The Best High chair of 2022

The Stokke Steps is Stokke's successor to the Tripp Trapp, and this is a high chair where great emphasis has been placed on design and appearance. However, this doesn’t mean that Stokke have compromised on the chair's functions. The Steps’s biggest disadvantage is its high price tag – if you want the package in its entirety – but the advantage is that with all the accessories, you get a chair that works from the child's first day of life and for many years to come. The maximum weight capacity for the Steps is 85 kg. The chair is admittedly not dimensioned for an adult, but the high maximum weight means that the Steps can be used until the child is big enough to sit in a regular chair.

Assembly

The Steps is easy to assemble. The instruction book is well laid out and you only need to use tools once or twice. The basic version only includes the chair as it’s intended to be used for children from 3 years and up. If you want to use the chair for a baby, you have to buy an insert, the Baby Set. If you want the chair for a newborn, you have to buy the Babysitter, which just like the Baby Set can be attached directly to the chair. If all the parts are correctly assembled, you’ll hear a click. The Babysitter also has a colour indicator. The Steps Baby Set can be attached in an inner or outer position, so that the chair can be adjusted in several stages as the child grows and gets bigger. It’s also very easy to use the chair first for a baby, and then in just a few seconds rebuild it to suit a four-year-old who doesn’t need a harness or insert.

The verdict

The footrest on the Steps is very easy to adjust in height, and no tools are required. The same applies to the food tray – which is also purchased separately. When it comes to cleaning, it’s easy to get the white plastic nice and shiny again even after a tomato-based meal. With the Steps Baby Set on the chair, however, you have to live with the fact that some leftover food and crumbs get under the insert and are a little harder to reach. The food tray also has a joint along the edge where purees and the like are prone to stick and dry. The detachable harness in the Baby Set also has its disadvantages – the harness buckle is clumsy and the harness straps absorb food. However, the overall impression of the Steps is very positive. The Stokke Steps is a high chair that’s aesthetically pleasing, easy to adapt and use and has a very long period of use. If you have the budget for the Steps with all the accessories, it could well do its job in your family for over a decade, and because of that, the Stokke Steps is our best premium choice.

Baby Dan’s DanChair is a classic high chair in painted wood, which is sold in packages with a bar and harness included. The seat surface has a fixed height, while the footrest can be adjusted to the child's own height. Assembly of the chair can be carried out without any problems, although it does require some screwing together. The Baby Dan DanChair isn’t a chair you can quickly and easily pack up to take out to the country or carry in the car if you’re going to have dinner with relatives. It’s much more stationary than that and, to be honest, the same applies to most wooden high chairs available in the market. The chair feels very stable and well-balanced, and it doesn’t feel risky to let an older child climb in and out of it on their own. Baby Dan's high chair can be used from about six months of age, i.e. when the child is big enough to be able to sit up themselves.

The retaining bar is made of plastic and is removable. If, at one or two years old, your child is a little round in the tummy, that bar can feel a bit tight, but it’s also possible to use the chair without it. The bar is attached both to the seat surface and to the backrest by hooking it into a notch in the back and then clicking it into a latch. Releasing the bar takes a few seconds, and the latch under the seat is easy to access even if the child is sitting in the chair. The high chair's harness is in turn attached to the back on the underside of the seat surface and consists of a strap that goes under the child's bottom and two other straps that run over the child's hips and are fastened together at the front. The harness can thus be adjusted in length, so your child can’t wriggle their legs out, but still have their upper body completely free. The harness is sometimes a bit awkward to get right and, like all harnesses made of textile, it’s tricky to keep it clean if food has been rubbed into it. Though it can be removed completely for washing.

Without a bar on the chair, the Baby Dan DanChair works for children until they are big enough to be able to sit in a regular chair. The Baby Dan DanChair doesn’t have a large selection of functions, but the fact it’s so uncomplicated can feel like a plus for anyone seeking a normal, simple high chair. The design is stylish and the paint makes it easy to wipe off and keep clean after use. The base is a normal size and the runners are tapered, to reduce the risk of stubbing your toes on them.

