Mellow Mummy: The Sunday Review – Scandinavian Selection No-Tray Highchair : Taking life as it comes...

Sunday 12 September 2010

The Sunday Review – Scandinavian Selection No-Tray Highchair

When I was first asked to review the Scandinavian Selection No-Tray Highchair I was a little taken aback. Why? Because it is a product with which I am already familiar. It's simple – it is exactly what I would draw if asked to draw a highchair. But then, as I sat there and pondered this, I realised that, in my recent baby-buying shopping sprees, I had never come across as highchair like it.

Highchairs these days are all-singing, all-dancing, but perhaps they don't need to be? The Scandinavian Selection highchair is widely used in restaurants and cafes across the UK including Pizza Express. If it's good enough for use in a restaurant, it must be suitable for use at home, right?



The No-Tray highchair is a great idea for encouraging your child to become part of the social occasion of mealtime. You child can sit right up close to the table – a tray puts distance between you and them. In the mellow household we have been looking for a wooden highchair for some time. Until now, it would have been no good for us as we have only had a breakfast bar; trust me, it is very hard trying to find a high-chair that is high enough for a child to eat at a breakfast bar. But thankfully we are on the move and when we have a dining table all of our own I want Lara to be able to sit with us at the table without a tray but with the support that a highchair offers.

I recently had the opportunity to try a Stokke Tripp Trapp. I wanted to love it, but I didn't. At £75 including delivery, the Scandinavian Selection No-Tray highchair is considerably cheaper than the Tripp Trapp. Because it doesn't try to be arty or clever, I found the Scandinavian Selection easier to construct, easier to get Lara in and out of, easier to clean and considerably safer for Lara to wriggle and squirm in to her heart's delight.



It is certainly a no-frills highchair. It is fixed height, with no tray, no padded cushion, no cup holder, no recline and no wheels. But to be very honest, I rarely use any of those features of a highchair and it means there are less parts to clean and less pieces to lose or break. Despite it's simplicity, the highchair is still stylish. Our version is made from plain birch with clear lacquer - I think it looks smart and stylish and perfect for our new home.

Lara loves sitting in the No-Tray Highchair. I think she really feels the freedom of it compared to her other highchairs. I sometimes worry that she wriggles about too much as the seat is very spacious. You can buy a safety harness to attach to the highchair but I think the real solution is to encourage your child to sit still and pay attention at meal times.


Image courtesy of PJP PR


The seat is firm and fixed and I think that I probably wouldn't have been able to use it with Lara when she first started weaning as it doesn't provide any support for babies who can't sit upright wholly unaided.

The No-Tray highchair has also been put through it's paces by two of my team of mummy testers.

Lucy (Mum to a 14 month old) said,
“We found the highchair easy to use. It's great that it comes up to the table, but it won't go under the table to get my son really close. We found that he was able to turn round in the highchair so I think it would work better with the harness.”


Hayley (Mum to a 16 month old) said,
“The Scandinavian Selection couldn't be easier to use and we found it really easy to clean. It's perfect for toddlers who are good at feeding themselves.”


The Scandinavian Selection No-Tray highchair comes in three different colours and can be bought online at their own website, Amazon or Jojo Maman Bebe.


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