Best High Chairs for Baby-Led Weaning

Katie Ferraro (0s):

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Katie Ferraro (2m 26s):

And this is the high chair that I recommend for the parents that are like just super stressed out about the mess associated with cleaning. 'cause not only are the straps like wipe clean, silicone like genius, why don't more brands do this? There's these hooks behind the chair. So you put the straps behind the chair that holds them when you're cleaning up the high chair and game changer, you can just pop the bucket of this chair out of the base, take it over to your sink, wash it there, or just throw it in your dishwasher. It makes cleanup a breeze. And this is a really affordable chair. Like for how solid it is. I can't believe all the features at the price point. Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in Baby-Led Weaning here on the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro podcast.

Katie Ferraro (3m 9s):

I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, giving you the confidence and knowledge you need to give you baby a safe start to solid foods using baby-led weaning. Are you struggling to find the perfect highchair for your baby? And it stinks because you can't go to like baby stores anymore and look at them and touch them and feel them. You gotta figure out everything online and there's so many options. It's so easy to feel overwhelmed. But in today's episode, I'm gonna break down the top high chairs that are safe, that are easy to clean, that're perfect for baby-led weaning and hang tight. 'cause I'm gonna show you the perfect portable highchair too. It is one of the coolest features that I've ever seen.

Katie Ferraro (3m 49s):

Now I like to start out each of these mini training episodes with a baby-led weaning tip of the day. And today's tip is your high chair does not have to break the bank. Okay? Some of the most expensive high chairs are actually the most dangerous ones and some of the cheapest ones can actually be modified to be totally safe for your baby. So if you find though you have a high chair and You don't love it, like some people get angry and they're like, I got a crappy high chair for my, for my hand me down or for my shower. Hey, we can modify it and make it safer. Some parents will take their chair that they don't love and send it to grandma's house and then get one that they do like for everyday feeding. But if you find that you know you're struggling with like excessive gagging for your baby or their maybe 'cause their feet aren't touching the foot rest of your existing high chair, or if they're like swimming around in their highchair and their back isn't flattened, they're opening their airway and increasing their risk of choking, like it might be time to get a good high chair.

Katie Ferraro (4m 37s):

This is something that you can feed your baby in for the foreseeable future and some of these chairs will grow with your child into adolescence. So I would argue that it's worth it to make the investment in buying a safe seat for your baby to eat, but it doesn't have to cost a million dollars. In today's episode, I'm gonna share some tips on how you can get some of these chairs on the cheap, like for example, a free tray that you would otherwise have to pay $70 for. And I also have some limited time discount codes. I am an affiliate for all of the highchairs that I mentioned in this episode with the exception of one, but I love that highchair and I recommend it and I'm gonna link them all up in the description of the podcast, but they'll also be on the show notes, which you can find at blwpodcast.com/488.

Katie Ferraro (5m 19s):

I also have a full feeding gear guide inside of my program, Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro. There's a whole section on how to choose a safe highchair. So we have a whole pre feeding section of things you can do before your baby starts solid foods. So if you're following my 100 First Foods program, if you're in that program, check it out. It's under the pre-feeding module about the high chair stuff. But if you want to check the program out, the program is called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro. It is a comprehensive approach to starting solid foods with your baby. I take you through the first hundred days. So I have 100 FIRST FOODS, Daily, Meal Plan, as well as my 100 First Foods content library with all the videos and recipes and instructions on how to make all the foods for my 100 FIRST FOODS list. So if you wanna get the program that's at babyledweaning.co/program, and if you're still on the fence about baby-led weaning or you're real early just figuring this stuff out and you wanna see if this approach might work for you, I recommend taking my free online workshop.

Katie Ferraro (6m 10s):

It's called Baby-Led Weaning FOR BEGINNERS. Everyone on that free training gets a copy of my 100 FIRST Foods list so you'll never run out of ideas of foods that your baby can eat. You can sign up for that workshop, you can take it today, right now, later today, tomorrow when your baby naps, whatever works for you. The signup is at babyledweaning.co/workshop. So let's dive in and look at some of the Best High Chairs for Baby-Led Weaning. I've got five eye chair recommendations as well as one portable highchair that I think you're going to love. The first highchair that I wanna start out with is the oldest. So age before beauty in this case, it's the Tripp Trapp from Stokke. This is probably the most iconic highchair out there. It was created by the Scandinavian designer Peter Opsvik.

