12 Chairs to Put Your Baby in – and You Need Them All

Updated on 2/27/2015 at 4:01 PM

"You don't have to get one, but you'll be sorry." This was always the answer whenever I'd ask a mom if I'd really need that baby swing, or that infant carrier, or that booster seat. I hadn't even given birth yet, but that well-intentioned motherly fearmongering meant I'd already racked up a registry with seven different products all with the same purpose of providing me a place to put my baby (and that didn't even count the stroller or crib or, you know, my arms).

I winnowed down my own list, but not without first exploring all my baby's leisure-furniture options. Here, my unbiased, extensively researched assessment of the 12 chairs every baby absolutely must sit in . . . or you'll be sorry.

The Car Seat

Let's start with the seat you actually need. Please buy one of these.

The Bouncer

This is a seat that, based on mechanics that only someone with an engineering degree could properly explain, is a safe place to put an infant despite it shaking vigorously every time the baby kicks or barely moves.

The Papasan

All the benefits of a bouncer without that pesky bouncing! This chair, with the aid of hundreds of C batteries over the course of its use, vibrates instead.

The Swing

Do you ever wish your papasan could be suspended from the ground? Well, you're in luck. The infant swing, which takes up an entire living room, can rock your baby side to side and front to back, although they will never notice a difference.

The Bumbo

Other than being a seat for a baby, no one seems to be able to explain what other purpose it serves, so it thus only goes by its also mystifying albeit catchy brand name.

The Lounger

This is an expensive pillow.

The High Chair

A tall chair with a tray so that your baby can eat while sitting next to you at the dinner table.

The Booster

This serves the same purpose as a high chair except it is strapped onto one of your existing chairs, for those parents who wish to avoid having a high chair clash with their dining furniture while simultaneously destroying just one of their dining chairs slowly over time.

The Carrier

A seat you can wear. It also comes in the form of one long sheet that you wrap around yourself 47 times.

The Jumper

A seat you can attach to your door frame. Because that doesn't seem doomed to fail.

The Exersaucer

A handy play area that has the advantage of looking like an alien creature attempting to swallow your child whole.

The Potty

A seat that your baby pees on with the added benefit of it being a seat your baby is allowed to pee on.