A good high chair should be simple to use and, above all, painless to clean. After 40 hours of testing, including cleaning up pureed sweet potato and crushed Goldfish crackers from 13 high chairs, we’re confident that the simple IKEA Antilop will make mealtimes easier than high chairs that cost 10 times as much. We also like the Fisher-Price Healthy Care Deluxe Booster Seat, an affordable compact travel chair and booster seat, and the Stokke Tripp Trapp, our adjustable and aesthetically pleasing upgrade pick.
Our pick
IKEA Antilop
This functional, compact, lightweight chair is easy to use and much easier to keep clean than high chairs that cost 10 times as much.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $20.
At 7.9 pounds, the IKEA Antilop is much lighter, smaller, and easier to move around than most high chairs but still sturdy, durable, and comfortable. Its smooth plastic-and-steel construction is simple and functional, lacking the grime-collecting fabric or crumb-catching crevices that cause problems in other chairs. Compared with some competitors, it can accommodate slightly bigger kids, but it’s not a chair that kids can continue using as they get older. Assembly is simple, although removing the Antilop’s tray isn’t as easy as with some competitors. The price, at around $30 currently, is impressively low, but you’ll have to buy the chair in person at IKEA or else pay extra for shipping.
Upgrade pick
Stokke Tripp Trapp
This wooden chair is harder to clean and much more expensive than our top pick, but it can truly grow with a child, and it’s especially suitable for preschoolers.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $250.
If you want a high chair that blends in with adult furniture and can serve you well from 6 months through the end of childhood and beyond, we recommend the Stokke Tripp Trapp. It’s much pricier and more complicated than our top pick, requiring add-on purchases for use with infants and some effort to assemble and adjust. But it’s far easier for bigger kids to climb into by themselves, and it’s an unusually attractive piece of furniture that you might keep forever—or have an easy time selling secondhand.
Also great
Fisher-Price Healthy Care Deluxe Booster Seat
This versatile, inexpensive seat buckles to an adult chair, can work with or without a tray, and folds up for the road. But it’s tougher to clean and less comfy than our pick.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $34.
The simple, compact Fisher-Price Healthy Care Deluxe Booster Seat buckles to an adult chair and makes for a versatile travel chair or a spare chair to keep at Grandma’s house. It’s extremely portable and can work as either a high chair with a tray or a booster pulled up to the table. It isn’t as comfortable or as easy to clean as the Antilop, with buttons and seams that can collect grime or allow spills to drip through to the adult chair underneath. But it is easier to clean and less expensive than other chairs of its type.