High Chairs... Parents, When Did You Start Using One?

[AKL_Megs]

We're expecting our first soon, and we are in the process of trying to stock up on essentials.

I'm just wondering WHEN most parents start putting their babies in high chairs for FEEDING. (We have a swing, a bouncer, and a Boppy already for general lounging... all shower gifts.) Since babies don't start cereals for a couple of months, and aren't eating solid foods for many months, it seems like something that isn't necessary to have right away.

Could we wait until we get the go ahead to start cereals before we buy a high chair, or do they come in handy for bottle feedings? (FWIW, we don't "sit down" for dinner as a family much. My husband works nights, and I'd say we eat at the table together twice a week.)

Thanks!

 

[IllumFan]

Congratulations!

With both my children, they did not use a high-chair until they started eating cereal, at which point I definitely recommend one. It's quite a messy adventure teaching them to eat cereal but very cute at the same time.

Both of my children didn't start cereal until 6 months but that would depend on your pediatrician's recommendation.

Good luck!

 

[dzorn]

About 6 months.

Denise in MI

 

[Ennazus8810]

4 months here with both of my girls.

 

[NYEmomma]

We started around 6 months as well. We started cereal ~4 months to try to help with her reflux, but she couldn't sit upright at that point & we were giving her so little since it wasn't for nutrition (but then again, no food really is until they're a year-ish) that I fed her in her bouncy seat.

 

[MSSANDRA]

They need to be sitting pretty well first, around 6 mo. I preferred to cereal feed in a bouncy type seat sitting on the floor. The high chair did not get a lot of use for us till they started getting a few bite of table food and finger foods.

 

[AKL_Megs]

Thanks, everyone!

We definately won't be buying one right away then, just to have it sit in a corner!

 

[shaylyn]

Around 6 months.

A little advice, don't get one with a liner that has to be washed every time the baby eats (what a hassle!!). The seat cover ends up in the laundry constantly and you end up sticking the baby in the chair without the cover.

The BEST high chair out there is the Ikea one! Only $25 gets you a chair and a tray, it's sooo easy to clean, and now they come in blue & red too

 

[luckyfin]

4 months, as soon as we started cereal. Actually, I think we put DD in it prior when we were eating our meals so she got used to sitting there. She did have excellent trunk strength early on, but our highchair can recline a little so I'm sure we had her reclined. We didn't use for bottle feeding at all. Actually, we didn't bottle feed. But we wouldn't have anyway.

 

[ckquan]

Around 6 months. We opted to get a booster seat instead of a high chair. A booster seat attaches to an existing dining room chair and doesn't take up more space. It's all plastic and therefore very easy to clean. Also you can take it to a restaurant or friend's house. Congratulations!

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

5-6 months? Which I believe is when started cereal.

 

[VeroBeachGirl]

When you buy one, I would advise one that reclines. It is a Godsend when trying to give medicine to a squirmy baby.

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

Never had one! When fed her cereal, I had her in her swing or the bumbo. Then we had a clip on chair for the kitchen counter and the fisher-price booster for the kitchen table. By the time she was 1 she was in a Tripp Trap chair which she is still using at 5. I was happy we put the money into the Tripp Trap vs a high chair.

Even if you get a high chair, get the Fisher-price healthy care booster seat (about $20-30). I got it at my shower and it was the most useful gift I got! Every single mom in my DD's playgroup had it, I even had a spare I kept at my mom's house. My mom now gives this as a grandma gift to all her friends.

 

[JoanneDisFan]

When you start feeding cereal is fine to start using the high chair. I also second looking at the kind that just straps onto a regular chair. They take up much less space. Also many of them also still have the recline feature. I bought mine at a garage sale for $10 and have gotten my money's worth. We also started sitting baby in it while we ate dinner when he was about 4 months old, so he would be apart of the family.

 

[KristinAnne]

Congratulations! We started trying the high chair around 4 months, but DD didn't take to solids regularly until 6 months. I do know people who use the bumpo for feeding and don't get a highchair until 8-10ish months.

 

[formill]

We used our high chairs right from when babies came home- they reclined and I liked they were up high away from the dog etc to sit them in-ours reclined then had the trays and also had several height adjustments so you could use really low if you wanted and then could use as chair at the table- they were great.

 

[ilovepete]

When we started solids at 6 months, skipped cereal though and never did bottles so I'm not sure about those.

 

[starsweeper]

Never used a highchair. We chose to buy booster seats instead because they are portable for trips to family on holidays and take up no extra space in our home. We used a bouncer for feedings until our DC could sit nearly unassisted at 5 months.

 

[amylynne01]

We have a Fisher Price one that goes from a high chair to a booster seat, and it attaches to a chair because we don't have the room for a full high chair. It has 3 recline modes. We used it with DD1 from 4-5 months on. She would sit at the table with us as long as she was content. She didn't start on solids until 5 months. With DD2, we used it when she started solids at 6 months because she contantly wanted to be held (still does lol). We've found it to be a nice chair because it allows baby to be at the table with us while we eat getting the lay of the land instead of on the floor in a bouncy seat. It's definitely not a necessity for a while though.

 

[NYEmomma]

A note on the Bumbo seat -- I was SO excited to have it because it looked so cool & useful and we couldn't use it AT ALL.

By the time that DD was old enough that she could sit in the Bumbo, her thighs were so big that I couldn't get her into it. She didn't thin down until well past the age that she'd sit in the Bumbo seat (think 12-ish months... I couldn't even fit her into a pair of jeans until she started walking at 13 months & she couldn't wear Carter's sleepers at all because her thighs were too fat).

And it's not like she was predisposed to being large (DH & I are both below average weight & she was 6lb 13oz at birth) or overfed since she was breastfed for 14 months. She was just a BIG baby.