High Chair brand review: Baby Trend

Web site: babytrend.com

Baby Trend sells 14 different models of high chairs in three broad categories: convertible, classic and portable.

The convertible high chairs are part of the Baby Trend’s “Snap Gear” collection—basically items that morph into multiple uses. Example: the Baby Trend A La Mode Snap Gear 3-in-1 High Chair. This $100 high chair has all the standard features you see in most high chairs these days: six height adjustments, a dishwasher safe try, three position recline and a compact fold. But the seat also snaps off so goes from this:

To this:

As a result, you can use the chair as a booster seat once your baby has outgrown the high chair.

Baby Trend makes various versions of this chair under different names (Kid Cafe, Go-Lite), but they are basically the same chair with different fabric.

As you might guess, the “classic” high chairs from Baby Trend are just high chairs—they don’t convert to boosters. Example: the Sit Right ($60). Like nearly all of Baby Trend’s high chairs, you get the six position height adjustments and three position seat recline, dishwasher tray and a compact fold. Other classic highchairs from Baby Trend run in the $60 to $90 range—the more money, the fancier the fabric pad. The different model names are often exclusive to the various chain stores that carry Baby Trend—one model for Walmart, another name for Target, etc. But its basically the same chair.

Baby Trend’s third category of high chairs are portables: the Baby Trend Hello City portable high chair ($24 on Amazon) has two height level adjustments and folds for travel. You can strap this portable high chair to a regular kitchen chair, much like the top-selling Fisher Price Space Saver.

Fans of Baby Trend’s high chairs love the value here—with many high chairs topping $100, it’s nice to see a full featured option at these price points. And for light duty use at a grandparents house, we would agree.

However, let’s talk quality. Baby Trend’s high chairs fall short, in our opinion. Readers tell us they are disappointed in the quality of these high chairs, with reports of parts that break after a short period of use.

Baby Trend compounds this issue with worst-in-class customer service, in our opinion. Here’s what one mom wrote on Amazon when she contacted Baby Trend to get a replacement part for her high chair:

Do not buy this high chair or anything from Baby Trend. The tray of this chair stopped attaching and fell on my daughters feet. I wrote to customer service to get a new one and they told me the tray was out of stock and to try again in two months. Ridiculous! So I tried again a couple months later and I got the same line. When I asked to speak to a manager, I got voicemail. They don’t care about you or your baby. Once they have your money they are done with you.

And that isn’t an isolated incident, given our reader feedback. The attitude here seems to us to be “you got a great deal on that Walmart high chair—don’t complain if it breaks after six weeks. That’s your problem.”

Another concern: safety. Baby Trend earned the distinction of a “Don’t Buy! Safety Risk!” from Consumer Reports for one of their high chair models. CR found the high chairs “soft plastic logo labels” were easily removed and posed a choking risk, since “they were in areas accessible to a small child.”

Bottom line: there are better high chair brands out there.

Rating: F