First is the distressed ivory high chair with animal print upholstery from Nicole Reid. It’s a seat fit for a tiny Kardashian, what with its (literally) fierce appeal. No ducks, frogs or smiling sunshines for this kid.

Next, there’s the blinged-out Fresco Loft high chair from Bloom Baby, with a metallic finish on the upholstery tucked into a sleek black lacquered base. Again, it’s the opposite of what generally springs to mind alongside the words “high chair,” and that’s exactly what its designers probably want.

For those of us who actually like the idea of classic simplicity — and dare we say it: cuteness — the Scoop high chair from Seymour Powell pairs a white body with a robin’s egg blue seat, a gender-neutral color that can be handed down to a younger sibling, no matter which sex, and in a style so simple it will never go out of style.

For the progressive parent who wants an equally progressive high chair, there’s the Droog, designed by Maartje Steenkamp. The notches on its legs indicate exactly where they’re to be sawed off — literally — with the passage of time. As your child grows, the chair shrinks.  Simple as that.

And finally, we couldn’t resist including this creative hack from industrial design graduate Tim Peet on the classic Eames desk chair; Peet took a mid-century modern classic from a world-famous designer and personally hacked it into a feeding chair. Although it doesn’t necessarily look like the most comfortable high chair the world’s ever seen, we have to applaud him for his ingenuity.

Are these chairs practical? Some, no — others, perhaps. We’ll leave it up to you to discuss your reactions.

Photos: Nicole Reid, Bloom Baby, Seymour Powell, Droog and Tim Peet.

Take a look at this high chair made by Minui – it’s probably the most compact one you’ll ever see. Such a great streamlined design! It is called the Handy Sitt and is made to fit over a regular dining room (or kitchen) chair so your little one can join in the family meal time.

I first saw this chair at my brother’s house. I loved it when they pulled it out during Christmas. We were all squeezing in around the table and I put my daughter in it. At the time she was just over a year old and pretty well versed at sitting at the table with grown ups.

Unfortunately, the seats all had rounded backs and while my brother assured me they had used it numerous times, halfway through the meal my daughter banged the table with her hands and she and the chair went flying. And we all know how often a baby flails his or her arms around! I don’t know if she pushed backward or the high chair top rail slipped off the top of the chair, but it wasn’t pretty. Luckily she didn’t get hurt. Mostly just scared – as were we all.

Minui does have detailed directions on their website as to which type of chair it will fit over and how to properly install it. If I would have purchased it myself and seen those directions it’s quite possible nothing would have happened…that said, I’m still drawn in by their aesthetic, only I’m cautious about the implementation.

Oh, and the company also won the Parent Tested Parent Approved Green Award – which is great for them and worth mentioning.

Regardless, this is how it breaks down in our house. We research what the method is, attempt it, and then retro fit the method to our reality. With eating and feeding, these modifications happened quickly with much mess. I pilfered these rules from my Montessori Guru cousin whose blog has excellent info on all things Montessori.

1. No high chairs or propping up in a seat. We tried lap sitting – i.e., Sophie sat in my lap and either I fed her with my free hand that wasn’t holding the food or my husband fed her. While it does work, this method is exhausting for everyone! What with squirming, head shaking, hand waving and general mayhem, the food made it in our little one’s mouth, and all over us, and the table, and the floor.

I stopped to think about what we were teaching our daughter…what I intended to teach our daughter was family dinner time, and this wasn’t it. So, we opted for a high chair that uses our table as the “tray” and Sophie now eats dinner (and lunch and breakfast) at the table, with her own placemat. Teaching her not to throw food overboard on to the floor is an entirely other matter and deserves it’s own post.

2. The container must be see through so the child can see the food. This teaches a child that the food exists outside of them, then through the act of eating, the food goes inside of them. They are just learning about food, so the clarity allows them to see the food as it actually exists, not as purple oatmeal. Also, with all of this talk of BPA contamination, I opted for clear glass tiny bowls and they work perfectly for freezing, microwaving and washing. Also, same goes for water. We uses a small votive glass and it works amazingly well. It can’t hold too much water, so when the glass goes flying, as it inevitably does, it’s really no biggie. I have taken to holding the water for Sophie and letting her use her hands to guide the water in, just to save time with clean-up…again, not a strict adherence to the rule.

3. You offer the food to the baby and the baby either eats or doesn’t eat. No games or tricks. Generally, with patience, this works well. However, Sophie goes through phases of refusing to eat anything unless we eat it. So I found that a few tricks do in fact work and I resort to these when I worry that Sophie will waste away to nothing after 2 days into a food strike.

5. Food is served solo – no mixing. Oatmeal gets one bowl, peas get another. Mac and cheese is served separately from small bites of chicken. I find this one of the hardest to maintain. Sometimes oatmeal won’t cut it, but oatmeal with apples and some cinnamon goes down easy. Also, how am I supposed to get Sophie to eat anything green besides peas if I just serve it to her plain? I don’t eat like that, why should she? Plus, if she will only eat something I’m eating, well, then, you can guess why we break this rule all the time!

Basically we approach feeding the same as we do most things. We figure out the lesson we want to teach and go from there. Keep things simple.