High Chairs?

[MrsC_Aussie]

I'm such a novice when it comes to all this baby stuff, so I'm gonna ask a stupid question.
At what age do you generally start needing a high chair..and what should you look for in a high chair? we don't want to be spending huge dollars, but want something safe and comfortable and servicable!

I saw the cutest winnie the pooh one on the back of the new target catalogue so it just got me thinking about what should we be looking for and when!

[Tanstar]

Not a stupid question at all! There are so many chairs out there! We got the Ikea one and love it. No fiddly bits and pieces to clean, early on we used the blow up insert for her but now she doesn't need it and we can literally hose it down if we wanted to, to get it clean. It was about $50 with the tray.
I've been to girls houses for MG and they have ones with lots of padding and no matter how much they clean them they always seem to have food stuck in them! Good luck!

[Jodi]

Mine has the padding Tan mentioned in her post, and it's so annoying. Whenever we have saucy dishes (bolognese etc) it's a PITA to clean. So if you can, stay away from them. You won't be needing a highchair until they're starting solids, so at around 6 months of age.

[~Trish~]

Definitely not a stupid question! You generally start using a highchair when bub starts solids which is around 6 months of age.

Like Tanstar said, beware of really padded highchairs, the seat covers are hard to clean and they split easily. The more basic fold up highchairs are OK, but I find the ones with a harness that has to come up and over bub's shoulder are really frustrating to use. I like highchairs where the harness comes from the top of the seat IYKWIM.

I too have the Ikea Antigua highchair and it is by far the best I have tried (and I have tried out heaps thanks to my business ). It is lightweight, simple to use and so easy to clean.

Good luck

[nelly]

We had a basic Target one similar to the WTP you saw on the cat this wk I think and although it isn't as fancy or padded as some it has enough to be a PITA. Next baby is getting an Ikea hose-able high chair lol

[LuluHB]

I bought a padded highchair because it has a 5 point harness, removable trays (great for taking away the mess of the "first course" and starting again. But it is a serious PITA to clean. Mine is stained and the material is split. You get bits of food wedged in where the straps come through and its just plain nasty.

I was determined to have a padded one because a friend's baby managed to fall out of his Ikea highchair - it only has a waist strap - not a five point harness (my friend wasn't being careless - she was having an epileptic fit and was alone with her DS). I bought an Ikea one that lives at my Mum's only because there would always be me and Mum there together watching. It is soooo much better than the padded one - so easy to wipe down. Since DD#1 has been using it I've yet to come across a time when I'm not always with her so I will be buying another Ikea one for when DD#2 starts solids next month - they come in colours now too!!

[MrsC_Aussie]

thanks for the feedback guys!!! I do love ikea, I hadnt even thought of looking there for this sort of stuff duh!

[mbear]

You can buy the blow up thingy too at ikea ($9 i think) for when they are littler and just starting out, it fits in the ikea chair behind their backs.

I put my girls in a bumbo at 6 months when it was feed time. They were not sitting up fully by 6 months, and besides i thought they looked so tiny and frail in this huge looking high chair. I found the bumbo easier when bub first trying solids.

HTH

[Keira's mummy]

I know this is a totally different opinion to everyone else but I have a fisher price healthy high chair the aquarium one and so far its great, it has a tray you can put in the dishwasher, a toy that clips in and 2 teethers attatched and we have used this since my daughter was 4 weeks old as it reclines.
Solids started at 4 months due to a very hungry girl and she makes quite a mess more of her self though but cleaning it all I use is a damp cloth/face washer and it comes off without much hassel as it isn't heaps padded and ut the tray in the disher washer or sonetimes i just wash it under some hot soap water.
If you have a Toys r us near you check them out you can get them for 125 instead of 250
The toy that clips in is a life saver when trying to make dinner or clean as it has music.
hope this helps

[jenjams]

Another Ikea high chair user here too. We had the blowup insert when DD was first in her high chair. We dont use it anymore. So easy to clean which is great because kids are SO messy!
Highly recommend the Ikea chair to anyone. And you save so much money too.

[Karina]

We have a steelcraft one and I actully find it enormously annoying. We dont use it anymore, and havent used it for months as Claire sits at her own table and chair.

