5 Best High Chairs, Tested In Our Labs and Homes
Give your baby a safe spot to learn to love broccoli (hopefully).
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Halfway through your baby's first year you reach the time to introduce solids, via baby-led weaning or spoon-feeding purees or both. Sitting your baby in a high chair makes the whole process easier, keeping them comfy and safely secured while you serve food and clean up.
The Good Housekeeping Institute staff has evaluated more than a dozen high chairs in the last five years. We build each model ourselves and grade the ease of assembly. We test how simple it is to get a child in and out, using our toddler-size Lab doll. We clean the high chairs to discover how easy they are to sanitize. Finally, in every case, we had families use a high chair at home and report on their experience over time.
Mockingbird High Chair
Pros
- Tray topper for easy cleaning
- Unique silicone straps wipe clean
- Converts to a big kid chair
- Compact footprint for small spaces
Cons
- Straps can be tough to get around your kid
Age of first use: 6 months | Weight limit: 35 lbs | Footprint: 24" x 16.5" | Height: 35.5" | Weight: 16.5 lbs | Folds: No | Wheels: No
Though it's only been out for a year and a half, this high chair has quickly become a favorite of our Lab pros and testers. "It's comfortable for my baby, who loves it, and it's also really pretty," says Stefani Sassos, M.S., R.D.N., our Nutrition Lab Director.
How it performed:
✔️ Ease of cleaning: Just wipe down the seat and put the top tray in the dishwasher. "With the tray topper, it's so easy to clean," Sassos says.
A game-changer is the silicone straps that wipe clean, different than the traditional nylon webbing straps that tend to get caked with food. The tradeoff is the silicone straps are a little tougher to maneuver into place, according to testers, but they say the easy-clean aspect makes the hassle worth it.
"My 19-month-old is a messy eater who throws food like it's her job, so we've really tested the clean-ability," a tester told us. "Also she's in the 95th percentile for weight and height and is still comfortable in it now as a toddler."
✔️ Adjustability and features: While the height does not go up and down, the footrest can be set at any of four positions, lowered as your child grows taller. The whole chair converts to a regular table chair for your preschooler and school-age kid later on. The Mockingbird High Chair has a small footprint, so it stays out of your way.
Pros
- Under $20
- The whole thing wipes clean
- Lightweight
- Legs come off for storage or travel
Cons
- No cushion or footrest
- Three-point harness only
Age of first use: 6 months | Weight limit: 33 lbs | Footprint: 22" x 24.5" | Height: 35.5" | Weight: 8 lbs | Folds: No | Wheels: No
For a cheap high chair that works great, you can't beat the IKEA Antilop. "I don't see how the answer to the best high chair isn't always Ikea's. It's like $20," said a tester dad currently using it for both of his kids.
How it performed:
✔️ Ease of cleaning: "Anything with padding and extra nonsense gets gross," a tester told us, and the IKEA high chair is bare-bones simple — there's nowhere for crumbs to hide.
✔️ Adjustability and features: It's only 8 pounds so it's easy to move around. But in addition to not having a cushion, there's no footrest and it doesn't fold (though you can take the legs off to store it). Also, the height doesn't adjust.
The Antilop only has a three-point safety buckle at the waist and not a five-point harness to go over the shoulders, so it's safest for kids who don't try to climb out of it. The lack of a footrest, though not great from a comfort perspective, does prevent a toddler from pushing down with their feet to try to lift themselves out.
Stokke Tripp Trapp
Pros
- Beautiful design and ergonomic shape (no slumping!)
- Grows with your kid (adults can sit in it)
- Allows your baby to eat at the table
- Wipes clean
Cons
- Give yourself some time to put this one together
- The extras all cost extra
Age of first use: 6 months (from birth if you buy a separate newborn seat) | Weight limit: 300 lbs | Footprint: 32.5" x 18 | Height: 22.5" | Weight: 15.5 lbs | Folds: No | Wheels: No
The Stokke Tripp Trapp, designed in Scandinavia in 1972, perfectly blends with modern adult décor. It's ergonomic (it keeps your kid sitting upright, feet on a footrest) and long lasting, able to go from a baby's high chair to a teen's desk chair. One of our Good Housekeeping writers attests to sitting in this herself if all the other dining room chairs are taken. It can hold up to 300 pounds.
How it performed:
✔️ Ease of cleaning: The sleek, polished-wood design is very easy to wipe clean. You can buy machine-washable cushioning for your baby's comfort, but that does give you more to wash. The Tripp Trapp is meant to be pulled right up to the table, but you can buy a Stokke tray so it can stand alone — that adds to your cleaning, however.
