Tray toys: High chairs with tray toys are a convenient way to keep your baby content at mealtimes. You can also buy tray toy attachments to add to your high chair. But it's important to make sure the toys are securely attached and there are no loose small parts or strings that could be swallowed and choked on.
Adjustable seats: Some high chairs have seats you can adjust for height and/or recline for bottle feeding. Adjusting the height of your high chair is nice for seating your baby at table level for family dinners or at the kitchen counter for breakfast or lunch. A reclining seat can be a convenient way for your baby to fall asleep after bottle feeding. Keep in mind, however, that you should never feed your child solid food in a reclining seat as it is a choking hazard.
Sharp edges and ssmall parts: It's a good idea to run your hands over the high chair seat, tray and legs to make sure there are no sharp edges and nothing rough that could scratch, scrape or pinch your baby's skin. Also, pay attention to any unsecured small parts that could be pulled off and swallowed.
When you have kids, you often have to do things with one hand, so it's important that your high chair is easy to use. Before you choose a high chair, try out your friends' high chairs and see which features you like. If you buy your high chair online, test all the functions of the high chair and make sure you like how everything works; if not, you may want to exchange it for a different model.
Try buckling and unbuckling the safety belt to make sure it's easy for you to do but not easy enough that your baby could unbuckle it and climb or fall out.
Test the locking mechanisms on the wheels and tray table.
See if you are comfortable with the seat height.
Try taking the tray off and putting it back on to make sure that the latches are easy for you to use but not easy for little fingers to undo.
Are expensive high chairs better than inexpensive high chairs?
Don't shop by price alone. Expensive high chairs are not necessarily better than inexpensive ones. A basic high chair in the price range of $50 and under can work perfectly well depending on your needs. Lower-end high chairs tend to have fewer extra features than high-end high chairs, but you may not actually need all those extras.
To figure out which features you might need, ask yourself how heavily you expect to use the high chair. If you plan to have multiple children over a span of several years, you may want to think about a mid- to high-end high chair that can stand the test of time. Do you plan on using your high chair to bottle feed your baby? If so, you'll want a high chair with a reclining seat, as basic high chairs typically don?t recline. If you want a high chair with a height adjustment feature, wheels and/or a fold-and-store feature, you'll want to look at mid-priced to high-end chairs.
A basic high chair is just that: simple, compact and great for light use or as a secondary chair to keep at the babysitter's house or your home away from home. Keep in mind when looking at mid- to high-end high chairs ($75-$500 and up) that you may end up using your high chair far less than you'd expect, especially if you don't plan on using your high chair for bottle feeding. Remember that once your baby becomes a toddler, he or she will most likely be much too busy and active to be content being strapped into a high chair for very long, no matter how many extra features it has.
Are wooden high chairs better than plastic?
Wooden high chairs are sturdy and long-lasting and range in price between $50 for a restaurant-style high chair without a tray to $300 or more for a handcrafted heirloom-style high chair. Wooden high chairs are easy to wipe down and they have a nice, classic aesthetic feel.
Many parents prefer the look of a traditional wooden high chair to a plastic high chair, but don't shop by looks alone. While a solid wood high chair may look best in your formal dining room, most wooden high chairs lack the safety and comfort features of plastic high chairs. Many wooden high chairs have no crotch post or have only a slim canvas strap to keep your baby from slipping out. And many wooden high chairs lack a five point harness and instead have only a lap belt. While you can buy padding for your wooden high chair, most don't come with any, and you may find yourself stuffing towels or pillows around your infant just to prop him or her upright.
On the plus side, a nice heirloom-style wooden high chair will last you through multiple children as well as grandchildren. Plastic high chairs tend to have more safety and convenience features as well as padding, but they also tend to be less aesthetically pleasing and more difficult to clean, with more creases and crevices to wipe down. In the end, you have to weigh which features are the most important for you and your lifestyle and accommodate for those features.
What's the difference between a high chair and a booster seat?
There is a range of different types of booster seats from toddler-sized seats that can be placed on a dining room chair and used for boosting your child up to table height to fully featured seats that can recline and accommodate infants as young as 4 to 5 months old. A fully featured booster seat looks and functions much like a small and compact high chair. The difference between a fully featured booster seat and a high chair is size, portability and range of features.
Booster seats
Even if the high chair you choose is height adjustable, you may still want to purchase a portable booster seat with a removable tray for taking with you to restaurants or other dining situations where you are unsure about high chair availability or sanitary conditions. Like high chair safety features, your booster seat should have the proper safety features to keep your baby secure and happy. Overstock.com has portable, safe booster seats at affordable prices. Stop by the Baby Store on Overstock.com and check out our wide selection of baby gear at lower-than-retail prices to fit your budget.
Baby bottles
Whether you feed your baby in a high chair or a rocking chair, chances are you are going to need baby bottles. Even if you're not bottle feeding your baby, you may still need baby bottles for breast milk, juice or water. A good baby bottle reduces colic, spit up and uncomfortable gas by reducing bubbles and allowing your baby to eat at his or her own speed. Baby bottles are also a great baby shower gifts. Overstock.com has BPA-free baby bottle sets and kits for all your feeding and gift-giving needs.
Bibs and burp cloths
Feeding your baby is a messy job. Bibs and burp cloths can save your baby's clothes from innumerable stains and spills and save you from a lot of extra laundry and outfit changes. Moms and dads can't have enough bibs and burp cloths. Overstock.com has lots of cute bib and burp cloth sets for you to give as gifts or keep for yourself. The Baby Store on Overstock.com has such great prices, why not do both! Overstock.com is your online shopping outlet for all your baby feeding needs.