But we used the highchair from when she was 6 months till about 12 months. The chair is huge and she is still too little for it. Few annoying things about it:
- When she was just starting to sit in it, she would flop all over the place as there didnt seem to be alot of support in it.
- It has a 5 point harness, which is completely useless as it doesnt do up very tightly (as in, it doesnt adjust much) and Claire was able to get her arms out of it. It was one of those harnesses that comes up from the bottom of the chair and has to come up and over bubs shoulders, rather than coming from the top of the chair. Also, Claire used to slip out of the bottom of it if she wiggled too much.
- It was also a huge PITA to clean because the design of it meant that heaps of food would get stuck in the little nooks and crannys in it. I dont know if all children are as messy as my child though... I ended up having to put the chair in the shower to clean it. We recieved the chair as a present.
- Its just big and cumbersome, even though it does fold up.


HOWEVER, my mum has got the Ikea chair at her place and I prefer it to our one. Its so simple to clean and doesnt have gaps and foldy bits that food can get stuck in. Its also way more stable than the fold up one we have, and it is easy to move the whole thing with baby in it if I ever had to move everything. The only prob with it is that it doesnt have a 4 point harness so there were a few occassions where Claire managed to stand up in it. But the great thing about it is that its got solid sides (ie, the sides arent open like our high chair at home) and that meant that Claires little bum fit well in it and she wasnt able to fall out the sides or bottom, and didnt flop over it. It just seems to provide more support for the little ones. Claire wasnt able to sit up unsupported until she was 7 months, so that support was needed for her.

[Erin_25]

Another vote here for the IKEA highchair, we actually bought the coolest looking high chair before bubs was born as we figured it was a must have & I'd seen it in a magazine & loved the pattern. It cost around $150 & 8months later we sold it at our garage sale LOL it was horrible. All the padding is so hard to keep clean & you need to let them go nuts we food...theres always a mess. The first time it was used, by a visiting mum before DS was on solids she had spag & it stained it....horrible, horrible thing.
I love the IKEA chair, its sooo easy to keep clean, move about the house, in & outside. I was stoked to see they now come in colours!!! Such a money save too!!!

Oooh I forgot to mention DS can't try to slip out of it either as it has the part in the front that separates the legs & it took him 16months before he realised he could stand up in it!

[Jas]

Hi,

I actually agree with Kiera's mum. My mum has the Fisher Price Aquarium high chair and at home we have the rainforest version (same design etc just a new pattern on the padded bit because it's the newer range) I think they're fantastic high chairs and I don't find the padding annoying at all. I think it seems comfortable and I get in the cracks with a normal cloth to get the food out and I have just pulled the padded bit of an soaked it just in water for a little be to give it a top up clean kinda thing.

[Curly]

Okay well everyone has already said about how much of a PITA it is cleaning one of those nice comfy looking highchairs so I won't repeat that.

Apparently in some states the IKEA highchair actually has a waiting list - up to 3 months!!! So if you decide you like the look of it, plan ahead and buy it early.

FYI for everyone else - I have a padded Steelcraft chair and here's how I get it spick and span, clean as a whistle:

Remove the padding and the straps and put it in the washing machine on a gentle cycle with my normal laundry detergent. Straps can go in one of those lingerie wash bags if you like. Hang it out on the line. If there are still any food stains on the trim the UV light from the sun breaks those down. Wipe down the entire frame of the high chair in the meantime with just normal multi purpose spray and wipe type of cleaner. Stubborn, dried, cement like food bits come off easily with a bit of tea tree oil.

Obviously it gets wiped down after each use but when it starts looking manky the padded seat gets chucked in the machine. My DS is now 2 years old and we've had the highchair since he was 5 months old and it still looks new. HTH.

[alioops]

We have a padded highchair with removable machine washable padding. The one we had before this one was a PITA to clean. It was a cheapie and the covers could not be removed so there was always food caught in the nooks. When the covers are off our highchair I can hose it down. The tray is completely removable on our highchair so Emma uses it to sit at the dinner table and eat with the rest of the family, but when our next bub needs the highchair she will go in a booster on a normal chair.

[queenbee]

We had the Steelcraft Messina for a month and then got rid of it. It was a great chair but food ALWAYS got stuck everywhere, such a bother to clean. It cost $199 at the time. So we went and bought an IKEA ANTILOP chair for $39. IT IS EXCELLENT, it is SO EASY TO CLEAN!! I wished I had bought the Ikea one at first. We love it and so does our DD.