Best Baby Led Weaning High Chair.
Having a baby for the first time is pretty overwhelming.
There are SO many “must have” items and it’s hard to know what to register for or buy.
When I had my first baby I did as much research as I could, especially on the bigger ticket items.
My hope was to keep things and use them again for future babies. For the most part, this has worked out!
We are on baby #3 and still using our original crib, pack-and-play, and many other items.
Some items, though, you don’t know how you’ll like them until you put them to use.
Sure, something may get great reviews or be a top-of-the-line product, but that doesn’t mean it’ll fit your personal needs!
This was the case with our high chair.
When we had our first baby we had several baby showers and tried to register for all the bigger expense things that we could…and that included our high chair.
There was really NO WAY to know what we’d want in the high chair department!
Heck, we didn’t even have a baby yet!
We ended up getting a Chicco Polly High Chair.
And we were very happy with it.
We did spoon feeding with Kye for the most part and when we did start letting him eat on his own it had many features I appreciated.
The removable tray was great for those first foods!
It was also the only high chair I had any experience with and it was a “nicer” chair so I was happy with it.
When Britt came along we got out the high chair and I wasn’t as impressed with it.
We did Baby-Led Weaning with our newest little one from the beginning.
So she was exploring foods on her own and was making a much bigger mess than her older brother made!
I had a goal to make the high chair work for the first two kids.
I didn’t want to purchase any big ticket items for baby #2.
With Kye being my only child when he used the high chair I didn’t notice what a pain it was to clean.
But when Britt started eating solids I realized how many little creases and crevices that beast had!
It was IMPOSSIBLE to get them all clean.
I even used a toothpick at one point to try to get things out of the small cracks.
I loathed that high chair and vowed to sell it asap at a consignment sale and never look back 🙂
While I was pregnant with Tess I asked friends what kind of chair they had.
I also googled around looking for a good high chair
The number one recommended high chair? Ikea Antilop Highchair.
Zach made an Ikea trip to buy some other things for the nursery and I had him pick up a couple of these high chairs.
They were only like $30 total with the tray and cushion.
He got one for our house and for his mom’s house. At that price, why not try it out?
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The rave reviews on this chair were based on it’s price and how easy it was to clean.
I was very eager to test it out! I loved the size and the look of it. It’s a really cute little chair!
It’s rather small and short but the design is simple and classic.
I wanted to love the Ikea high chair. I really, really did.
And the first time we used it I did like it!
I liked how the tray wrapped around and how easily it
But as soon as Tess had some messier food, I was no longer a believer.
We’d been using the chair less than a week.
The cushion was already deflated which was disappointing.
Then she finished eating her bananas and I went to clean the tray and realized it wasn’t removable.
I tried with ALL my might. I asked for help from friends and watched You Tube videos about how to get the dang thing off to wash it.
Zach came in from outside to help and we did get it off.
But it wasn’t simple or easy and it for sure couldn’t be done
I thought with time it would get easier, but it didn’t. It just wasn’t made to be removed very often.
I know people said they just wiped it down and didn’t remove it unless it needed to be cleaned better.
I’m not a “clean freak” by any means but a baby wipe wasn’t going to cut it and it was just bananas!
I knew that eating would get messier and therefore it’d
Real life! The big kids even tried to help!
In defensive of the Ikea chair and the people who love it…I think if it was the only high chair I’d ever owned then I probably wouldn’t have been bothered so much by the tray issue.
I got spoiled with the Chicco chair.
It had a removable tray that I could easily take off one handed and rinse in the sink.
The rest of the chair was a beast to clean…but the tray was a breeze.
With the Ikea chair, the opposite was true. The chair itself was easy to clean. But the tray wasn’t.
I didn’t want to get a new high chair but I talked to Zach about it and told him that I knew I’d start to loathe the Ikea one if I kept it.
We’d end up breaking down and buying a new high chair at some point.
If not for Tess, then for the next baby. So why wait? Why be annoyed every time she eats?
Now that I am on baby #3 I knew more what features I wanted in a high chair.
I wanted something small, something
I wanted something with an easy to remove
I asked around and did some homework and decided to purchase the Boon High Chair.
It took me awhile to pull the trigger on the purchase b/c it cost so much.
It’s hard to shell out money on something that was like 5 times the price of the thing you already own!!!
Sometimes in life you get what you pay for. It’s rare, but it does happen. In this case: it was WELL worth the money for the Boon! We LOVE our high chair!!!
First, it was very simple for Zach to put together.
We instantly loved the look of it and how it fits well in our crowded space.
Having the base at the bottom is much more space-saver friendly than having legs.
We love the gray color and I think it helps keep it looking cleaner too rather than the white option.
It’s also very easy to adjust the height and we LOVE the wheels.
We roll her around the kitchen with ease and it’s great for our busier lifestyle.
Now that we have three kids we do switch things up. Eat outside. Or in the dining room. Or want her to be eating near the sink when I’m cooking.
I will even sometimes roll her to the laundry room if I’m doing laundry.
It allows me to get things done while still keeping a watchful eye on her!
I didn’t purchase the high chair because I wanted wheels, but now that we have them we love them!
I also like that the straps and safety belt are removable as we don’t buckle our children into the high chair (gasp!)
My favorite feature, of course, is the tray.
It’s SIMPLE to remove and it’s small enough to fit easily in the dishwasher (I always just hand wash it though).
The entire chair is also very easy to clean. It’s all one piece and wipes clean quickly and easily.
The only real crevice is where the base tray snaps into the chair and that all comes clean when I remove the base tray!
I could NOT be happier with our high chair. I’m so glad we decided to purchase the Boon High Chair and I totally recommend it to everyone…especially if you are doing Baby-Led Weaning!
It’s SO easy to keep clean! I know I don’t have the time to be hardcore cleaning a high chair three times a day!
Switching to the Boon has allowed me more time to get other things accomplished and has made meal time easier for me in our home 🙂
I will be sad the day we transition our last toddler into a booster seat at the table and say goodbye to our beloved high chair!
It’s my favorite baby gear item!
—–> Looking for the BEST items to get you started with Baby Led Weaning? Be sure to read THIS post!
Shop the High Chairs Mentioned in this Post:
Feeling a bit overwhelmed about introducing solid food into your baby’s diet while making meals the whole family will enjoy?
Be sure to check out this awesome, super simple, four week baby led weaning family meal plan! Easy ideas the whole family will enjoy around the dinner table – including your newest solid food eater 😉
*This is not a sponsored post (although MAN I’d LOVE a free high chair haha!) All opinions are totally my own and are from my own personal experiences.
My work has been featured on Love What Matters, Today Parenting and Babywise.Life. I'm also honored to be a member of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network.
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Great post.., this boon chiar is really a great product.,I purchased this for my first child, who is now 3. I am still currently using it with my second child, who is now a 1.5 year old. My boys have not only used this as a high chair… But a play toy. Pushing eachother around in it, climbing up it, shoving it into my dishwasher… All of the wonderful things that kids do while you’re trying to cook! This chair has held up! When they were younger I used it with its tray, as a high chair. But now that my youngest is old enough, its used without its tray as a seat at our table.
Thanks
Rachel