Healthy Care Booster vs. Space Saver High Chair

[neeleymartin]

My husband and I currently have two booster style highchairs on our registry. I simply cannot decide which is better.

the first if the fisher price healthy care booster seat. http://tinyurl.com/3xtusm
i like the fact that it seems to be easier to clean. It has been around longer and is very popular. it also looks like you may be able to push it under the table on the chair (which is somewhat important to us) ALso seems to be more portable. great for family dinners with 3 other babies there.

the second is the fisher price space saver high chair.
http://tinyurl.com/2roxwr
the things that i like about this matter to others (mainly reviewers) but not me, i don't think. reviewers like the padding and the one handed removal and the tilt of the chair (i really could care less about any of these things). i have read that babies outgrow this VERY quickly, and the thought of replacing very soon is ridiculous to me.

I want a seat that I can use from about 6mos(solid food), for as long as I can. Please let me know if you use either of these and address the concerns i have.

I think i need a 10 step program to get unhooked from you guys. lol :)
neeley

[SnuggleBuggles]

I like the space saver better because it has a 5pt harness. Lack of 5pt harness is my biggest gripe with boosters over a conventional high chair. My high chair had 3pt with an optional 5pt and we started with just the 3 thinking we wouldn't need the 5. Well, then one day I was working in the kitchen while ds was playing in his high chair when he stood up. We quickly hooked up the over the shoulder straps! I am sure there are plenty of babies that don't climb or try to stand up but since you don't know what you will end up in that regard it is very important to have that option, imo.

The padding is also nice. The other FP looks uncomfortable to me. We had the Baby Trend high chair and really liked the cloth padding. The tilt isn't a factor too much for me. The one handed removal is nice to have when you are holding baby in one hand, about to put baby in the chair. There have been times that I have had to do that so while you may not see the benefit there you may when baby is here. :)

As for how long it would last? It would be nice if it could last till about 2 years.

We did own a booster just like that 1st one and we kept it in the trunk of the car in case a restaurant didn't have high chairs or we were visiting people without one. Once he outgrew it we used it on occaison when littler ones visited us. I really preferred having the real high chair though.

Beth

[mommyapb]

We have the Space Saver and are very, very happy with it. Main reason, the tray goes very close to dd so it catches most of the food that misses her mouth (which is pretty much everything she tries to feed herself :)). Yep the padding is nice. It is easy to clean (just snap off the padding and take the dustbuster to it). Hardly used the recline (got it when dd was 5 months) but sure it is a nice feature. As far as longevity, my neices are a little over 2 and no longer sit in hgihchair or boosters. They prefer their big girl cushions (2 chair pads stitched together)rather than a booster. So that is some food for thought. The space saver does advertise that it converts to a "big kid" chair though.

My dd is small for her age 10 mos & 29" 17.5 lbs. We put her in the healthy booster at a friends and she looked HUGE. The Space Save is much larger than the booster. Not sure why others would say differently.

HTH!

[tiapam]

We have the Healthy Care and love it, but we did use a high chair first. I *think* DD would have been fine in the HC in the beginning though. It's kind of a cozy fit even though she has been on the small side. Right now we use it without the tray as she just eats at the table with us. It is very easy to clean. The HC does fit under our kitchen table even with the tray on, but it is height adjustable so it might not do that at each level for you. The HC is basically a booster chair with a tray, while the Space Saver is a high chair with the legs cut off. You can make do with either one, so go with the one *you* like best.

-Pam

DD - Two years old!

[KHF]

I own both of these chairs and use both of them. We use the Space Saver for everyday at home. She's 17 months now and still fits in it fine. Like the PP, I love that the tray can be adjusted to sit very close to my daughter. Some other high chairs we've seen don't do that. We have really liked the 5 point harness on the Space Saver as well. It's easy to clean and it doesn't take up more floor space in the dining room.

We use the Healthy Care booster for traveling to grandparent's houses, eating out if they don't have wooden high chairs that will fit the cart cover I have and church functions, etc. It works very well for that, but it is small and has no padding whatsoever. I'm not sure I'd like it for everyday use. I got it with the intention of using it, exclusively, but once she was ready to start having solids, I just didn't think it gave her enough support. That's why I bought the Space Saver.

Kirsten

[lmwbasye]

We have the Healthy Care Booster and love it. DS is 27 months and still uses it all the time for travel/eating out.

I would say that if you are looking for something instead of a high chair, the space saver could probably be used earlier, but if it is meant to be a booster only, then I would go for the Healthy Care Booster.

Either way, you will most likely need a booster later on for eating out and travel and the space saver wouldn't be good for this use.

[sdbc]

My DD was able to stand in a regular high chair with a 3 pt harness, but she was *not* able to stand in the healthy care booster seat with the 3 pt harness. I think it's because the tray fit closer to her body. I, personally, wouldn't be concerned about the lack of the 5 pt harness on this seat.

