The Upseat company currently has two main products on the market: the ‘Upseat Baby Floor Seat With Tray’ and the ‘Upseat Boost Toddler Seat’. It just so happens that my kids are the perfect age to test out both of these products and that I’m on the hunt for the best dining room booster seats and floor seats.
I’ve been really impressed with the quality of the products from the Upseat company and even more impressed with the amount of research that’s been put into creating their products, compared to some of the other alternatives on the market.
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For a full review of the Upseat Boost for toddlers, click here!
The two main reasons you might be interested in a baby seat that keeps your infant in an upright position are for a good portable high chair option, or to help a wobbly sitter maintain a seated position for some playtime. Good ergonomic baby chairs can be useful to help your baby’s posture and in developing core muscles. Putting your baby in this infant seat might also give you a few minutes to unload the dishwasher without them trying to crawl inside it (haha).
Let’s take a look at all the features of the Upseat Floor Seat to see if it might be the right fit for your family!
- Table of Contents
Upseat Baby Floor Seat With Tray
The Upseat Baby Floor Seat is for babies 4 months – 2 years old. It functions as a floor seat or as an infant booster seat to strap to a regular adult chair, so you could use it as a feeding seat next to you at a kitchen table.
It comes with a nice wide tray for feeding or seated playtime and additionally, it comes with harness straps to buckle your baby in as well as the straps required to attach it to an adult chair to use as a booster.
Upseat Pros and Cons
- Pros
- Encourages upright seated posture (less slouching)
- Free movement of hips and legs for baby
- Large tray for feeding and playing
- Easy to wipe clean
- Large leg openings
- Made from soft material
- Made in Canada
- Cons
- Only fits certain sizes of chairs safely
- Less sturdy than a traditional highchair
- No built in tray storage
Pros
Some of the most impressive features of the Upseat are the design features that have been developed with the help of leading physical therapists. The Upseat has an ergonomic design that “encourages anterior pelvic tilt; a slight forward rotation of the pelvis that engages the muscles responsible for proper, upright posture.”
Having a nice upright posture can help babies with digestion issues like reflux and of course it also helps with proper physical development. In addition, the Upseat has nice wide leg openings that allow for a natural seat instead of pinching the baby’s hips and legs closed together. Free movement of the hips can keep your baby comfortable and happy, and lowers the risk of your baby developing hip dysplasia.
The Upseat is also impressively soft; the whole seat is made from polyurethane foam free from lead, phthalates or BPA. My baby seems really comfortable sitting and eating in the Upseat.
It has a completely removable tray. You can see in my photos that the tray base secures to the Upseat and the tray top clicks right in near the pommel of the seat.
I love how large and wide the tray that comes with the Upseat is. A lot of other comparable feeding seats have small trays that aren’t as useful. The Upseat tray is a nice big flat surface with ample space that you can attach suction toys to for a bit of play time or for meal time.
Cons
Something to watch out for if you’re planning on using the Upseat as an infant booster seat, is that it only fits certain sizes of chairs. If you have a really small dining room chair and the straps are too big, you won’t get a good, tight, safe attachment to it.
I also don’t recommend using an Upseat for everyday usage in place of a proper high chair, since highchairs have other safety features that make them more appropriate for long term usage. Most highchairs will have wheels on the back to help prevent tipping if your baby pushes off a table or wall backwards. It would be safer, long term, to use the Upseat on the floor.
Some infant booster seats that come with trays like this have built in storage to stow them away when they’re not in use. The Upseat tray is fully detachable, which is great for when you’re looking to use it just as an infant floor seat, but it does not have a built-in storage feature. I think it’s understandable that the tray doesn’t store away since it’s so nice and large, but it makes traveling with this seat slightly more cumbersome.
Longevity, How long can you use it for? What are the Upseat age restrictions?
The Upseat Baby Floor Seat With Tray is recommended for babies who are able to hold their head up on their own. Every child is different but this usually happens around 4 – 6 months of age. The seat is usable for babies ages 4 months to 2 years (or to a maximum weight of 30 pounds or 13.6 kilograms). That’s quite a wide age range; you’ll be able to use this product for a good amount of time, into the toddler years. You should take into account your own infant’s muscle tone and development. If you’re unsure if your baby is ready, you can ask a pediatrician or pediatric physical therapist.
Price
The Upseat is about $109 USD when it’s not on sale ($129 Canadian). Click here to check the current price on Amazon.
It’s slightly more expensive than some of its competitors on the market, but it more than makes up for it with the thoughtful design it has, that makes it so much safer for your growing baby’s development. The Upseat is also made with quality components in North America, which is a bit more expensive than if it was manufactured in China. Paying employees a fair wage and using quality materials might contribute to the higher price.
Is it easy to clean the Upseat?
The Upseat doesn’t have a lot of nooks and crannies for food to get stuck in. It’s mostly one smooth continuous surface that is easy to wipe clean with a damp cloth. Putting the tray through the dishwasher is not recommended. It’s also not recommended to fully submerge the Upseat in water.
My kids have eaten some pretty messy meals in the Upseat and I’ve never had a problem cleaning it. It’s also possible to detach the straps and rinse them off if they become super caked with food.
Upseat safety features
- Safety harness straps
- Straps to attach it to an adult chair
- Designed with physical therapists for infant safety
The Upseat has safety harness straps to help secure your child into the seat. It also has straps that attach it to an adult chair securely. I also think it’s an important safety feature that the Upseat was designed with a lot of consultation from physical therapists who strive to make it a safe seat for a tiny baby’s growing body.
Upseat Alternatives:
I have not been able to find a comparable infant floor seat that has such high recommendations from physical therapists. There are a few other floor seats and table boosters designed for infants on the market that I’ve also reviewed, like the Bumbo Multiseat. Some of them are very compact designs that might be good for short term use like occasional travel.
The Ingenuity 2 in 1 is quite inexpensive and can be used as a floor seat or booster. It’s harder to clean because the design has more nooks and crannies, and it’s not quite as good ergonomically as the Upseat. On the plus side, it has a very small profile and the tray stores inside the design, making it good for travel. You can read my review of the Ingenuity 2-in-1 Baby Base here.
The OXO Tot Nest booster seat is for the table only, it doesn’t have an additional feeding tray. It’s a bit less expensive than the Upseat, easy to clean, and also has a handle. You might like it for slightly older toddlers. You can read my whole review of the OXO Tot Nest booster here.
Standard highchairs usually have additional safety features to keep babies safe. A larger harness, that goes over top of their shoulders as well as the waist belt, keeps them more secure. Highchairs often also have a much wider base. A wide base makes them less likely to tip over than a booster on an adult chair. Some of them even have wheels on the back as an anti-tip mechanism. The highchair with wheels will slide backwards instead of tipping over if your baby pushes off against a table or wall.
Toddler boosters can be a desirable option for older children because they allow for more freedom of movement and have less structured support. You can keep reading into the next section to find out more about the Upseat Boost, which is a toddler booster seat.
Conclusion:
The Upseat baby chair is currently my top contender when it comes to deciding on the best infant floor seats. Encouraging proper upright posture and healthy hip development is so important for a baby’s developing body. The fact that this product was developed with the help of physical therapists makes it the best choice and if you’re looking at its main competitors for best baby floor seats, you won’t find anything else quite like it on the market.
The Upseat is an essential piece of baby gear for seated play and to use as an option for feeding time when a high chair isn’t around or you’re on the go.
For other articles on essential baby gear, check out more from Mama’s Buzz!
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