More and more parents are moving towards wooden high chairs for their babies. The former craze for brightly colored plastic and chrome plated metal high chairs is abating. People are fast realizing that wooden high chairs go well with the rest of the furniture and the carefully chosen decor of the house.



When it comes to furniture, wood spells elegance. You choose your furniture after carefully poring over piles of magazines, then you go from store to store spending time and good money to get very special furniture that suits your personality. After doing all that, getting a plastic or metal high chair for your baby is a stylistic gaffe! When the rest of the furniture is wooden, a wooden high chair is what you should get, and this trend is growing day by day.

Wooden high chairs fit right in with the furniture and the decor of your dining room. Popular choices for dining room furniture are oak, maple, and cherry. High chairs are easily available in these woods, with the finish to match the other furniture. They come in various styles from antique to modern. Wooden high chairs have a charm of their own. They age gracefully. This makes them ideal candidates to be passed on to coming generations as family heirlooms.

Now that the aesthetic appeal is taken care of, check the functional aspect of the wooden high chair. It is advisable to get a high chair with a front tray that can be manipulated with a single hand. Though a plastic food tray is convenient to keep clean, a wooden tray is just as easy to clean with a damp cloth after every meal.

Make sure of the workmanship. The durability of the wooden high chair depends not only on the wood, but also on the workmanship. High quality high chairs will be held together by natural joints, such as tongue-and-groove and dovetail joints. These are better than joints held together with screws. Safety straps are necessary to hold the baby in the seat. A five strap harness is better than just the waist and crotch combination. The wooden high chair should be stable and well balanced.

On the downside, a wooden high chair lacks some conveniences that are common on the plastic and metal versions. Castor-mounting is one such convenience that's missing. Pushing the chair around a carpeted area will be difficult. You can't tilt the back to put the chair into a reclining position, nor will you be able to adjust the height of the chair to suit different situations. You may also miss out on the toys that are usually attached to the dining tray in the plastic and metal high chairs.

Before buying a wooden high chair for your baby, make a simple comparison check on the features and price of the different models that you are interested in. Categorize the features according to safety, function and beauty, and prioritize them according to how necessary they are in your case. Keep this comparison chart with you when you go shopping for a wooden high chair so you get everything that you decided you required.

You may not need to get a baby high chair right away, but it won't hurt if you prepare yourself in advance. That way, when the occasion arises, you'll be well-prepared to make a proper, informed decision regarding the selection of a good wooden high chair.