How to choose a high chair

Question 1: how much floor space?

Measure before you shop, and measure where the chair sits when pulled back from the table, not just its footprint tucked in.

• Plenty of room: any category is open to you, including a full-size convertible.
• Tight: a slim chair that stores flat, like the IKEA Antilop whose legs unclip.
• None: a hook-on chair that clamps to the table, or a booster on a dining chair you already own. Both use zero floor. See best high chairs for small spaces.

A hook-on chair needs a suitable table: flat solid edge within the clamp range, no apron underneath, a stable base, and never glass. Check that before you fall in love with the idea.

Question 2: how much do you hate cleaning?

This is the criterion people underweight when shopping and overweight after a month, and it is the reason a twenty-five dollar chair keeps out-scoring chairs that cost ten times as much.

Ranked from easiest to hardest:

1. One-piece molded plastic. Nothing to trap food. You can hose it off outside.
2. Wipe-clean plastic seat with a removable tray. Ten seconds with a cloth.
3. Wooden seat. Wipes down fine, but joints and screws catch crumbs.
4. Fabric pad with piped seams. Machine washable, and you will not wash it daily.

If cleaning is your dread, buy from the top of that list and accept fewer features. A splat mat under the chair costs very little and saves your floor.

Question 3: how long do you want it to last?

• Eighteen months, one child: a cheap simple chair is the rational purchase.
• Through toddlerhood and a booster phase: a convertible saves you a second purchase, if you will genuinely use the booster mode. See best convertible high chairs.
• Multiple children, or a decade: a wooden adjustable chair. The per-year cost is lower than it looks, and it holds resale value. We run that comparison in Tripp Trapp vs IKEA Antilop.

The features genuinely worth paying for

An adjustable footrest. The most underrated feature in the category. A baby whose feet dangle has nothing to brace against, and bracing helps stability and swallowing. Wooden chairs have it; the cheapest plastic chairs do not.

A dishwasher-safe tray insert. Because the alternative is scrubbing a tray at the sink twice a day.

A five-point harness. Not a three-point, and not a crotch strap alone. The AAP is explicit that the harness is what holds a child in and that the tray must never be relied on for it.

One-handed tray removal. You will be holding a baby with the other hand. Every single time.

Features that are mostly marketing

Mode counting. "6-in-1" usually includes configurations nobody uses twice. Ask which modes you will actually use.

Deep recline, unless you specifically want a seat for a pre-solids baby. For eating, upright is what you want.

Wheels, which mostly help the chair move when you do not want it to.

Toy bars and attachments. More surfaces to clean.

Buying second-hand

Often sensible, especially for a chair you only need briefly. Check that the harness is complete and functional, that nothing is cracked, and that the model has not been recalled — search it at CPSC.gov before you collect it. Replacement harnesses and trays are available for popular models, which makes a cheap second-hand frame a reasonable buy.