The Stokke Clikk is an uncomplicated, stylishly designed high chair. There are no infant accessories for it, so the chair can be used from about six months of age. Assembly is ridiculously simple. The four legs click into their brackets in the seat itself. Removing them again is just as quick, so the Stokke Clikk is really easy to take with you to dinner parties or on holiday.

The harness is threaded into the seat surface and can also be removed if it’s not needed. However, you should be aware that falling accidents from high chairs are a common cause of injury in young children, so the harness should ideally be used at every meal. The food tray clicks easily into the chair, and can also be quickly and easily detached.

Overall, convenience is a real hallmark of the Stokke Clikk. The chair is very lightweight, which means you can move it around the kitchen but also that older children can pull it in to and out from the dining table themselves. The legs stick out a bit, but not significantly more than on other high chairs. After a while, you get used to it and stop stubbing your toes. Thanks to the legs, the Clikk feels really stable. It’s also designed without annoying joints where food gets stuck, and is thus easy to keep clean.

The chair comes with a simple plastic footrest. This can be attached in two directions, depending on how long the child's legs are. The seat cushion, which has to be purchased separately, is comfortable and can be wiped off with a wet cloth after a meal. Unfortunately, it also tends to slip out of position all the time. The edge that you fold over the backrest to hold it in place isn’t big enough, and the Velcro strap to attach the cushion to the back comes undone in no time.

The claim that ‘everything is relative’ also applies to high chairs from Stokke. Because even though the Clikk is a budget chair compared to the brand's other chairs, it’s still relatively expensive for a high chair. Then again, the Clikk comes with both harness and tray included, but you have to buy the seat cushion separately. That the Clikk has many similarities with IKEA's popular Antelope high chair is obvious, but the price tag here is 10 times as much.

However, the Clikk does have its advantages over the cheaper competitor. If you like Stokke's stylish design, but want to avoid paying what a complete Tripp Trapp or Steps would cost, then the Clikk is a high chair that’s as nice to look as it is to use.

The Tripp Trapp is Stokke's classic high chair, which has been around for ages but has also been updated and refined over the years. The idea with this chair is that it should be able to grow with your child. Assembly isn’t difficult and is relatively quick, but it does require some screwing together of parts. During use, the construction becomes something of a negative point. Because as your child grows, you need to unscrew half of the chair to adapt the height of the footrest or seating area. That also makes it tricky to be able to quickly switch between different children using the chair.

The range of accessories for the Trapp Trapp is very large. The chair can be used directly from birth with Stokke’s Newborn Set. This works a bit like a baby bouncer, but the child sits raised up and feels more involved when the rest of the family are socialising or eating. Avoiding having your baby at floor level isn’t just better for parents, it’s also very practical for anyone with pets in their home.

Other accessories for the Tripp Trapp are a retaining bar for small children, a seat cushion, a food tray, storage, and a harness - although surely such a safety detail should really be included. All of the accessories are well designed. The retaining bar is easy to fix in place, and the seat cushion is stable. Previously, the food tray only attached with suction cups to the table in front. Nowadays, the Tripp Trapp also has a tray that clicks into place on the bar. This means the chair can easily be used freestanding in the room.

Tripp Trapp's storage, actually a spacious and easy-to-clean fabric basket attached to the back of the chair, is also more practical than you might at first think. If you’re using the chair with the Newborn Set or with the retaining bar for small children, it’s nice to be able to store toys, dummies, cloths or anything else you want near to hand. With a retaining bar or set for a newborn, you must attach leg extensions to the chair to prevent it from tipping. But these are flat and don’t seem to increase the risk of tripping on the high chair legs.

The Stokke Tripp Trapp isn’t the smallest of high chairs but it still feels pretty convenient in the kitchen. It’s not the sort of chair you’ll want to move around, and certainly not something to pack for your summer holidays. At the same time, the chair is solid, has a long period of use and numerous practical accessories. The fact that the iconic design, now available in modern and fresh colours, is still as appealing today as when the Tripp Trapp was first launched is pretty impressive.

