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The Graco Swift Fold is a contemporary and durable highchair from the mid-market American brand. Its standout feature is that it can be folded with one hand, in one motion.
Designed to be slim and compact when folded, there are also nine height adjustments for use anywhere in the home and the highchair is suitable for babies aged from 6 months to a maximum weight of 15kg.
Pricewise, the Swift Fold is comparable to the Chicco Polly Magic Relax highchair (£139) or the Joie Multiply 6in1 highchair (£130).
Tested by:
Jo lives in London and tested the Graco Swift Fold highchair with her 6-month-old baby Mae. It was used for all meals, including breakfast, lunch and dinner, over a two-week period.
What were your first impressions of the Graco Swift Fold highchair?
At first glance, the Graco Swift Fold highchair seemed bulky and cumbersome. We live in two-bed flat and space is at a premium so the fact it could be folded away was appealing, however it took a while to understand the folding mechanism.
The overall design seemed fine, if a little clunky. However, in this day and age the amount of plastic on the item was a bit surprising.
How easy is the Graco Swift Fold highchair to build?
This highchair is straightforward to build because most of it is already assembled. It is, however, not the most intuitive product to set up. The instructions are designed for an international audience and relied heavily on diagrams, some of which we found difficult to understand. In the end we had to find a YouTube video to help us set it up.
Graco advertise the Swift Fold as ‘one hand to hold and one hand to fold’, but it takes a bit of getting used to. Initially we were baffled by how to pull out the legs and pull up the tray-table to set it up (it needs to be done in a certain order).
How easy is it to put in your baby?
It was straightforward to put our baby in the Graco Swift Fold chair. The straps can be secured in a 5-point or 3-point harness. However, the harness is fiddly to use and the harness covers, which are there for baby’s comfort, can slip off when you’re putting the baby in the seat. The straps are also not easy to clean and made of basic, wipeable plastic.
How comfortable does your baby look when inside?
Our baby seems comfortable in the Swift Fold seat and it is well configured for a baby of her age (6 months). It allowed for her to sit forward or recline a little. After the meal was finished our baby was happy to stay sat in the highchair and play.
MFM tester Abbey was also really impressed with the level of comfort. “It’s really comfortable and I love that it reclines and has the extra cushion, too,” she says.
How adjustable is the highchair?
The highchair can be adjusted to nine different heights but you have to readjust it every time you set it up. MFM tester Abbey loved this feature, though. “You can adjust the height so they can be level at the table with you or lower if they are just sat in it for comfort,” she says. The chair also has a reclining feature which was not useful for us because we only used it for active feeding.
How easy is it to keep clean?
The Swift Fold isn’t the easiest highchair to keep clean. There are lots of crevices that food can get stuck in. The harness straps are made of woven plastic material and are difficult to clean, although they are machine washable, and the insert cushion – which we found unnecessary for our needs anyway - could be a more practical colour.
“The cream cushion isn’t ideal as weaning is very messy and it gets stained easily,” adds MFM tester Abbey.
However, the large tray is rounded with no tricky corners and therefore easy to clean, and the tray insert is straightforward to wash, too.
Does the highchair fold?
Yes, the Swift Fold highchair is marketed as being able to fold with one hand in one quick motion – hence the name. There are 3 steps to folding the highchair and these must be done in the right order, which led to a bit of confusion when we first started using the chair.
How much space does the highchair take up when unfolded?
The highchair is on the large and bulky side compared with other models but it still fits next to our dinner table and its size is not a problem at mealtimes. It measures H102 x W55 x L80cm when set up, which is too big to be left out in our flat so it needs to be put away after every use.
How easy is it to store?
We store the Swift Fold in a corner of our apartment and, despite its size, it stores well and stands up on its own. MFM tester Abbey loves its compactness when folded. “It folds away really small so is easy to tuck away and doesn’t take up much room,” she says.
Can you move it easily around the house?
The Graco Swift Fold has wheels but our dining area is carpeted so the wheels do not run particularly smoothly. It is easy to carry short distances but it is not easy to carry from room to room because it is so bulky and heavy.
How do you rate its tray?
The tray on the Swift Fold highchair is very large. Our baby is just starting on solids and is mostly being spoon fed so I found the size to be a problem because it is hard to sit close enough for feeding.
However, it will probably be good when our baby is feeding herself and MFM tester Abbey loved the large size. “The large, adjustable tray can be moved closer to your baby and the size of the tray limits the amount of food that would normally end up on the floor,” she says.
What is the age suitability for the highchair?
The product is intended for children of 6 months to 3 years (or 15kg). Our 6-month-old recently started sitting up and is very comfortable in the chair. It has a sturdy footrest. However, the large tray size makes spoon-feeding awkward and the difficulty in cleaning it means I would not recommend it for babies under one year old.
How does it compare with other highchairs you’ve used?
We have used more compact highchairs which work better in small apartment dining areas and can be left out between meals more easily. Other highchairs with smaller trays allow you to sit closer to your baby and allow the baby to be closer to the table, too.
Overall, I don’t think it’s good value for money as there are better products out there for the same price.
What’s in the box?
Swift Fold highchair
Tray
Harness covers
Tray insert
Newborn cushion insert
Instruction manual
Now you’ve tested it, what would you have wanted to know before purchasing the Graco Swift Fold?
The size! It is bigger than we expected. It is perhaps better suited to a slightly older child because of its large and bulky size.
Our baby has been comfortable using the Graco Swift Fold highchair but I wouldn’t recommend it due to how difficult it is to keep clean, the large size of the tray and the fiddly mechanisms. It's quite complicated for a highchair and is not very intuitive to use.
