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IKEA Antilop vs. Stokke Tripp Trapp – is the Tripp Trapp worth it?

IKEA Antilop
Stokke Tripp Trapp

We used the $25 IKEA Antilop high chair with our first child for 3 years straight, and decided to upgrade to the $350 Stokke Tripp Trapp when our second and third came along. Here is our experience and whether it was worth the upgrade and the switch (along with an option that functions very similarly to the Tripp Trapp but sells at a fraction of the price).

First up, the IKEA Antilop

We initially bought this high chair at the recommendation of our pediatrician, whose philosophy was: the less crevices to clean, the easier solids + future feeding will be for the parents. We placed the IKEA order, and used the IKEA Antilop from when our child was 6 months old – 3 years old. Here’s the takeaway on the Antilop:

The Good

  • Easy to clean
  • Large tray
    • The tray is larger than the Stokke Tripp Trapp tray, which means you could easily fit a suctioned silicone mat, multiple plates, a sippy, and still have room on the sides
  • Cheap
    • It’s $25

The Bad

  • Huge seat
    • The seat is meant to accommodate kids up to late toddler, which means it’s huge. If your child is just starting solids and doesn’t have full sitting upright control, they will be banging into the sides and the front of this seat. The seat is 100% plastic and has no cushion, so this may be a bumpy and painful ride. The straps only wrap up to the belly button, no straps over the shoulders, so expect your kid to face plant into the tray. This was obviously unacceptable to us so we had to get an inflatable cushion to fit in the seat, like this $13 one, to keep our kid from falling over on either side
  • Tray doesn’t clip on or off easily and breaks
    • This is a known issue (see the customer reviews on the Antilop). After one of the two clips holding the tray in breaking after our first removal attempt, we decided not to test our luck with the second clip and just keep the tray permanently clipped in to the high chair. If you like washing your tray in the sink or removing it after every use, this will be an issue for you
  • No foot support
    • Pediatricians and pediatric dietitians all agree that having your child’s feet flat on a tray, step or other surface is key for proper eating, alignment and digestion. The Antilop does not come with anything to hold your child’s feet, so they are left dangling in the air. We ended up purchasing this $25 foot rest accessory from Amazon, which added to our overall costs, and wasn’t stable (our toddler would kick it off every single meal with a single kick). We ended up removing it completely because it got so annoying to put back on
  • You can’t adjust it for your child
    • No option to change the seat level forward, up, or down as your child grows
  • It takes up space
    • The 4 legs holding up the high chair jut out quite a bit, so this high chair ends up taking a lot of space on the floor

Overall

  • Yes the IKEA Antilop is cheap, but the accessories you will likely need to buy with it (cushion for seat, foot rest), will end up costing you
  • The tray not being removable without beaking is not ideal
  • If you’re trying to minimize the amount of space your high chair takes up, the IKEA Antilop won’t do you any favors

Stokke Tripp Trapp

When our second and third kids came in, I just wasn’t jazzed enough about the IKEA Antilop to purchase two more of them. So back I went to the drawing board, and found the perpetually #1 recommended Stokke Tripp Trapp.

The Tripp Trapp has an interesting story. It’s a Nordic design, and was designed for your kids to eat with you at the table. It’s also supposed to last for decades, as a regular chair (you just keep adjusting the seat down). The design of the Tripp Trapp has not changed meaningfully in the past 50 years, and some Tripp Trapps have been passed down and are still perfectly functional and in use decades after the initial purchase. Longevity? Check. However, as beautiful as this solid wood, promise-to-last-forever high chair is, it’s also $350. Is it really worth the purchase, and how does it stack up to the Antilop?

The Good

  • It’s beautiful
    • The all-wood frame just looks nicer, and is a welcome change from everything plastic
  • It is known for it’s longevity
    • I love the idea that I can keep this chair for my grandkids, or re-sell with confidence to another family when my kids are done using it
  • The chair isn’t huge
    • My 6 month olds who still couldn’t sit up unassisted had no falling over when strapped into the Stokke Tripp Trapp, unlike the IKEA, because the Tripp Trapp has belly and shoulder straps, vs. the Antilop just has straps that go below the belly
  • It doesn’t take a lot of space
    • Rather than having the 4 legs just out like in the Antilop, the Tripp Trapp is made of two solid pine planks that are as wide as the chair itself. We were able to fit 4 normal chairs and two Tripp Trapp chairs comfortably around our small, round dining room table. This would have been impossible with multiple Antilops due to their sheer width. So if space is an issue for you or you live in an apartment, the Tripp Trapp is your friend
  • The straps keep your child more secure
    • The Antilop’s straps buckle at the navel only, with no straps on the shoulders, which means a less secure baby. The Tripp Trapp has straps that cover the shoulders and midsection, so it’s very difficult for your baby to climb out of the seat, even if they tried
  • Once your child doesn’t need a tray, you can pull them straight up to your table
    • When your kid outgrows the tray, they can still use the Tripp Trapp seat with the harness as their seat, and pull them straight up to your table. This truly makes kids feel like they’re a part of the meal, and this design is intentional (Stokke only begrudgingly added trays, the intention was for the child to sit next to you at the table from the very beginning). This can’t be done with the Antilop, as the seat on the Antilop isn’t adjustable up and down
  • You can adjust it in countless ways for the perfect position for your body
    • If you have a longer baby, skinnier baby, shorter baby, the up/down and forward/back adjustability of both the seat base and the foot rest means that the Tripp Trapp can be fully customized to fit your baby. The Antilop isn’t adjustable….anywhere….
  • The Tripp Trapp is meant to function as an adult seat after your babies outgrow it as a high chair
    • I love that the Tripp Trapp can be used as an actual adult seat at either our dining table, or as a desk chair in the rooms, or anywhere else in the house, after it has outgrown it’s high chair phase. See example below.

The Bad

  • The tray is smaller
  • You have crevices
    • The edges on the seat on the Tripp Trapp are square and not round, so it’s not as easy to clean as on the Antilop. However, it’s not difficult to clean, per se. Just takes a few more wipes than the Antilop
    • However, the train is removable, so I’d argue it’s easier to fully clean than the Antilop, where the tray has to stay on
  • Adjusting takes more effort
    • To adjust the seat or the foot piece, you have to use an allen wrench to lightly loosen 4 screws on the sides of the Tripp Trapp, remove the necessary wood pieces (like seat and foot tray) and slot them into the next slot. Then tighten the screws. I have seen people complain about this, but I personally don’t find this to be too difficult if you have ever used an allen wrench. It took me about 2 minutes to adjust the seat and footrest to the proper position for my 6 month old
  • Cost
    • It’s $349, and that’s without the tray (an additional $79), although you can use discount codes to get the tray and cushion for free.

Overall

  • We love the Stokke Tripp Trapp more than the IKEA Antilop and it was 100% worth the upgrade for us
  • If you care about ergonomic design, having your child sit securely upright with feet supported, please pass on the IKEA Antilop unless you’re willing to buy small accessories to move it up to par with high chairs that offer these basic features
  • Because the Stokke Tripp Trapp is meant to last for decades, and can be used as an infant high chair -> toddler high chair -> regular chair, and has a high resale value, if you can swing the cost, go for it. You can always resell it after you’re done using it to get some of the cost back.
  • If cost is still untenable, this knockoff version has similar features to the Tripp Trapp and is still better than the IKEA Antilop

Best of feeding adventures to you!