Katie Ferraro (6m 51s):

It's been around since 1972. You probably recognize this chair. You've probably seen it in a lot of your friends' houses or maybe you're shopping. It kind of looks like a little ladder. It has an adjustable footrest and an adjustable seat plate. The Tripp Trapp really holds its value. I bought all of mine, so all seven of my kids have Tripp Trapps. We use them from the time they were babies. They still use them for doing homework. I got most of them used. So you can buy them on the used marketplace because again, they just hold their value. So they're, they end up being about a half price if you find them online. The pros of this chair, I love the adjustable seat plate and the adjustable foot plate. This is the original kind of grow with you chair. It grows with your child from infancy through to adolescence.

Katie Ferraro (7m 32s):

I love that the Tripp Trapp has a really small footprint, so it doesn't eat up your whole kitchen or your dining room. The cons are that Tripp Trapp does require tools to change the height and the seat of the footrest. I do like that the increments, they're in one inch increments. I mean your baby doesn't grow in one inch increments, but that's better than some of the other chairs that'll have like a four inch gap between the footrest levels. A beef that I used to have with a Tripp Trapp that's actually been fixed. So this chair used to have the worst super stiff straps. They were super hard to put on and take off. Everyone complained about them and Stokke listened and actually did something about it. So the new Tripp Trapp comes standard with what they're calling their baby set two. So another feature of this chair is it was designed to be used without a tray.

Katie Ferraro (8m 12s):

You pull the baby right up to the table, but there's a little baby guard, I should call it a baby jail, but it's technically called a baby set. The new baby set two has their upgraded straps. They're super soft, they have a brand new one touch release harness. I absolutely love it. If you have an old Tripp Trapp and you have the crappy straps, you can buy the baby set too. So it's the plastic guard that has the straps attached to it with the new straps and the new harness and it goes on all old Tripp Trapps. So I think that is worth getting the baby set too. And if you do that, you can actually get a free Tripp Trapp cushion. So that's a $65 value when you buy the Tripp Trapp BabySet too.

Katie Ferraro (8m 54s):

So if you go to the STOKKE website, that's S-T-O-K-K-E. If you use the affiliate code, BABYLED, so LED, put that new baby set too and the cushion in your cart and then the cushion will be free. The cushion is not developmental. It's purely aesthetic. I don't love the cushion because it's one more thing to wash, but it is really cute. So if you're into that and you're buying the baby set anyway, you might as well get the cushion for free back to the Tripp Trapp. The tray, as I mentioned, it's sold separately. That bugs some people. They're like, dude, I bought this fancy high chair. It's not fancy, but it's definitely on the higher end and they don't get the tray and they get mad. But the point is Peter Opsvik designed that high chair to be pulled right up to the table. If you have a counter height table though, or a bar height table, the chair doesn't go that high.

Katie Ferraro (9m 36s):

You're gonna need the tray. Or if you eat outside the tray is actually something that you're gonna want to have as well. So the tray don't freak out, it costs $70, but you can get the Stokke Tripp Trapp tray, that $70 value for free if you're gonna buy this highchair new from the Stokke website, that same code baby lead. So BABYLED will work to get you the Tripp Trapp tray for free. So put the tray in your cart, put the Tripp Trapp in your cart, enter the code BABYLED, and the $70 comes off for the tray. So I love this highchair and highly recommend it. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

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Katie Ferraro (11m 57s):

Another high chair that I absolutely love is also made by the same brand Stokke and it's called the Nomi High Chair. And Peter Opsvik also designed this chair. So he's the guy that designed the Tripp Trapp chair. This No me chair, it's a modern upgraded chair. So the Tripp Trapp Peter Opsvik made for his children, but for the Nomi, he actually designed it for his grandchildren. So the pros of the Nomi are that first of all, it's gorgeous. I always laugh at like the only nice piece of furniture in my house is the Nomi High chair. I also have Nomis for all my kids. So we have two tables, like a breakfast table and a dinner table. We have Tripp Trapps at one and Nomis at the other. I love both of them equally, but for different reasons. I would say the biggest pro of the Nomi is that it has a knob to adjust the footrest and the seat height. So with the Tripp Trapp, the primary con, which I might have failed to mention, is that you need tools to change the height of the footrest of the seat plate.

