Stokke brings a unique perspective to the often-short-lived highchair: Instead of a plastic product that you’ll use only for a year or two, the Tripp Trapp and the Steps have the ability to be configured for a newborn, a toddler and even an adult.
About the Stokke Steps:
The Stokke Steps is a 5-in-1 Seating System designed to accommodate your child’s needs every step of the way. This simple to use concept offers a wide range of ergonomic seating; from the comfortable bouncer with unique cradling motion, to the functional high-chair and later, the modern Scandinavian design chair that can be used throughout childhood.
Attach the Steps Bouncer to the chair to bring a newborn to the table or use the bouncer independently to rock baby on the floor. Once your baby is ready for a highchair, the Steps Baby Set includes an adjustable footrest and an adjustable backrest for support through toddlerhood. Remove the Baby Set and optional tray for a chair that your child can use for years to come.
About the Stokke Tripp Trapp:
The Stokke Tripp Trapp has been an iconic chair for generations, with more than 11 million chairs sold worldwide. The chair adapts to your child’s body and maintains an ergonomic seating position throughout the years.
You can start using the Stokke Tripp Trapp chair with an infant by attaching the Newborn Set. When you baby sits independently you can convert the Tripp Trapp to a highchair with optional tray. Because the Baby Set has no fixed tray your baby can sit at the table with the family, promoting social and communication skills and parent-child bonding.
You can adjust the chair’s seat height making sure your child’s back and thighs will always be supported. The foot plate adjusts to bring the floor up to their feet allowing your baby to adjust their position and to remain comfortable at all times. When your child no longer needs the harness in the Baby Set, the Tripp Trapp becomes a regular wooden chair that can even support a grown adult.
Newborn attachments:
With the Stokke Steps and Tripp Trapp, your baby can join you at the dinner table from her first days at home, long before she’s ready for her own mealtime. The Steps chair can connect with the Steps Bouncer, which can also be used independently on the floor.
The Tripp Trapp pairs with the Newborn Set which allows baby to lie flat while remaining within view at table height. Both Stokke highchair newborn sets can be used from approximately birth to 6 months.
Baby Set:
Both the Tripp Trapp and Steps are easy to use in highchair mode, in which your child is elevated to the table and secured with a harness and plastic restraint. Both Stokke highchairs can be used from approximately 6 months to 3 years with the baby set and harness.
Eventually, your child will be too big for a highchair, yet not quite big enough for a regular chair. Your toddler probably won’t be able to reach the table in your dining chairs, which also won’t provide foot support for proper ergonomics. The Tripp Trapp and Steps can be used for many years as a seat for the dining table, homework, or arts and crafts time. They’re even sturdy enough to support an adult and can be paired with a cushion to add comfort.
Kimberley’s Feedback:
The Stokke Tripp Trapp is perhaps the most famous highchair out there. Well, highchair. Chair I should rather say! Because you can use it from birth to adulthood. The Tripp Trapp like many products from Stokke, is aimed at ensuring that your child can be close to the family from birth. For example, the chair fits well at the dining table and you can use it alternately with the newborn set, baby set, harness and/or tabletop to suit the age and development of your child.
But the Tripp Trapp has great competition from its sibling the Stokke Steps. Although in design and style different you can clearly see that they go toe-to-toe when it comes to functionality.
What I am most impressed about is the ergonomic design of both chairs. Not only do they assist your child in adopting a good posture, with the newborn and baby sets your baby is supported in exploring new sensory stimulation as well as motor skills such as balance!
For me as a mother, the chair is also convenient because there are hardly any seams and cracks in it, making it easy to keep clean. An added advantage to the Tripp Trapp is that the Baby Set and Tray can go in the dishwasher. Winning!
The Stokke Steps chair itself weighs more than 10 kilos and takes up a floor space of 61x43cm and cannot be pushed under most tables. The Stokke Tripp Trapp chair weighs more than 15 kilos and takes up a floor space of 49x46cm and is therefore slightly more compact in size at the legs making it less of a tripping or bumping hazard.
The sturdy material of the Tripp Trapp (birch wood) and the Steps (combination of birch wood and high-quality plastic) ensure that the highchair remains firmly on its legs and cannot fall over. An added-on feature to increase the backward stability for the Tripp Trapp are the extended gliders that can be installed onto the legs of the chair. Stability of the Steps is guaranteed, because the legs of the chair are angled.
Both chairs offer a safety harness to ensure that your child does not climb out of the highchair in an unguarded moment. The Steps harness is slightly more solid with the actual crotch strap that the harness of the Tripp Trapp does not offer.
The seat and footrest of the Tripp Trapp are adjustable, both in height and in depth. If your child is big enough, you can also choose not to use the footrest anymore. The Steps has a footrest that is easily adjustable without any tool. Whereas the Tripp Trapp requires an Allen key to adjust the seat and footrest.
If I have to express a personal preference, it currently goes out to the Steps because the newborn bouncer seemed to be in a straighter/better position for Jack. The bouncer of the Steps, that you can mount on the chair, can be used both at the table on the chair and on the floor. It really has multiple functions. Jack also really enjoyed bouncing. In contrast the Tripp Trapp newborn set cannot be used separately, only in combination with the chair at table height, so you would have to purchase a separate bouncer. Now that Jack is 6 months old and can almost sit independently the backrest of the Steps feels like a better fit, more support and closer to his body.
But (!) if you ask me, I am going to say that I would probably choose the Tripp Trapp chair for when Jack is older as it has a longer lifespan.