I was primarily responsible for acquiring all the necessary baby gear for our first child. Although he said he didn’t care, my husband never failed to complain about whatever I bought. So when it came time to buy a highchair for our then 6 month old I made him come to the store with me and we came home with the Peg Perego Prima Pappa High Chair in Chesapeake.

The Basics
This sturdy highchair features 7 height adjustments and a 4-position reclining seat. The tray is adjusted with just one hand and has a removable top tray for easy cleaning. The seat is covered with a soft fabric cushion that can be removed for machine washing. Under the fabric cover is a hand washable vinyl cover. For safety there is a passive restraint bar in the seat as well as a 3 or 5 point adjustable harness system. There are caster wheels with brakes for rolling the high chair around and it folds for easy storage. No assembly is required.

Do You Need a Highchair
Once thought of a baby staple, today many parents forgo a typical high chair in favor of small plastic seats that can be attached to a regular kitchen chair or directly to a table. For a round $35 you can’t be the versatility that these small seats offer. If you plan to use your high chair exclusively for feeding your child and you are tight on space these chairs may be all you need. That wasn’t us.

Since most of my time seems to be spent in the kitchen it is nice to be able to have baby safe and secure in the same room. That meant a bouncy seat on the floor, a definite trip hazard, since infant seats should never be placed on any surface above the floor. Our main eating area is outside of the kitchen so a seat attached to a chair or the table wasn’t practical either. That meant a highchair on wheels was the best choice for us.

Why the Peg Perego?
While I had a number of considerations for a high chair, my husband had only one - sturdiness. We went to several different stores where he pushed and pulled on every high chair around. The only one he proclaimed acceptable was the Peg Perego Prima Pappa deciding that it’s wide base made it the least likely to tip over.

Using the Seat
This high chair has been a fixture in our kitchen for the last 4 years. My only regret is that we waited until our oldest was 6 months old before we bought, with our others we have used the seat from the day they came home from the hospital.

The seat reclines down to a 45 degree angle, the same angle infant car seats should be installed at, making this seat safe for infants who cannot hold up their heads yet. At the time it was the only high chair safe to adjust the recline with the child still in the seat. The most upright position is vertical so it provides proper support for children who can sit independently. The high sides kept toys in place better than any bouncer we owned and all of my children enjoyed playing in the seat with its high vantage point.

The harness is easy to switch from a 3 point to a 5 point system. There are two positions for the shoulder harness so it can be made short enough for infant and high enough for toddlers. The shoulder harnesses clips slip over the waist buckles so they are sandwiched together when the child is buckled in. The harness lengths are easy to adjust with a clip typical of most strollers and highchairs.

Not only is there a harness to keep your child safely in the bucket seat, but a large bar comes up from the between your child’s legs so there is no chance of your child slipping out under the tray. The tray is adjustable with just one hand, the trigger mechanism is under the front of the tray. This squeezing mechanism is blocked by a small cover so that you child cannot push on it and accidentally kick the tray off with their feet. The tray comes in very close and around the child meaning that there is not a lot of space for food to fall down on to the highchair. At 11 months of age there is only about 1" of space between my son's belly and the tray at its closest position.

I love that the tray has a cover. When the meal or snack is over the top tray can be quickly snapped off for cleaning while still affording the extra safety of safety of having the tray in place. The tray cover does have a bottle/cup/jar holder, but I don’t ever use it. The holder is too close to baby, making it very easy to pull at whatever has been placed in there.

The wheels are great. I can wheel the children around the house with ease, which was particularly great when they were infants. Especially with our youngest I knew he was safe up above his sister’s running and jumping and I could keep him nearby as I cooked, cleaned or did laundry. Unfortunately the wheel locks do not work all that well. Even as toddlers both of my girls had no trouble moving the chair on our tile or hardwood floor even with the caster locked.

The height adjustment is a nice feature. When our children were young we used it in the highest position to comfortably feed them. Once they were eating off of plates on their own we removed the tray, lowered the seat a little and pulled it right up to the table to use as a booster seat. The wide base meant that even if they climbed into the seat on their own it wouldn’t tip over. Surprisingly, we use the seat in its lowest position quite a bit. It allows the baby to be at a level to interact with older siblings but still safe.

Our oldest sat comfortably in the highchair until she was 18 months old, at which time she was happy to sit at a regular kitchen chair. Our second used the highchair as a booster seat until she was almost two and I wanted to use the chair for our youngest. I figure we will get 5 years of daily use out of this highchair before we are able to pass it on.

I think we have only folded this highchair on perhaps 4 occasions. Our kitchen and eating areas are large enough to keep the chair set up all the time. If we do want it out of the way we just push it into the laundry room or pantry. When we have done it, it is fairly easy to fold, but I can't say that it seems to take up much less room than when full assembled.

Cleaning
Of course cleaning is an issue with this and every high chair. Since this is the only highchair I have owned I can’t compare it to any others for regular cleaning. I like that the cloth cover can be tossed in the washing machine while still leaving the vinyl cover to be used for meals. I can’t count the number of times our covers have been washed but they still look to be in good condition. Sometime during our second child’s use of this highchair we purchased an extra cover from Peg Perego so we could always have a clean cover. The first couple of times it did take me a while to figure out how to remove the cover and put it back on, but now it only takes a few minutes. The crotch strap and shoulder harness are easy to remove, but the waist buckles require a nut driver to remove if you want to wash them in the machine too. The vinyl cover is removable for hand washing, which also allows you access to the shell of the seat for hand cleaning as well. I do usually find food crumbs buried under the covers and I spend about half an hour once a month taking the seat apart and giving it a good cleaning. While the tray does fit in our dishwasher we generally hand wash it so it is ready for the next use. The tray is so large it takes up too much room in the dishwasher to really make it a practical means of keep the tray clean.

I will admit that I am not all that particular about keeping the high chair clean. After most meals I just wipe down the cloth cover and wash the tray and I am done. A sponge works find even on the cloth cover if I get to it while the stain is still relatively fresh. I change out the cloth cover about twice a week, which is often enough for me. I figure it is just going to get dirty again the next time the child eats in it, there is no reason to completely sterilize the chair between each use. However, if you want a perfectly clean chair for each and every meal I don’t think any typical highchair is going to meet your needs.

Final Thoughts
If you need a standard style high chair, I don’t think you can beat the Peg Perego Prima Pappa. It is sturdy, durable and will outlast multiple children. At the time we paid about $15 more than the next most expensive seat on the market and I don’t regret it for a moment.


Recommended: Yes