✔️ Adjustability and features: The seat's various attachments are often sold separately. We like this buy because it comes with the removable five-point baby harness and baby leg restraint to use from 6 to 36 months.
As your child grows, you can adjust the seat and footrest up or down to keep them comfortable. In real world use we mostly left the seat where it was and lowered the footrest occasionally. Moving it requires you to keep the wrench the product comes with so you can loosen the bars in order to slide the seat or footrest out and back in to a new slot.
This high chair took us the longest to put together in the Lab (just under an hour), in part because we were adding extras including the harness, leg restraint, cushioning and tray.
Peg Perego Siesta
Pros
- Pretty much ready to go out of the box
- Four wheels make this easy to move
- Reclines
- Adjustable height and footrest
- Folds for compact storage
Cons
- Comfortable padding is more to clean
- Does not convert to a chair for an older kid
Age of first use: From birth | Weight limit: 45 lbs | Footprint: 30 x 24 | Height: 41.5" | Weight: 24 lbs | Folds: Yes | Wheels: Yes, four | Recline: Yes
We found this chair to be the easiest to set up out of the box and a breeze to push around, thanks to the four wheels. The wheels can be locked and unlocked using a foot pedal.
How it performed:
✔️ Ease of cleaning: Any high chair with comfortable padding such as this one will take a bit longer to clean because crumbs get into the crevices. This pad can be wiped down but is not machine-washable. There's a top tray that can fit in most dishwashers.
✔️ Adjustability and features: The chair can be adjusted to nine different heights (including very low settings) and reclines, making it a perch you can use for infant bottle-feeding before it becomes a place where you serve finger foods. There are even three positions for the footrest, a point of comfort that is sometimes excluded from less-expensive high chair models.
Bonus: There's a handy net in back that forms a pocket for storing bibs or towels. The tray can be folded up with the chair, which stores compactly. But for the price, there's no conversion option with this. While you can use it from birth, you likely won't use it past toddlerhood.
Pros
- Cushioned, high back for comfort
- Converts to two seats if you have a second kid
- Can stand while folded
Cons
- Thick padding is tougher to clean
Age of first use: 6 months | Weight limit: 55 lbs | Footprint: 24" x 28 | Height: 43" | Weight: 21.5 lbs | Folds: Yes | Wheels: Yes, two | Recline: Yes
Though compact, low-silhouette high chairs are in vogue, we find plenty of parent testers love the old fashioned comfort of a high-back, cushioned high chair when they try one. "Though we have the Tripp Trapp at home, when I rented a DuoDiner on vacation I realized I love it, especially for how secure my baby seems in the chair," a parent told us.
✔️ Ease of cleaning: The tray-within-a-tray is great for throwing in the dishwasher. The comfortable padding "does make cleaning the actual seat kind of annoying," a parent reported.
✔️ Adjustability and features: Here's where this shines, because there are six configurations for this chair. Most notably, it can be turned into two chairs later on: half becomes an infant booster that attaches to a kitchen chair, and half becomes a kid seat. The design idea is that you can use this as a traditional high chair for your first child, then turn it into infant seating plus kid seating when you have a second child.
Also nice: This folds, and will stand on its own in the folded position. Two wheels help you tilt it and move it across the room.
More high chairs to consider
Three others we have tested:
Lalo The Chair is popular on TikTok and Instagram. As cute as this mostly wooden high chair is, there are not a lot of functions. There's no way to adjust the height, lean the chair back or fold it up for storage. Testers told us that they tend to trip over the thin, splayed legs as they pass by. Yet we can't argue with its pretty aesthetic, which has spawned dozens of imitators. Lalo stays ahead with cute colors and useful accessories such as a Splat Mat and feedings sets.
Fisher-Price SpaceSaver can be strapped onto a kitchen chair so you don't lose any floor space. It's a design that's been around for more than a decade, popular with apartment dwellers or any who have small spaces. In our testing, we felt it didn't work well with all kitchen chairs, so it's tough to recommend it across the board. We do like the tray-within-a-tray feature for easy cleanup, and the 50-pound weight limit that makes this a good toddler booster, too.
Inglesina Fast Table Chair simply clips onto most tables (so long as they don't have an apron or lip) so you can bring it to restaurants, Airbnbs or a friend's house. In other words, it's ideal for travel, and even comes with a carrying case. Like the IKEA seat, this only has a three-point harness and no footrest. Crumbs do slide under the clips, so you should remove the chair from the table for cleaning.
How we test high chairs
We evaluate the following:
✔️ Assembly: We clock how many minutes it takes to get the high chair set up for a 6-month-old baby to use.