We used it from 5 months to about 2 years, when DD decided she just wanted to sit in the regular chair. It cleans up easily and we never regretted the purchase (and never used a highchair except at restaurants and daycare).

Sue, mommy to Aurora (Rory) born 5/13/04

[BeachBaby]

We've used the first one (the HC booster) every day since DD was 6 months old. She's now 2.5 years. Standing was never a problem (like the PP said, the tray fits close to her body so there was no wiggle room). We don't use the tray any longer; she eats off the table now. DD has never complained about it being uncomfortable. Oh, and we do push it under our table.

I've never understood the point of the tilt of the chair on the Space Saver chair. How does it tilt if the chair it's sitting on has a back? I mean, it isn't like you're going to put the booster on a stool or something. Seems odd to me.

HTH.

[kijip]

I think they are functionally two different things. One is high chair and the other is a booster. If you are not going to use the chair until you baby is a good unassisted sitter, I think you should be able to skip right to the booster. We had it and were happy with it from about 1 year to 2 and 1/2 or so. If you want to use the cahir as a highchair or with a younger baby or as a spot to stick a younger baby while they paly with a toy or something and watch you cook or do the dishes, I think the space saver is a good idea. The sapce saver reclines slightly between the back of the seat and the chair sear back- just enough of a tilt for a young baby in a 5 point harness. If I were going to have another baby and skip the high chair, I would get the Space Saver one since I know that I like to have a landing spot in the kitchen for a child about 3-6 months old. The booster chair is very inexpensive (I think I got it on sale for $24?) so I would not rule out starting with one and moving on to the other once I had a young toddler. :)

[kali]

>We've used the first one (the HC booster) every day since DD
>was 6 months old. She's now 2.5 years. Standing was never a
>problem (like the PP said, the tray fits close to her body so
>there was no wiggle room). We don't use the tray any longer;
>she eats off the table now. DD has never complained about it
>being uncomfortable. Oh, and we do push it under our table.
>
>I've never understood the point of the tilt of the chair on
>the Space Saver chair. How does it tilt if the chair it's
>sitting on has a back? I mean, it isn't like you're going to
>put the booster on a stool or something. Seems odd to me.

Ditto to everything BeachBaby said! We started using the HC booster when we introduced solids (around 6 months). DS wasn't able to sit independently until about 7 months and the 3-pt harness and tray supported him just fine.

He's now a very very active and independent 2.5 yr-old, and the harness/tray still restrain him. (And believe me, we'd know about it if he wasn't happy; this is the child who could "houdini" his way out of a Miracle Blanket.) It's not his main chair anymore, because we got him a Kinderzeat around 15 months, but he still uses it for breakfast every morning.

About padding and reclining: I never got the point of either in a highchair. Hare surfaces are much easier to keep clean, and between their baby fat and diapers, babies have plenty of padding built in :-) Also, I don't particularly want to encourage my little one to fall asleep at the table!

Kali,
Mom to Sammy, born 7/16/04

[Lovingliv]

I have used the booster at my mom's since Liv was 6 months old. I use a high chair at my house. She is now 21 months and is still using the booster at my mom's. It does slide right under the kitchen table attached to the seat. My mom was going to get a regular high chair but I talked her into this to save room.
I wouldn't have gone with the spacesaver to use as my only highchair because I didn't want to tie up a regular chair all the time.

[Tondi G]

I'm in the same situation as you! We have a regular high chair and our now 20 month old wants to be on regular chair at the dinner table. I was all set to just get the booster and then showed these two to my Dh and he said he thought the other one looked more comfortable and we could use it if we have another baby and bypass the big Chicco high chair we have! I suppose I should take my DS down to toys r us and try him in both the booster and the space saver!

Good Luck

[mariza]

I have both and like other posters have said, they are 2 very different chairs. We use the HC Booster at my Mom's where she eats about 4 times a week. It's easy to clean and serves her well now (she's 2), somedays she lets us use the tray, others she wants to eat pushed right up to the table. She doesn't appear to have a problem with it, but when she was younger, she looked uncomfortable in it.

We use the Space Save in our kitchen and she is always comfortable, there is plenty of room for her to grow too. The Space Saver has different height adjustments, so you can make it fit under a table by adjusting the height. Again, she has days where she wants to eat right off the table and not the tray, so we push her right up and she is level with the table.
I originally didn't think recline was important to me, but for a smaller baby it's nice to have the recline. As soon as they can hold their own bottle the recline helps so that they don't hit their head on the back of the chair when tilting back to take a drink.

Both seats are easy to clean. The HC booster can go directly into the dishwasher, the Space Saver has a vinyl cover that wipes down really easy. I also vaccum under the cover for crumbs that manage to fall through. FOr really big messes (like when DD got sick in her highchair) I just put the cover in the wash and it came out like new. I highly recommend this seat, I think I may have actually been one of the first reviewers of it on the Target website.