When I was pregnant, I put together a registry at Babies R Us and dutifully added the things their website suggested. One of those was a Graco Harmony highchair. It is ugly, but highchairs rarely are attractive. But that's not my beef with it. I can deal with "unattractive decor" if my son would have liked it. But, right from the beginning of introduction of solids, he disliked the highchair. At first, he would only eat baby food in his bouncy seat or in his swing. I even had some success with feeding him in the stroller. But not the highchair. Eventually, he capitulated and agreed to eat in the highchair, but starting at around 12 months old, he refused to be buckled in, screamed bloody murder if I attempted it. He also refused to stay seated in it unless the tray was holding him down. Then, he would eat, but half his food would be thrown overboard to the dogs, his sippy cup would sail through the air and hit a wall 15 feet away hard enough to leave a dent. Basically, he did everything to show his displeasure with being confined to that contraption. Recently, he has added climbing out to his repertoire. He would stand up and lean dangerously to the side while searching for a foot-hold to get out of the chair. Gave me a heart attack every time and mealtimes had become extremely stressful to me.

So, I started doing research online, reading lots of reviews and found the Tripp Trapp. But at $200 for the chair, plus $40 for the cushion, (and $40 for the infant converter kit for those who need it) I wasn't exactly jumping on the bandwagon. I kept convincing myself that we could deal with the highchair. Finally, I caught my son son midflight to the floor and when the adrenaline pumping through my system calmed down, I went looking for the Tripp Trapp.

I had seen the statement, "Tripp Trapp® is the children’s chair that grows with the child™. It’s sturdy and gives perfect support at every stage. An adjustable seat and footrest give proper support, and the confidence to move around freely." But I didn't exactly believe it. Reading glowing reviews after glowing reviews had sealed the deal. I had also wondered about the need for the cushion and found this statement on a british website:

3. Should I buy a Cushion Set for my Tripp Trapp?
Our general advice to parents is that the cushion set is purely cosmetic. By all means have one if you like the look of it, but in our experience it does not make the chair more comfortable. In fact, we specifically advise against using the seat part of the cushion set for young babies because it encourages you to set the seat of the chair too far forward for the baby to be comfortable, and it makes it more difficult for the child to swivel on the chair; a baby already has plenty of seat padding via a nappy anyway.

That convinced me not to get a cushion, and I found the chair at www.dwr.com for $149.99. I bought it in Natural finish to match our kitchen. The chair arrived, my husband assembled it (very easy assembly by the way) and I strapped my son into it. He actually smiled and pointed to the chair while babbling. I gave him a plate of scrambled eggs and a fork (he's 16 months now) and he didn't throw either to the ground (like he had in fits of rage with the highchair). He ate in a civilized manner, then signed for a piece of paper and a crayon (he is not very verbal and we had added sign language to encourage communication which he's doing very well with). He spent the next 30 minutes coloring at the table while we ate our breakfast in a leisurely fashion. It was the most stress-free meal I've had with him there!!! And every meal since has been just as relaxed.

The Tripp Trapp is very comfortable even without the cushion. He does not attempt to get up until he's done eating. He feels like a big boy sitting in it and acts appropriately. The most amazing thing is that the good table time behavior has also transformed his behavior at restaurants in their highchairs. I've been getting complements on how good he is from everyone and I am shocked quite frankly. Until the Tripp Trapp arrived, I spent every second of our eating out meals catching stuff that he was flinging off the table. While he was always quiet, I hated the meals and only put myself through that ordeal on rare occasions.

So, here is a list of pros and cons for the chair:

Pros:
- Extremely comfortable
- Has a foot rest for little feet, so they aren't dangling
- Encourages Family mealtimes because the child is eating with parents at the table, not separately on their own tray.
- Very lightweight, so if a child pushes away from the table, it just slides away and doesn't tip over.
- Very stable/solid design and it's almost impossible to tip it over on linoleum/hardwood/tiles or any other solid surface.
- This chair really does grow with the child, and very easily so. It has slots for both the seat and the foot rest and as the child grows, you just move the seat and the foot rest appropriately.
- Because it grows with the child, it encourages good posture at all times. The child never has to stretch or hunch over to use this chair.
- Incredibly, it supports up to 300 lbs, so if you are in need of another adult chair, you can simply adjust it for an adult and draft it in to use.
- I can see using this chair for everything from arts and crafts to meals to homework when my son is old enough for that.
- A huge pro is that my son, like countless other kids, absolutely loves this chair and doesn't try to climb out or fall out of it.
- It cleans up very easily, especially since we didn't buy the cushion. All I do is wipe it down and it's back to it's original state. If you do have a cushion and it gets food on it, just throw it in the wash.

Cons:
- Expensive
- Needs to be retrofitted with a $40 infant kit to use for a baby, thus making it even more expensive
- Lightweight - the child can easily push it up to a counter and climb up on the counter using the chair like a ladder. I guess it must be lightweight though to avoid tipping over when the child pushes away from the table, so not sure if this is a real con.
- I could see the legs getting caught on carpet and tipping the chair over. Although I do not have carpet in my house, so did not try it. This is purely theoretical because of the angle of the legs. So, I would only use this chair on a smooth/hard surface.
- The harness looks like it was an afterthought. I am putting this point last because it is the only part of this chair that is very poorly designed. Stokke can do sooooo much better. For an expensive, extremely well designed chair, the harness is a dissapointment. To say that it's a 5 point harness is a joke as there is nothing to keep the shoulder straps up. We ended up just using it as a 3-point harness and it seems to be doing the job, but my son is also not really trying to climb out of the chair because he likes it.

In conclusion, I think that this is the best thing to happen to our household since we've started feeding our son table food. I would buy it again and intend to do so whenever we have a second kiddo. Who knew that you can engineer out horrible table manners in a child by making them feel like a big kid?!?!?!?! I am truly amazed and thankful.



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 149.99
Age Range of Child: Kids to Teens