Stokke Tripp Trapp: why it's still the only highchair worth buying

The Tripp Trapp came out in 1972. It has not changed in any meaningful way since. That is not a criticism. It is the point.

Peter Opsvik designed it to solve a specific problem: children sit better, eat better, and engage more at the table when they are at the same height as everyone else. The Tripp Trapp puts them there from around six months with the infant insert, and keeps them there through childhood and well into adolescence as the seat and footrest adjust up and down the beech frame. Most people who buy one for a baby still have it at the kitchen table a decade later, used by a ten-year-old who has outgrown every other piece of baby furniture they ever owned.

The alternatives in this category are not bad products. The BABYBJÖRN High Chair is easier to wipe down. The Nomi has a more considered aesthetic. The Hauck Alpha is the budget route in. But none of them offer the same longevity, and longevity is where the Tripp Trapp's cost per year of use becomes genuinely competitive with chairs sold at a fraction of the price.

Buying a Tripp Trapp preloved requires one check: the underside of the frame. Look at the two horizontal gliders that contact the floor. Wear there is normal. Cracking or splitting at the joints where the legs meet the seat rail is the thing to look for, and it is uncommon in chairs that have been used normally rather than abused. The adjustment mechanism is simple and the parts are standard. Replacement screws and gliders are available directly from Stokke.

The harness and infant insert are the components that age most obviously. Both can be replaced. The chair itself rarely needs to be.

If you are going to buy one highchair and you want to buy it once, this is the one.