✔️ Folding/unfolding: We rate, on a scale of 1 to 5, how easy a high chair is to fold and store, as well as how easy it is to move around our test kitchen. Some options are not meant to be stored away at all; others not only fold, they also have wheels.
✔️ Ease of securing the child: We snap a weighted doll into and out of the high chairs in our Lab, but also take user feedback into account here.
✔️ Adjustability of the harness: We take points off for high chairs that have a harness that is hard to rethread when a child grows taller.
✔️ Height and recline: Not all high chairs have adjustable heights or a recline feature, but we give points to chairs that do. We test the height adjustment and recline on each chair that has them.
✔️ Ease of using the tray: Some high chair trays can be removed with one hand, others require an adult to pinch both sides and lift. We give points to high chairs with easy-to-remove trays and with a tray-within-a-tray feature, making sure the top tray fits in a dishwasher.
✔️ Cleaning: We rate how long it takes to wipe down a chair in our Lab, but also lean on user reviews for this. There is almost no reproducing the mess an actual toddler can make when they grab a harness with sticky fingers, then crumble a cracker into their lap. The easiest high chairs to clean are the ones with no padding. But those do not rate as highly in our next category.
✔️ Comfort: We gave points to chairs with cushions that can be used to keep an infant or older baby sitting comfortably for longer. But we do acknowledge that those do take extra cleaning.
✔️ Convertibility: Finally, we gave points to chairs that convert for use from infancy through the preschool years or even beyond. We like products that last for years!
What to consider when shopping for a high chair
✔️ Price is a factor. The good news is that there are safe, useful high chairs at every price. If you have a budget, you'll likely be able to stick to it without much compromise.
✔️ Wood vs. plastic. Chairs made out of sturdy wood cost more but feel durable and tend to be aesthetically pleasing. Plastic looks like plastic, of course, but it's lightweight and usually compacts down for easy storage.
✔️ Cleaning vs. comfort. Cushions keep your baby cushy but they can be hard to clean. A simple, plastic or wooden seat can be wiped down. But if you have a very wriggly baby, they might not sit as long in one of those. You know your baby — and your own tolerance for mess — better than anyone.
Why buying a new high chair is best
In 2019 the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) implemented updated safety standards for high chairs. Before then, high chair injuries were responsible for more than 18,000 emergency room visits per year, mostly caused when a child tried to climb in or out, when the chair tipped over as a child pushed or rocked backward, or when parts of the high chair (like the restraint) failed.
Now, all chairs are required to have a passive crotch restraint and a three-point restraint system that goes around a child's waist. If you can find a five-point restraint that also goes over the shoulders, as shown, even better.
When you buy new, register your high chair using the manufacturer's registry card or QR code so you can be notified of any recalls. Also sign up for general baby-related recalls at the CPSC website, so you can get news such as this recall of Babyjoy high chairs.
We advise avoiding heirloom or hand-me-down feeding chairs. If you must, be sure the high chair was made in the past six years.
How to clean a high chair
We asked Carolyn Forté, executive director of our Home Care & Cleaning Lab, for advice:
✔️ Take special care with the tray. "The tray comes in contact with food, so I would only use a cleaner that says on the label that it's safe for food-contact surfaces," Forté says. (This one from Seventh Generation fits the bill.) "Even with one of those, for a baby, I would probably still rinse the tray after I cleaned it since they pick up food and put it directly in their mouths."
We like high chairs that have a tray-within-a-tray feature (shown) because the top tray can pop into the dishwasher. We have read comments from parents, though, that say some older children figure out how to take that top tray off — for flinging to the floor, not for cleaning.
✔️ Some cushioning is machine-washable. Most high chair padding should be washed in cold water and allowed to air dry.
✔️ When needed, wipe down the legs, straps and seat. "I think it's fine to clean the seat and legs with any cleaning wipe or product, but for safety, also rinse it afterward," Forté says. "If you are using a product that disinfects, after letting it sit for the required time to kill germs, I would rinse and dry it, too."
Why trust Good Housekeeping?
The Good Housekeeping Institute has been staffed with scientists, engineers and journalists for more than 100 years. Making solid product recommendations is in our brand's DNA.
Contributing Writer Jessica Hartshorn worked on the 2025 edition of this roundup and continues to test baby high chairs as they hit the market. She's a judge for the annual Parenting Awards, and previously worked at Parents magazine. Her two kids are grown and no longer smash blueberries into the floor.
Jessica (she/her) is a freelance writer with several decades of experience writing lifestyle content and evaluating home and parenting products. A mom of two teens and two cats, her previous work can be seen in American Baby and Parents.
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