Katie Ferraro (12m 45s):

It's just an Allen wrench, but I always ask my husband to do what he literally hates changing the Tripp Trapps. But it's really important that your baby's, you know, properly positioned in the height chair and proper height chair positioning is where your baby's waist is at a 90 degree angle. Their knees are at a 90 degree angle and their ankles are at a 90 degree angle. So you've gotta continually be moving the seat height and the footrest height in order to help your baby have that safe seating arrangement that will promote a safe swallow and help lower the risk of choking. With the Nomi, you don't need any tools. It has this really cool knob feature on both the footrest and the seat that changes the height of the seat and the footrest. So as your baby grows, you can change it like instantaneously. It's also not in one inch increments like it is with the Tripp Trapp.

Katie Ferraro (13m 25s):

There's like this fluid kind of infinite number of settings that you can have in the Nomi. It is just the most beautifully designed high chair that is so practical. And the Nomi chair is also incredibly lightweight. It has this really cool feature. You can pick the chair up and balance it on the edge of your table so that you can easily clean underneath the chair after mealtime. At first I was like, that's kind of gimmicky, but it's actually awesome and I use it all the time because you put the chairs on the side of the table, sweep underneath it and it helps clean up. What are the cons to the know me? Okay, slightly larger footprint than the Tripp Trapp. So it takes up a little bit more room. It comes standard with these casters on it for the high chair infant setting. But as your child gets older, you take those off and you take the baby guard off as well and then it turns into a toddler chair.

Katie Ferraro (14m 8s):

I like that the straps stay with it when it turns into a toddler chair. That is important to me. I love to strap toddlers in because they have trouble sitting still and paying attention to the amazing meal that I just made them. Another con of this high chair is that the tray is separate. Same story though. If you have a higher counter height or bar height table, you're gonna need the tray. But this chair is so lightweight. This is the one I always use to take outside if we're eating outside or I'll just throw it in the back of my van if we're going to shoots or going to feed other families. It's super lightweight. It's great for eating outdoors, but if you're eating outdoors, you're probably going to need the tray. I have a similar offer as I do for the Tripp Trapp, but with the Nomi tray, which is $70, you can get that tray for free if you're gonna purchase the Nomi Highchair from the STOKKE website.

Katie Ferraro (14m 51s):

And if you use the code BABYLED, LED, if you put the Nomi tray and the Nomi Highchair in your cart, then the cost of the tray will go away. And the links for all of these are in the description for this episode. Also, I have 'em all linked up on the show notes at blwpodcast.com/488. So the third share I wanna cover is a new favorite, the Mockingbird, High Chair. Okay, so maybe you know Mockingbird because they make strollers and when I heard Mockingbird was making a high chair, I kind of rolled my eyes because like every stroller brand, the highchair is an afterthought. Like they throw, they're like, oh, we got they. You like my stroller, you'll love my high chair. But they don't put any thought or time into the design of their highchair. Usually this is not the case with Mockingbird.

Katie Ferraro (15m 32s):

I saw this high chair for the first time and I was like totally blown away. The product designer introduced it to me. She's like, no, no, really like look at the chair. And I was like, oh whatever. It looks like every other like kind of crappy highchair that a stroller brand makes. This one is amazing. I like that The Mockingbird is more affordable than Stokke Tripp Trapp or the Nomi. So it's available at a little bit of a cheaper price, but it has some really cool features. So the Mockingbird, High Chair is very lightweight, is very easy to set up. There are like some Allen wrenches and usually my husband helps me set this stuff up 'cause I just don't like tools. But this one, he wasn't home and I did the whole thing myself and like 2.5 seconds. It's very easy. It also comes standard with a tray. So if you're turned off by the separate tray thing, you don't have to worry about that with the Mockingbird, but the Mockingbird High Chair has a baby guard on it.

Katie Ferraro (16m 16s):

So a lot of highchair, they come standard with a tray, but when you take the tray off, they're not safe for your infant to eat in because they don't have another way to restrain the baby. The Mockingbird you can use with the tray or without the tray. For baby-led weaning, it has that all important adjustable footrest. It has this really cool knob system to adjust the footrest. So there's no tools to require to change the height. It doesn't have as many footrest positions as Theoka height chairs do. But that's kind of what you get 'cause you're getting it at a cheaper price. The seat height also does not adjust, but it does turn into a toddler chair. What I love about this chair is like this is the one for the moms that are so stressed out about the mess associated with starting solid foods. This is the easiest high chair to clean up. They have these wipe clean silicone straps.

