Meet the new super soft Polly Magic Relax highchair with cocooning that follows your baby's growth! Suitable from birth, it comes with a padded reducer and an entertaining toy bar to cuddle and stimulate your child. This highchair is very versatile with eight adjustable height positions and a removable tray which means you can attach it to the table and you and baby can enjoy meals together. It is easy to fold and free-standing, while the four wheels make it easy to move from one room to another. Would you recommend this to other mums? Type: Freestanding chair which converts from baby seat to a highchair | Materials: Faux-leather; fabric; BPA-free plastic | Suitable from: Birth | Harness: Yes | Wheels?: Yes What we love

As reliable as it is ubiquitous, in our extensive tests the IKEA Antilop excelled, living up to its reputation as the king of all highchairs. While it may not look like anything special, our Mumsnet users rave about this highchair for being budget-friendly, functional and easy to clean up after mealtimes.Shona: The flexibility of this is amazing, especially as it can be used from the newborn stage with the fun toy bar and reclinable seat. It can fold down so small which is great when you need space at the table. It is easy to wipe down and keep things as hygienic as possible. Would also be handy for mums who have had c-section to have somewhere higher up and safe to put their baby to ease the pain of bending.

Highchairs are a safe and supportive place for your baby to eat before they’re old and tall enough to sit on an adult-sized dining chair. Most come with a plastic tray so your baby can see and reach their food easily – especially useful when first weaning. Aishwarya: This is a great high chair. It folds easily for storage. It is easy to clean. Son very happy in it which leaves me hands free to do chores around the kitchen. It's easy to assemble and stow away if needed. The tray is a good size and again super easy to clean. Overall it's a comfortable, safe, easy to clean place for my child to eat.They are also, of course, the most expensive – and be aware that, in this group in particular, you’ll need to pay extra for everything except the chair frame itself (including newborn accessories, baby seats, trays and even safety harnesses), so make sure this is included in your budget.

It can be used with the newborn set from birth, the baby set from six months (sitting unaided) and after three years or 15kg until adulthood and beyond, so it's great if you need a piece of furniture that will last and can be used by every member of the family. We also like that the tray is dishwasher-safe for particularly messy mealtimes! It's expensive but with a thriving second-hand market you should get a high resale value when you're finished with it. We spend hours researching, speaking to parents, analysing data and listening to experts before we test out the products on our shortlist. Dannibelle: The Chicco Polly Magic Relax really makes my job as a mum easier because my infant can eat, relax, watch TV or look at books all sitting comfortably and securely within this highchair. I can get on with house duties or simply relax without interruptions. A highchair is very important within our household and we found this one to be really useful. Would you choose this product to win? The life-span of your chair will depend on the type of model you choose, as some are intended to be used throughout childhood and beyond (see section below). You’re likely to find a chair with a tray essential from first weaning up to the age of three.As child nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed says, sitting your child at your eye level and at (or close to) the rest of the family at mealtimes aids their development. As a mum of two, I found it very useful to use a highchair with a newborn insert. While babies don’t start eating until they’re approximately six months old, these inserts mean that you can safely sit a younger baby within them. This helps to make baby feel a part of mealtimes and stay in your eye line when you’re cooking or entertaining an older sibling. Recently launched in the UK, the new Yippy highchair from Moji is expensive, but is designed to be part of a family home for years, from birth to adulthood (or up to 14 stones). The extended lifetime and the build quality just about justify the high price. Multifunctional options might also include newborn accessories so you can use the chair before six months, or have a removable tray so the chair converts from a standalone chair to a table-side one. They usually fold away and often stand when folded for easier storage, and come with luxuriously padded cushions, which are comfortable for your baby to sit on but are crumb magnets for any dropped food.

Another Stokke chair to feature on our list, the Steps is a stylish highchair that can be used from birth. There's no doubt about it, it's a pricey piece of baby equipment but for the price tag you get a good quality high chair that your child will get plenty of use out of. An almost 50-year-old classic, the robust and intelligently designed Stokke Tripp Trapp continues to perform well for kids of any age. Solidly constructed from high-quality wood and available in a dizzying array of colours, the Tripp Trapp is a firm favourite on our forums – especially second-hand. Although some of the chairs we tested had extra accessories making them suitable for smaller babies, children should only use a highchair to eat once they’re able to sit unaided.

5. Best travel highchair: Chicco Pocket Snack

The large and luxuriously comfortable Polly Magic Relax begins with a bouncer mode for newborns and then converts to a highchair with a generously-sized tray, which can be completely removed to allow a toddler to sit at the table.