Highchairs are a safe and supportive place for your baby to eat before they’re old and tall enough to sit on an adult-sized dining chair. Most come with a plastic tray so your baby can see and reach their food easily – especially useful when first weaning. Equally useful for six-month-olds trying solid food for the first time and wriggly toddlers needing a place to eat without distractions, highchairs come in a variety of sizes, functionalities and prices. To find out which highchairs are the best, our parent tester put some of the UK's top-rated models their paces. We also consulted the Mumsnet forums for advice on which products they recommend and use with their own children, as well as seeking out expert advice from the NHS on what to look for in a highchair. Keep reading as we take you through the best-performing products, as recommended and tested by parents. How we chose our recommendations

The Clikk has been designed specifically to keep small bodies comfortable and secure, so you can rest assured that your child is safe in this high chair. It has a five point harness that will keep wrigglers firmly in place, but can also be removed easily for cleaning. Highchairs have come a long way in the last couple of decades as companies have begun to apply intelligent design to baby equipment. There are several broad types on the market, so consider which functions are important to you before making your choice. 1. Budget highchairs We had the Oribel Cocoon. It was brilliant, so sturdy, height adjustable and it will recline if you need to keep your baby out of the way of the dogs while you cook and they nap or something." hubbletelescope Our verdict It can be used with the newborn set from birth, the baby set from six months (sitting unaided) and after three years or 15kg until adulthood and beyond, so it's great if you need a piece of furniture that will last and can be used by every member of the family. We also like that the tray is dishwasher-safe for particularly messy mealtimes! It's expensive but with a thriving second-hand market you should get a high resale value when you're finished with it.

Our Best-Sellers

I had a mimzy highchair and it was fab, but it was recommended to me as little one has hip dysplasia and its really wide. It could be a pain to clean but all the padding comes off and goes in the washing machine which I used to do once a week (normally Sunday after dinner and then it would be dry by Monday dinner time after nursery)."(Recommended by Mumsnetter ItsSnowJokes) Our verdict

Most travel highchairs either attach to an adult dining chair as a chair-mounted booster or clip onto the table edge (sometimes called a hook-on or clip-on highchair) like a vice. In both cases, you need suitable furniture to make it work – though, anecdotally, the chair-attaching kind fit more universally than the table-attaching kind. As reliable as it is ubiquitous, in our extensive tests the IKEA Antilop excelled, living up to its reputation as the king of all highchairs. While it may not look like anything special, our Mumsnet users rave about this highchair for being budget-friendly, functional and easy to clean up after mealtimes.We have a Stokke steps and LOVE it! It looks stylish, It’s easy to clean and has a foot rest. Highly recommend!” Loved by Mumsnetter AfternoonTea12 Our verdict Babies often learn what and how to eat by watching their parents and siblings eat too”, she says. “It’s more likely that they will happily accept foods that they see you gobbling up yourself.” Build that special space for your little one with a range of beautiful nursery furniture sets including cot beds, changing units, baby wardrobes and more. Parents considered aspects such as how well their child was enclosed and held in the seat, whether they could lever themselves to stand up or slide about, if they could wriggle out of parts of the harness, or trap fingers or other parts of their body in the mechanisms. Sturdy, elegant, and available in a range of styles to suit every nursery aesthetic: find the perfect cot bed for your little one.

Transitional-style chair – can be used from birth with a baby bouncer attachment, from six months with a baby set, and indefinitely as a chair after three years or 15kgFor this category, Rachel partnered with Katrĩna, who has a nine-month-old baby and a 33-month-old toddler to juggle at mealtimes, so was able to put all our products through their paces over the course of three months. As child nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed says, sitting your child at your eye level and at (or close to) the rest of the family at mealtimes aids their development. Able to be used from as little as a few months old, high chairs not only making feeding easier due to the inclusion of features such as harnesses and tray tables, they also help to encourage communication skills as children interact with you at eye level. What’s more, high chairs also allow your little one to be included during family meal times, which can help strengthen familial bonds. These are the big guns of the group – the chairs intended to last as standalone models in babyhood and then convert to table-side models that can be used in toddlerhood, childhood and even beyond.

It’s a good idea to read up on their specs before choosing one to make sure you’ll be able to use it safely. It’s helpful when travel chairs collapse to a portable size and many come with their own carry cases or shoulder straps to help with this. Five products were then awarded a Mumsnet Best badge – these are the products that we feel offer the best value for most parents. We also gave honourable mentions to three others. Type: Freestanding chair which converts from baby seat to a highchair | Materials: Faux-leather; fabric; BPA-free plastic | Suitable from: Birth | Harness: Yes | Wheels?: Yes What we love Unfortunately at times this is not achievable, and therefore we must highlight this is a price match service & not a guarantee.Transparency is really important to us and that's why we're always upfront about how we tested the products we recommend. We won't always recommend the cheapest products, or the ones with the most extra features. We write about products that we feel offer the best value to most parents – the one's we'd recommend to our own friends and family. Big gap between tray and the baby, even in its closest setting – a little inconvenient for mealtimes Type: Plastic booster seat with tray that attaches to adult chair with straps | Materials: BPA-free plastics; canvas straps | Suitable from: 6 months+ | Harness: Yes | Wheels?: No What we love At the inexpensive end of the spectrum are the budget chairs. These tend to be standalone highchairs (intended to be used by themselves using a plastic tray, instead of being pulled up to a table), short on adjustability features and elaborate design – favouring instead a functional simplicity that often, incidentally, means they’re much easier to clean. Three available modes, with all accessories included in the price: newborn bouncer with toy bar, weaning high chair and toddler seat