Leander is a Danish brand which, in addition to high chairs, also manufactures other furniture. Their cradle, which can be attached to the ceiling or a stand, is one of Leander's most well-known products to date. The high chair exudes an aura of classic Nordic design. It’s made of European birch wood and is available in a colour scheme of black, white and four shades of natural wood. The design is slim and the chair itself is a real lightweight at only 5.1 kg. There’s a bit of give in the construction, which means that it rocks a little when the child moves around. At the same time, Leander's high chair is really tough. The maximum weight is a full 125 kg, which means the Leander high chair can be used from the age of 6 months and in principle, for many years more. The price isn’t the lowest, but considering the very long period of use, it still doesn’t feel too high.

Assembling the Leander high chair is easy to do, and the chair can be adapted for different children. The footrest can be attached in several different positions, as can the backrest which has two different positions, one for under and one for over 8 years. When your child is about 2 years old, you can change the plates around, so that what was previously a footrest now becomes the seating surface, and vice versa. This removes the option to use the retaining bar, as only the narrow plate has holes for the bar. The narrow plate is also a different shape, with a concave leading edge while the larger one is convex. The advantage of changing these around is that the seat itself becomes almost twice as large, and offers more space for a slightly larger child's bottom, which would otherwise have risked slipping off. It’s also through this function that the chair can actually be used even by an adult.

A wide range of accessories is available for the Leander high chair. The only thing lacking compared to its main competitors is the baby insert; otherwise it has everything from a food tray to a seat cushion and retaining bar. However, none of those accessories are included so you have to choose them based on your needs, which means spending more. We would definitely recommend buying the harness for the chair. The retaining bar is also practical, while the food tray's potential depends a lot on where you place the chair in your home. Leander’s cushion for the high chair is nice but not necessary. However, we’ve saved one of the best features of the Leander chair for last: the chair legs. Here, someone has thought of and developed a soft, tapered design that makes the chair legs almost melt down into the floor and so the risk of stubbing your toes is minimal. The Leander chair may very well be a new classic and here to stay.

The Joie Mimzy Snacker is a high chair that looks just like many others. In other words, the design isn’t the most uplifting; grey and white plastic with rather clumsy shapes, as well as an upholstery in muted but still happy colours and a neutral, child-friendly pattern. None of that’s going to bother you, but nor is this a chair that will blend into your interior design. That said, there are still plenty of great things about the Mimzy Snacker.

For a start, the chair is large and sturdy. The legs protrude a bit, so there’s a certain risk of tripping – especially if there’s not much space around the dining table or in the kitchen. Assembly of the Joie Mimzy Snacker is nice and simple. With the leg braces in place, you simply suspend the storage basket and click on the tray – then dinner can be served.

The high chair works well from the point of view that a child is stable enough to be left to sit alone, as the seating surface in the Mimzy Snacker is one of the wider ones. In this respect, many similar chairs tend to feel outgrown quite quickly. This model differs in that you can remove the tray, which takes the crotch support with it. The Mimzy Snacker then becomes an open, high, armchair that an older child can climb up into. With the tray on, you can also adjust how close the child should be to it.

If you want to maximise your free floor space between meals, it’s a plus that the Mimzy Snacker can be folded flat and placed out of the way. The chair also has an adjustable backrest. With the help of a small folding lever up at the top, the backrest can be angled between three different positions. This is a function that may come in handy if your child falls asleep in the middle of a meal.

The Mimzy Snacker is a tall high chair, which means the child gets really close to the rest of the family. If you remove the tray, the chair can be pushed all the way in to the table, which makes it easier during meals. The high chair has a fixed cover that can’t be removed for washing, but which can be wiped over. Despite some creases where crumbs like to collect, our testers found the Joie Mimzy Snacker easy to keep clean, and the tray can easily be washed off under a tap.

