Swallow Angelico Hi Lo Chair
We bought this high chair as soon as little Lily started eating solids.
Keep in mind while reading this review that we haven't actually tried out any comparable chairs (except for the Ikea High Chair, which we love, but which is in a totally different price range and feature range). Therefore this is really just a review of our experiences with this chair, and not a proper comparitive review.
Ok...
I'm afraid to say, I will have to quote Allison when it comes to this chair and repeat the following words, which were delivered in a very emotive and forthright manner:
"I hate this @#$&*^% chair!"
That may be a little harsh, but it is how we feel about the chair. Not that there is anything obviously wrong with it.
It is well constructed, solid, and has all the features you would conceivably find useful in a chair including the ability to make it a 'low' chair as well as a 'high' chair so bub can sit at the table. It can tilt. It has a nice padded seat. It comes apart for cleaning. It has a tray, and a good safety harness.
So why are we so frustrated with it?
Well, mainly because compared to the simplicity of the Ikea chair, this chair is a real pain to clean. After every meal we either need to take it apart and dig the food out from the crevices or we need to accept the fact that it will be forever accumulating various chunks of vegetables, cheese, rusk, biscuits, fruit, etc...
Now I'm told that other similar chairs are a lot more difficult to clean - but compared to the Ikea one (which only needs a quick wipe with a cloth), this one is a real pain.
Secondly, our little Lily seems to really dislike this chair. She screams and fights us. She refuses to eat. She doesn't act like this in the Ikea chair, or even if we feed her in her rocker chair for that matter.
I think this may be partly because it is a bit big for her (she is over 9 months old now, and it is still big for her... it was really big when we first got it). The tray table is about the only part of the chair which doesn't move up and down and unfortunately our little Lily is only just big enough to see what's on the tray and can't reach very far up onto it. Compare this to the Ikea chair where she is able to actually rest her arms on the tray and move things around, pick up bottles off it etc and I can see why she would get frustrated.
I wonder whether this chair will come into its own when she is even bigger, but honestly the amount of stress this chair has caused to date probably means that we will get rid of it sooner rather than later and probably look at something like this, which will allow Lily to sit up at the table with us.
For people who don't mind the cleaning aspect it may be okay, particularly for bigger bubbas. I can't see anything wrong with its construction and it is certainly solid and safe. It isn't the chair for us though.
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