Baby products!! There are two things guaranteed about baby products – 1) there is one for every possible job you could imagine and dozens upon dozens of versions to choose from and 2) they will all cost you a small fortune.

We all want the best for our kids and some of us (yes me!) don’t have enough common sense to know that the features of the chair really won’t matter to your baby so long as it coats nicely in spaghetti sauce. And they pretty much all do so don’t worry about what your baby might want because they really don’t care as long as food is quickly forthcoming.

Forgetting about cost for a moment I’ll try to give you a quick rundown of most features available and then apply them to this particular chair – the Chicco Mamma highchair. Some baby items you can buy quickly but others such as a pram, car seat and highchair you will really need to assess what you need and what the item can provide.

If you live in a nice big spacious house with lots of room and no specific need to hide away your chair then you don’t have to worry about this one. However if space is at a premium then you’re not going to want a chair that takes up half your dining room or kitchen even when it’s folded. Measure the area that you have to store the highchair remembering height as well as length and width, it could be really annoying if you’re hiding it away in a cupboard only to find it’s too big. When you buy a chair from a catalogue they will usually give you dimensions to give you an idea but I’d always recommend going to see for yourself. That way you get a realistic idea of how bulky it is open and closed.

THE CHICCO MAMMA – Suitable from 6 months the Chicco Mamma has an upright and two reclining positions to choose from with the lowest being the one appropriate for first solids. I’ve found that even fully reclined both my girls slid out of position and looked uncomfortable until they could sit up unaided for longer periods of time. It did help though to give them extra support by putting cushions or some other form of padding around them. The chair has a soft padded cover on it that the straps fit through and is wipe clean, however over time the cover has torn in places and has to be kept very clean now so not to harbour nasty bits of food or smells. This is 3 years after I first bought it and both my children have used it so I think it did pretty well.

The first point when buying absolutely anything to do with babies or children is safety. The harness is the first thing to talk about, you can get a three point or five point harness for highchairs. A three point is two belts that secures around the waist by connecting to a third belt coming between the legs and a five point has an additional two straps that come down over the shoulders and meets and connects where the others do. For maximum security I would really recommend you get a five point harness as it doesn’t take children long to learn to climb out of anything. Also make sure that they fit securely, not tight enough to rub but firm enough that they won’t get themselves out of it.

THE CHICCO MAMMA – this chair has very few parts and everything is secured tightly. The only thing that has come loose is the cover which split everything else is as new. The bulkiness that makes this chair a nightmare to store is also what makes it so safe in my opinion. I’ve never had it do more than a tiny rock no matter what my girls got up to and it’s bulky enough to support quite a large and boisterous toddler so you’re going to get a few years use out of it. The only thing that could cause a problem is the tray which could pinch if you don’t look while attaching it although this has never happened to me. The Chicco has an adjustable five-point harness that is easy to use and hard for your baby or toddler to remove.

If you’re in a hurry you need a chair that wants nothing more than a quick wipe over to keep it clean. Some chairs can be very difficult to clean with niggly parts and areas that are hard to reach. Also look to see how much grub it’s likely to retain at a meal, if there is a lot of area then there is lots to cover and to remove whereas a simple chair will have little area for little monsters to soil.

THE CHICCO MAMMA – the mamma is a nightmare to clean. The cover comes off easily enough but it stores every crumb in the creases around the sides and back also underneath the cover gets very dirty as well and needs wiping after every meal. The straps whist great for keeping little girls tightly in place get very dirty and are hard to clean. I suggest removing them and soaking them in water before giving them a good scrub, as that seems to work best. The frame of the chair is also difficult to get clean as it has a few areas that are difficult to get into. I found the best way to solve this problem was to take it into the garden with a bucket of water and give it a good top to toe clean.

Features and functions

THE CHICCO MAMMA – the mamma has the 3 reclining positions I mentioned above (inc upright), 5 height positions which I’ve found really useful to keep my daughters sitting at my height rather than me having to adjust. It also means that I can lower it enough to fit under my dining table making it easier to store without having to fold it up. The tray is removable but it’s pretty large and I’ve found that when attached the child has to reach up to it making self-feeding much harder. I sometimes put an additional cushion underneath my youngest daughter’s bum to give her extra lift. The folding mechanism requires two hands but I have managed to do it single handedly although I wouldn’t recommend it. It has two buttons one on either side that you press simultaneously whilst pushing the front until it clicks. To open it you just push both buttons and open, simple enough for you to do but it means that there is nothing for your children to get their fingers into nor can they activate it by accident.