How to Choose a High Chair: The Complete Buying Guide

How to choose: the three deciding criteria

Start with the number of years, because it changes everything else. A chair used from six to eighteen months is a short-term purchase and should be priced like one. A chair used from six months to five or six years — what a proper wooden convertible chair does — is a piece of furniture, and it is reasonable to spend furniture money on it. Decide which you are buying before comparing anything else.

Then stability. A chair with a wriggling toddler in it needs a footprint wide enough that leaning sideways does not lift a leg off the floor: wide-set legs, a low centre of gravity, no wobble when you push the back of the seat with one hand. This is what the European standard tests hardest, and the reason not to buy an uncertified chair however good it looks.

Then how long it takes to clean — a soft-sounding criterion until you have done it twice a day for two years. Wipeable surfaces, a removable tray that goes to the sink in one movement, a machine-washable seat pad, and as few crevices and seams as possible. Everything else — reclining backs, wheels, seven height positions — is genuinely optional.

The footrest, and why it is not a detail

The most under-rated spec in the category, and the one to filter on first. A child whose feet dangle has nothing to brace against. That matters twice over: it makes sitting still harder, so mealtimes get shorter and wrigglier; and in the weaning months a child braced through their feet has a more stable trunk, which makes the hand-to-mouth work of self-feeding easier.

The key word is adjustable. A fixed footrest is correct for one height of child, briefly; an adjustable one moves as they grow, which in a chair used to five years means moving it several times. Our STARWOOD has one, as do the better wooden chairs from other brands. Many moulded plastic chairs have a fixed bar that is really a foot rest in name only.

Wooden high chair or plastic?

The two materials answer different questions, and neither is simply better.

Wood is heavier, more stable and lasts. Wooden chairs are typically the convertible kind, adjusting in seat and footrest height as the child grows, so they run to four or five years and often continue afterwards as a normal chair at the table. They look like furniture rather than baby kit, which matters if your kitchen is also your living room. The downsides are honest: heavier to move, rarely folding, slower to clean than a moulded shell.

Plastic is lighter, usually cheaper, often folds, and wipes clean in seconds. Many plastic chairs recline, which is what lets them be used before six months. What they give up is longevity — most stop around three years.

Our answer on the wooden side is STARWOOD, at €79.80: natural wood, 6 months to 5 years, adjustable footrest, removable tray. It is a deliberately plain chair — no recline, no wheels, no gadgets. It is not the right chair if you need something that folds flat into a cupboard between meals, and we would not pretend otherwise.

The tray, the harness and the cleaning question

The tray. Removable, ideally with one hand while the other holds a child. Check it comes off entirely rather than just swinging up, because a swing-up tray still has to be wiped in place. A removable tray also lets you push the chair up to the family table, which is how most get used from about eighteen months.

The harness. Look for a crotch post — the fixed bar between the legs — because it is what stops a child sliding down under the tray. The harness and the post do different jobs and you want both. Straps should come off for washing; if they do not, you will be scrubbing them in place.

The seat pad. Machine washable, or wipe-clean. Fabric with a foam core that cannot be removed absorbs everything and dries slowly. The practical test when comparing two chairs: look at the seat from below and count the crevices where the seat meets the back. That is where food goes.

High chair or booster seat: the short version

A booster seat straps onto a dining chair and raises the child to table height; it is cheaper, takes no floor space and travels well. A high chair is free-standing, more stable, and gives you the footrest and tray. The rough rule: a booster suits small kitchens, second homes and older babies who already sit confidently; a high chair suits the weaning period and families who eat at different times from their children.

We have a dedicated article on this rather than repeating it here: Baby high chair or booster seat?

EN 14988 and what it guarantees

EN 14988 is the European standard for children's high chairs. It covers stability loaded, empty and tilted, the strength of the frame and locking mechanisms, the restraint system and the presence of a crotch post, finger-trap gaps, sharp edges and small detachable parts, and the warnings supplied with the chair. It should be cited on the product page or in the manual. This is one of the products where certification matters most, because the failure mode — a chair tipping with a child strapped in at table height — is serious and quick.