Katie Ferraro (16m 56s):

They are so genius. I literally don't know why other brands don't do it. They have a cool hook system on the back of the chair. So you hook the straps onto it like over the back of the chair and it holds it while you're cleaning up the tray. Is dishwasher safe? But what I love is you can just pop the bucket seat out of the high chair base and wash it in your dishwasher or in your sink. And I find myself doing that all the time. It's literally like just one more thing to wash, but like at least I can do it in my sink and not have to be like wiping down the high chair underneath the table. My only cons for this chair is that when you remove the baby guard, so like when your baby grows out of it, you also get rid of the straps. 'cause I love strapping and toddlers at mealtimes. But like all in all the Mockingbird is a solid addition to the high chair market. They also are making, they have this early eaters dishware set, which is really cool.

Katie Ferraro (17m 40s):

It's like some suction gear, it has a little cup, it has a bib, and you can get their early eaters dishware set for free when you buy the Mockingbird High Chair. So if you're looking at this high chair, if you put the Early Eater's dishware set in your cart and the Mockingbird High Chair in your cart and you enter the code BABYLED, LED, you'll get a free early eater's dishware set. That's a $45 value. I love the Mockingbird High Chair and I highly recommend it. Next chair up is one that I cannot believe that more people are not talking about. It's called the Cybex Lemo Highchair. So Cybex is a German brand. You might've heard of their car seats. Okay, but do not sleep on the limo three and one highchair.

Katie Ferraro (18m 19s):

Okay, this is like the Mercedes of highchair. It is German engineering at its finest. I met Marvin who's the head of their global training. He was showing me the features of this high chair. Sometimes the sales guys like, or ladies, they don't really understand high chairs or how to use them. They're like, oh, I'm all about the stroller, I'm all about the the car seat. But he knew everything about this high chair and it was really impressive. The adjustable footrest design is the best I have ever seen. They have like this bar and you just flick the bar and you can adjust the footrest to an infinite number of heights. So it's kind of like the Nomi where it's not like notched out, it's fluid. So you can stop wherever you want and the height chair footrest stops, but you don't even need the knob like it's just the flick of your wrist. They also have an adjustable seat and that seat not only adjust the height, but it also adjusts the seat depth.

Katie Ferraro (19m 3s):

Now when it's set up for the high chair and the infancy, you can't move the height, the seat height and the depth, but that doesn't matter because you move the footrest up and it fits your baby. But when your baby gets older, you wanna move the seat height and the seat depth so that they can still be seated safely. So there's also a really cool addition and I love that the limo did this where they can turn your high chair into a learning tower. So you know the learning tower you put next to your counter so your toddler can hop up in there and help you cook. And if you've ever cooked with toddlers, it's super obnoxious and dangerous, but like at least if they're in a learning tower, they're slightly safer and like restrained. But I hate having a huge learning tower that's like another piece of furniture and it eats up a bunch of my kitchen. This adjustment to take the limo high chair and turn it into the learning tower is so cool. They also have an infant bouncer if you're into that.

Katie Ferraro (19m 44s):

So you can basically use it like from infancy through toddlerhood and even older like this chair turns into a big kid chair, the Cybex Lemo, it's very popular in Europe, but I am so glad it's starting to make waves in the United States too. It's kind of mid range price, but I love the color that it's available and I have it like in this like aquamarine turquoise color. It's just, it's very minimalist and like not clunky and plasticy and crappy like a lot of American highchair brands. So I love the Cybex Lemo three n one. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

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Katie Ferraro (21m 44s):

The next highchair is kind of similar in aesthetic to the Cybex Lemo, but it's a little bit cheaper and it's the UniLove Grow with me. So UniLove is a Taiwanese brand started by two brothers, the name of their company UniLove. It's a combination of unique and love to, it describes the unique love that you have for your child, which I love. And I interviewed the co-founder, skin Quo, who's gonna be in the next episode 489, all about like his highchairs coming to the us. Unilove had previously focused on the Asian market, but they launched recently in the in the US they have two highchair that I love. So the first one I wanna talk about is the Grow with Me Highchair. It's a mid range price highchair, it's solid highchair, very similar in design to the Cybex Lemo. It has an adjustable footrest that goes to three levels, a seat that goes to six levels.

