The boon Flair high chair runs for $229 and has a 4.5/5 star rating, which in my books is a pretty great rating. A lot of the glowing reviews commend the height of the tray – perfect for a baby to self feed from, whereas other high chairs have trays above elbow level apparently. I loved the style — it’s like the Eames of high chairs, and it won out in my husband’s book after he watched several video reviews of a few others. We bought ours off craigslist for $120, and now that it’s gotten good use for a few months, I’m surprised how pristine it was when I bought it after it went through two previous children.

It looks like it used to be available in hot pink and red, but it seems like the only options now are white and gray with four possible matching seat pad and tray liners, as well as a brown pad option if you want to match it up with some existing furniture.

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We started using it at 4.5 months old, before we started solids to get her used to sitting in it, and because we never bought a Bumbo. I love that she can sit in it happily for over 1-2 hours while I cook and then she eats. My husband thought it was a bit large, or at least the base was large, but when I saw the high chairs that some of our other friends use, their chairs look like something that Steven Hawking could navigate an entire city in. Mangoes seem to stain the white plastic as if the fruit was secretly made out of turmeric, but it comes bright and white again with a spray of rubbing alcohol. I’ve read some people use Clorox Clean Up Spray. My daughter quickly learned that if a piece of food was too difficult to pick up, she just had to drag it toward her body on the lip on the tray and it would fall into her palm. This also means that sometimes there is a pile of food by her hip that made it up over the edge and escaped her hand.

PROS:

Super easy to clean. No cracks, no crevices. With baby led weaning there is a lot of food mess, and I can’t imagine using a high chair with fabric. Yes, the fabric is usually machine washable, but on a practical level of using it 3+ times a day, I can’t imagine trying to wash out the nooks and crannies by hand between meals. Sometimes I do take a q-tip and clean out the holes that the tray snaps into.

It rolls. I roll it into the bathroom to wash my daughter’s hands. I roll it onto the patio to have a nice meal outside. I roll it to the kitchen counter so my daughter can watch while I prepare dinner.

Don’t need to use seat belts. It has a five point safety harness, but the crotch plastic comes up so close to the tray it’s not possible to slip out the bottom, and the tray comes so close to the belly that it’s near impossible to climb out.

CONS:

Pneumatic failure. The pneumatic lift on the used chair I bought has lost its smooth pneumatic powers. It can adjust up and down, but it’s tough, but I only need to set it once and I don’t have a need to adjust it up and down in my house. We have adult pneumatic stools and they all suffered the same fate very soon after we bought them. In fact, I went to try out a boon high chair on display at a local store and it was just as clunky to raise up and down.

Padding doesn’t cover head area. I wish the padding would come up higher because when my baby gets tired and throws her body back, her head slams into the hard plastic. We circumvent this by draping a puffy burp cloth over the top and under the seat pad.

Tray has seams. The tray itself has some seams on the bottom that avocado and other mushy things can get trapped in. I wish there was a way to take it apart to clean, but there doesn’t seem to be.

Water can pool under the pad. If I wash the arms of the chair and water runs down under the pad, I need to actually remove the pad and let it dry out separately otherwise mold forms in the texture of the pad. If the seatbelt straps were attached, this wouldn’t be quite so easy to do, but you could probably squeeze a rolled up dishtowel between the pad and the base to let it dry out.

One of the biggest draws in this chair is its sleek design, but I think this chair would even more amazing in stainless steel. If I had the know-how, I would certainly make and sell a stainless steel high chair in any way, shape, and form. Overall I love this high chair and highly recommend it if it’s in your budget, or keep an eye out on Craigslist.

4.5 months old with swaddles wedged in to help her from tipping to the side