What the standard does not cover: whether the footrest adjusts, how easy the chair is to clean, or how long the child will fit in it. Those are yours to judge.

Our high chairs compared

Model	Price	Use from / to	Material and features	Best if
STARWOOD	€79.80	6 months to 5 years	Natural wood; adjustable footrest; removable tray	You want one chair that lasts, and it will live in the kitchen
SPLITY 2	€159.80 (was €199.80)	From birth	3-in-1: high chair, bouncer and swing; 406 customer reviews	You want the newborn months covered too, in one piece of kit
Louna 4-in-1	€179.80	High chair mode: 6 months to 15 kg	Crib, electric swing, high chair and bouncer in one frame	You are buying a crib anyway and floor space is tight

A third model in our range also covers this need: the LOUNA 4-in-1, which combines cradle, swing, bouncer and high chair. It will not replace a dedicated high chair for a two-year-old's daily meals, but it saves an extra purchase during the first months of weaning.

View product page — LOUNA 4 en 1 Multifonction →

Prices are in euros, inclusive of tax. The distinction is simple: STARWOOD is a high chair, while SPLITY 2 and Louna are multi-function frames that include a high chair mode — they cover more of the first year and stop sooner as chairs. If your only requirement is the best chair to eat at for the next five years, STARWOOD at €79.80 is the one, and also the cheapest of the three. Combination products trade lifespan for versatility, always.

The other brands on the UK market

The reference wooden chair in Britain is the Stokke Tripp Trapp — adjustable in seat and footrest, used into adulthood by some families, and priced accordingly. At the other end the IKEA Antilop is what the parenting forums recommend, for good reason: very cheap, wipes clean in seconds, extremely stable, and giving up a footrest and any pretence of style. In between, Joie Mimzy, Chicco Polly and Hauck cover the folding, reclining, plastic-and-fabric mainstream, widely available with easy spares.

Where STARWOOD sits: a wooden adjustable-footrest chair well under the price of the category leader and above the plastic-shell options. It does not adjust as many ways as a Tripp Trapp and does not fold like a Polly. It has 10 customer reviews at the time of writing — a small number, and we would rather say so than imply a track record we have not built. Our SPLITY 2 has 406, a more meaningful sample.

What to spend

Under €40 is the basic plastic shell bracket: no footrest, usually no recline, sometimes no height adjustment. Perfectly safe if certified, and good value if you know you want the simplest possible thing. €70 to €100 is where a wooden convertible chair with an adjustable footrest becomes available, STARWOOD included; divided by five years of use it is the cheapest bracket in the category per year. €150 and up buys multi-function frames, premium wooden chairs, and plastic chairs with recline and wheels.

The saving we would argue against: skipping the footrest to save twenty euros. It is the feature you will not notice on day one and will care about for two years.

Daily use and accident prevention

• Harness every meal. The tray is not a restraint — a child can stand up behind it.
• Never leave a child unattended in a high chair, including for the thirty seconds it takes to fetch something from another room.
• Keep the chair clear of the table edge and the worktop. A child pushing off a hard surface with both feet can tip a chair backwards.
• Check nothing hot is within reach. Mugs, pans and kettle flexes are closer than you think once the tray is on.
• Retighten the bolts monthly. Wooden chairs in particular loosen with daily use and humidity changes.
• Clean daily, deep-clean weekly. Tray to the sink after each meal; seat seams and footrest once a week.

Our article on avoiding domestic accidents with a high chair goes into this in more detail.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

• Which baby high chair should I choose?
• When should you buy a high chair?
• Baby high chair or booster seat?
• High chair: how to avoid domestic accidents

Guide written by the Bébé2Luxe team. We make and sell the chairs described above, and we have tried to be straight about which suits which family — including where the answer is a chair we do not make.

Our models on video

Nothing beats seeing them in action: here are our models in real use.