When it comes to buying baby gear, I hear this question a lot: Do I really have to give up my design-loving ways to get something functional that I can afford?

The great news is, the answer is “No way!”

Let me show you why we love our Nuna Zaaz high chair by way of my 4 Top Tips For Choosing The Right High Chair.

TATE PULLED UP TO THE TABLE IN HIS NUNA ZAAZ, TRAY REMOVED

TIP ONE: FLEXIBILITY

Gone are the days when a piece of furniture could get away with doing one limited job for a short season of time. These days, we expect baby furniture to grow with our children throughout as many stages of development as possible. Here are three keys to finding a piece that will be flexible enough to meet your needs for several years:

1. Adjustable straps. Look for a 5-point harness that allows you to forego the over-the-shoulder straps as your babe gets bigger. Most kiddos don’t like being totally restricted as they get older but still need some help remembering to stay on their bum.

2. Removable parts, especially the tray and tray table support. Being able to remove these parts of the chair allows you to pull your little one up to the table as they get older, like in the happy photos of Little Man Tate at the top of this post. Tucking that chair in at their place at the table makes them feel like they are a part of the conversation rather than stuck off to the side in a clunky chair. This kind of family connectedness is what dinnertime is all about!

3. Check out this video to see how easy it is to adjust the height of this high chair. Love this feature!

TIP TWO: WIPE-ABILITY

1. Removable parts (yep, again!). This is especially important when cleaning up the shrapnel from a post-meal foodtastrophe. No, your baby may not have intended to drop a food bomb on basically everything within a 5 foot radius, but they still did it. It’s just a thing babies do to remind you of how much you love them, because if you didn’t you wouldn’t actually be willing to clean up after them every. single. day. But who’s to say love can’t be efficient? You don’t want to spend your life with a toothbrush trying to clean out all the nooks and crannies and nether regions of some complicated chair. Being able to pull the chair apart easily is essential to making this job an easy one.

2. All surfaces must be made of materials that are easily wiped down. Just say no to upholstered chairs of any kind! You don’t want anything you have to scrub at when they squish all the blackberries on their tray and shove at least 50% down into their seat. You want surfaces where a bit of water and a quick swipe will get the job done. The Nuna Zaaz is amazing this way – totally impervious to stains!

TIP THREE: MOVABILITY

Movability really comes down to two things:

1. Scale. This may seem like a small detail, but the scale or footprint of the chair will determine how easily it will tuck into a corner or under the table. When your babe isn’t pulling up to the table yet, you don’t want their high chair to take over your dining space, and when they are, you don’t want it to occupy more than an average seat space.

2. Good glides on the legs. Rubber stoppers just leave marks on the floor and make moving it around a total pain in the you-know-what.

TIP FOUR: DESIGN SAVVY

Last but certainly not least, does the style work with your décor? For me that’s in large part about choosing something with a subtle colour palette. I went with the Almond colour for my Nuna Zaaz because it’s subtle and blends in with all the wood tones in my house.

From its modern simplicity to its highly functional, flexible adjust-as-they-grow design, we are loving our Nuna Zaaz! It truly fits my philosophy of buy less, buy better. Definitely a designer-approved high chair for our little foodie and yours. For all my fellow Canadian mamas, you can pick one up right here and you can get more details on the full Nuna line here.

xo
s.