Another good detail is the fabric storage unit under the seat. It’s ideal for holding toys and other things that can entertain the smaller baby while the rest of the family get on with their meal. It’s also a good idea that the tray can be attached to the back of the chair, so you won’t lose it when not in use. The Joie Mimzy Snacker is a good, easy-to-clean high chair, suitable for anyone who appreciates practical functions and compact storage.

The Graco Snack n Stow has a design that feels familiar. The seat consists of a classic frame around the child's abdomen, a removable crotch strap and a backrest. The legs of the high chair consist of two Y-shaped legs. They do protrude out a bit, but not so much that you’ll trip over them any more than you would generally trip over kids’ chairs at the dining table.

The Snack n Stow isn’t really the most aesthetically pleasing chair. It has a definite plasticky feeling. At the same time, the shape and colour aren’t bad, and neutral white with an upholstery in brighter colours always works well on a product made for children.

Some assembly is required for this chair, but it's not complicated. It may require a little strength as the pegs that secure the legs and back are tough to press in when the parts are fitted together. We had the same problem with the footrest. The Snack n Stow has a footrest that can be set to two different height positions. Even there, the knob that you push in to release the lock is stiff, and only by using a tool was it possible to press it in. The Graco Snack n Stow comes with a food tray that can also be removed from the chair. The tray is ingeniously easy to attach and remove. The operation requires two hands, but it’s very easy to get right. With the tray removed, the chair can be folded away. Once folded, it’s pretty flat and can be stored standing behind a door, for example.

The seat on the Snack n Stow is spacious, with a slightly reclined backrest. Smaller children receive good support, both from behind and from the sides. At the same time, the design makes it a bit too easy to reach (and get food on) the outside of the chair. Older children don’t sit in such a good position in the Snack n Stow and unfortunately, the chair doesn’t work very well without the tray. The frame of the chair is so deep that the distance between the child and the table surface is too great.

Our testers also found the Snack n Stow was somewhat awkward to keep clean. The outside has several parts that are difficult to access. The chair can soon feel a bit grubby if you don’t have the time to use tools to access all the nooks and crannies where leftover food has been rubbed in. If you are thorough when you clean it, the Graco Snack n Stow is a good value high chair, above all for anyone who wants to save space in the kitchen by folding the chair away between meals.

The 2ME Sandra is a high chair with a construction that distinguishes it from the other chairs in our test. What makes this chair special is that it can be folded up by releasing two catches so the legs can be folded together. This makes the high chair flat but still quite long. A safety bar and tray table are included with the chair. The safety bar is fixed but you can fold the tray table out of the way to sit against the back legs of the chair when not in use. When folded out, the table clicks onto the safety bar and there’s also a safety strap with a press stud to make sure the table is locked into place. It isn’t recommended that you fold the tray up and down when the child is in the chair.

The 2ME Sandra took quite a lot of assembly, both with and without tools. The legs had to be put together, and the foot rest and tray screwed in place. The frame of the chair is made from metal and the seat consists of upholstery on a baseplate. The upholstery is screwed directly into the chair. The sides are very soft and don’t provide much support, so it’s particularly important that you use the harness to make sure the child stays safely in the seat. The 2ME Sandra has a very roomy seat. A normal sized one-year-old has almost 10 cm of seat spare and there’s also a good distance down to the footrest, which can’t be height adjusted.

However, the tray table on the 2ME Sandra feels rather high for a one-year-old. Its height almost rivals a child’s armpits, despite this being the age at which the child will get most use out of the table. The fact that it feels high is largely because the table edge closest to the child is as high as the edges on the other sides. The 2ME Sandra is a tall chair, with a relatively deep seat. The fixed frame means the child must always be lifted in and out of the chair, but the maximum weight is 15 kg, so despite the generously sized seat, the chair has a limited period of use. The ability to fold the chair up is very useful if you want to be able to store it behind a door or in some other narrow space, or if you want the chair to take up less space vertically if you're putting it in the car.