At what age did you stop using a highchair?
Andrew seems to be misbehaving more and more in his highchair, not eating well and throwing the food around the kitchen/bowl on the floor. He has broken two melamine bowls already this week. So, I decided to buy a new booster seat from Toys r'Us (We already have a Safety 1st one but it takes him too high on the bar stools in the kitchen). So, have moved the Safety 1st one to a permanent place in the dining room and the new one is in the kitchen at the breakfast bar. Just wondering when everyone else ditched the highchair completely and had them sitting at the table with them. We do have issues with lifting the tablecloth/table mats and smearing food all over the table BUT I am guessing the table manners will come with time if we persevere with him at the actual table. Ryan happily stayed in his highchair until he was about 2.5 I think so this is new to me. x

Haven't done this with Habbie yet, however my friend has a little boy 4 days younger than him (nearly 14.5 mths old) and she's been sitting him at the table for breakfast and evening meal for the last few days/week and it's going well.

Matthew came out of his highchair around 20 months I think, he has always had quite good table manners for some bizarre reason (think it's cos he doesn't like being messy!) and so it's been fine. However, he still goes in a highchair if we go out to a restaurant or something, it depends where we are. Jo

Funny you should mention highchairs....have you been talking to my DH?! He announced last night that we should get rid of it now as Tobes would manage at the table on the booster. Erm no, he's not the one who needs the safety the highchair gives so I can get 4 boys organised and ready for school in the mornings! I think anywhere between 18 months and 2 years is prob a good age. I do remember that DS 1 was in a highchair longer than the other boys were, in fact we had 2 highchairs at one time. We've always gone from highchair to booster. If you think he would cope, go for it. Sometimes things become more of a danger than a help. dolly x ds x 4

I agree on the keeping them safe dolly, I too used this method for a time in the mornings so I could scoot off and go and straighten my hair or whatever. However, breakfast time has become shorter and shorter now and he is literally in the highchair to eat then gets out. No way would I leave him in the booster on a chair but I was always comfortable to leave him in the highchair. I agree about doing things for longer with your first, Ryan seemed to be in the baby things so much longer. However, I do sometimes think we are a bit guilty of being in a bubble and not moving things along then when you do you think why didn't we do that earlier. Its easy to get stuck in a routine and not move with their development isn't it. Hooray, if we ditch the highchair AND the fireguard its the first step to reclaiming my house LOL. Next step the toys!!!! Bit of a problem there seen as Andrew is getting a kitchen and a Little Tickes Cozy coupe, think we will be expanding on those for a little while longer yet. x

I am thinking of getting a booster for Seph, mainly because the dining table is in the kitchen, and we like to have his high chair in the living room for quiet time/snacks/naughty time out! LOL and keep dragging it through is too much hard work. he sits well in a booster so I think introducing it slowly will work for us.

Well at the moment Jess seems reasonably happy in hers, but my friends lil boy who is a week younger than Jess, has had to ditch the high chair and hes now in a booster seat! She said he just kept trying to climb out! Sounds like Andrew is ready for the next step, and yes I believe that Bean will be in baby things a shorter time than Jess! xxxx

Isaac has been in a booster since 6 months! He hated his highchair and so I moved him onto a basic mothercare booster and he was fine. It probably is much more messy but made for far less stressful mealtimes. I moved Erin out of a highchair into her booster at 12 months

Is it just Charlie then who is perfectly happy not to try and climb out of things? lol! he is still using his high chair, just because he is a bit of a fidget pants at table on a normal chair - and in a booster seat he kicks at the table so I'm worried he would kick himself back and over backwards. His high chair is completely height adjustable though, so at lunch today he sat up at the table with us, just in his chair, with a place mat and cutlery. He LOVES this - makes him feel like a big boy!

abs is still in her highchair...... its a chicco happysnacker and it pulls up to the table without the tray on and fits bang under neath sitting her at just the right height so never seen the need to get a booster seat, its not beacuse she messes or bad at the table, simply convenience, though just today we said about getting a booster seat as benj needs it now!

We too use the highchair without the tray pushed right up to the table - Ben seems to enjoy eating with us at the table....although he still makes hell of a mess and still insists on throwing anything he doesn't like/want on the floor grrrrr gets really annoying after a while!

We also still use a highchair - it's one of those wooden ones like they have in restaurants so Elliot sits up at the table with us! Em xXx

Olivia stopped using the highchair at about 18months and went to a booster at the table. she stopped using the booster at about 2yrs.

Archie stopped using his highchair this week. He's been really fickle with food for a few weeks and has been driving me mad!! We bought him a booster seat so he feels like he is sitting at the table with us and it really seems to have helped.. He still chucks stuff on the floor but at least some of it makes it into his mouth 9 times out of ten instead of being point-blank refused!! DaisyB xxx

Thanks for all your replies, and ahhhhh to Daisy B, Andrew more or less mirrors Archie in age so interesting that you have ditched the highchair this week too. Our main problem is the table in the kitchen is breakfast bar height so the highchair doesn't quite reach it and he has to have his tray on. By using a booster seat he can sit up with us at breakfast and lunch. However, we only have three bar stools so have been eating our main meals in the dining room these last couple of nights. It seems to have gone well so far. Not much of my roast dinner eaten today but he is really getting into the spirit of mealtimes more, even dabs his mouth with his paper napkin to copy us LOL. x