Katie Ferraro (22m 26s):

But what's cool, the tray comes standard. The tray goes to three tray depths. So as your baby gets a little bit bigger, you can kind of, you know, let some of the room out. It has an aluminum frame, it's about 15 pounds. You can take the straps off to wash it. It is a little unusual in that the height is slightly larger than the typical table in the US. So there's like this one and a half inch gap compared to other like standard 29 inch high chairs. So I found like slightly more mess when I'm cleaning up after using that highchair. But the mess doesn't bother me that much. I don't think it's like a deal breaker. This is a great chair at an affordable price. I like the color options. I have one in orange, like one of my quadruples was color coded orange when they were babies. I couldn't keep them like configured out. So they all had different colored car seats and the color coding thing started from there.

Katie Ferraro (23m 6s):

And one is like been a lifelong fan of orange and you cannot find a lot of orange baby gear. And I love the orange Unilove Grow with Me High Chair UniLove also makes my current favorite portable high chair. So that's called the Feed Me Go. This is a totally unique product. When I was at a trade show recently and I met Stin the co-founder of Unilove, like the colors of the of this portable chair really caught my eye. Again, I'm a freak for the different colors. I just think it's so boring that everything's like black and white and gray now for babies. But the Feed Me Go, they're portable booster. This has become my Go-to portable booster. Okay, so it's great for travel or restaurants, but you can also attach it to your adult chair or your bar stool. They've been making some design tweaks that have been bringing the price down.

Katie Ferraro (23m 46s):

It's like it's very sturdy. It has this like alloy steel frame that portable high chairs in the US for the most part have like plastic frames and you use 'em for like a year and they break. This one's very affordable, made outta steal. So it's slightly heavier, but it's not a deal breaker. Like you will still take this with you in your suitcase or like in your car if you're on a road trip. But what's so cool about the Feed me go is that it has a knob that adjusts the seat height. So there's four different heights that you can get your baby's butt to. And that's important because then that's gonna allow their feet to rest flat. So if you're having them sit on the floor as a floor chair, then you elevate the seat so their feet can rest flat on the floor. But a lot of times you're using this portable chair attached to your adult chair or your adult bar stool and then your baby's feet rest flat on the seat like where your adult butt would normally go.

Katie Ferraro (24m 32s):

It's just such a cool design. I do a ton of it with it on Instagram and YouTube because like seeing how you change it is really awesome. Explaining it on a podcast doesn't do so well, but you get the idea, the chair seat goes up and down to like elevate your baby. That allows her feet to also rest flat. I just love the design and I do have a discount code for this one. It's BLWFeedMe 'cause the chair is called the Feed Me Go. And sometimes the code on this change, like sometimes it's for 20% off, sometimes it's for 15% off, but whatever it is, I'll keep the link current in the description where you are listening to this podcast. It'll also be on the show notes. So to sum it up, when you're looking for a highchair, you want the one with the adjustable footrest. A lot of the ones don't have it, so just skip those ones.

Katie Ferraro (25m 14s):

Okay? Ideally, you wanna be able to use your highchair without the tray at the table. So all five of those high chairs that I told you about, you can pull them up to the table and have your baby join you for meals. Baby-Led Weaning, and they have adjustable footrest. That's the key. So once you get your highchair picked out, if you're interested in learning more about you know how to give your baby a safe start to solid foods, I have tons of info inside of my program, Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro, I've got the 100 First, Foods Daily, Meal Plan in there because sometimes you get your baby in the chair and people are like, all right, well what next? Where do I make the foods? How do I make 'em? How do I make 'em safe? I got it all laid out for you. Inside of that program, Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro, you can sign up and get started feeding your baby real food today. And that's super awesome. Hi, you just bought the link to sign up is babyledweaning.co/program.

Katie Ferraro (25m 59s):

You can check out the show notes at blwpodcast.com/488. Thank you guys for listening to the super quick rundown of the highchair. Thank you also to our partners at AirWave Media. If you like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, check out some of the podcasts from AirWave or online at blwpodcast.com. Take care. Bye.