Feeding Chairs, Nursery Rocking Chairs & Gliders
A nursing chair is the piece of furniture you will spend the most hours in over the first year, usually in the dark, usually holding a baby who has just fallen asleep. Every glider in this range is built for that: a smooth glide rather than a rock, a lockable recline, lumbar support where your back needs it, and a matching gliding ottoman included rather than sold separately. Manual recline, not electric, so there is nothing to plug in beside the cot.
Why a glider rather than a rocking chair
A rocker moves in an arc, which means it moves you as well as the baby, and it walks across the floor over time. A glider moves along a level track. The motion is smoother, quieter and easier to start with a sleeping baby on you, and the chair stays where you put it.
Every nursing chair here is a glider. Each one also reclines, so the same chair works for feeding upright at 2am and for dozing afterwards. The recline is manual and lockable, and the hands free lift brings the recliner back to full sitting position without you having to put the baby down to work a lever.
How the recline works
The recline on every glider here is manual and lockable. You push back against the backrest and the recliner holds the angle you stopped at. Come forward and the hands free lift returns the recliner to upright without needing a spare hand, which is the whole point, because you are usually holding a baby.
There are three positions people actually use. Upright for feeding. A shallow recline for winding and settling. A deep recline for the twenty minutes afterwards, when the baby is asleep on you and you are not ready to move. A recliner that locks cleanly at each of those beats a recliner with a dozen settings you never touch.
The glide keeps working while the recliner is reclined, which sounds obvious and is not true of every glider recliner on the market. If the glide stops when you lean back, the recliner has stopped being useful at the exact moment you need it.
What makes a good nursing chair
- Lumbar support. The lower back is what gives out first when you are feeding every two to four hours. Every glider in this range has extra lumbar support built into the backrest.
- A high enough backrest. Your shoulders and neck need somewhere to go. The Manhattan has a higher backrest for exactly this reason.
- Wide padded arms. Your elbows carry the baby’s weight for the whole feed. Thin arms on a nursing chair are the most common regret.
- A recline you can work one handed. If a recliner needs two hands, you will not use it.
- An ottoman. Feet up changes the angle of your whole body. Every glider chair here includes a matching gliding ottoman.
- Fabric you can clean. This chair will meet milk, and it will meet worse.
The gliders and recliners in this range
Vogue Feeding Glider Chair and Ottoman
The most specified recliner glider we make. Extra lumbar support, twin cushion top through the shoulders and neck, a large padded backrest and neck rest, pillowtop seat and ottoman, and extra wide padded arms. Smooth glide with a lockable recline, hands free lift, and a 360 degree swivel so you can turn to the cot without standing. Chair 104cm H by 84cm W by 80cm D, ottoman 39 by 47 by 48cm, 95kg total limit including baby and accessories. Leatherette in White or Ice Grey, or DuPont Teflon fabric in Charcoal Grey, Steel Grey and Sandstone, plus the boucle options. Base covers stop the frame marking your floor.
Manhattan Feeding Glider Chair and Ottoman
The tallest of the three. A higher backrest for your shoulders and neck, extra lumbar support, a large padded seat and wide padded arms. Smooth gliding motion rather than rocking, effortless lockable recline, hands free lift, 360 degree swivel. Chair 109cm H by 82cm W by 80cm D, ottoman 39 by 47 by 48cm, 95kg total limit. DuPont Teflon fabric in Charcoal, Steel Grey and Sandstone. Choose this glider recliner if you are tall, because the extra 5cm of backrest is the difference between your head resting and your head hanging.
Diva Feeding Glider Chair and Ottoman
The compact glider chair of the three, in Charcoal or Ice Grey, with the same gliding motion, recline and matching ottoman. This is the recliner glider chair to look at if the nursery is small or if the chair has to share a corner with a cot and a chest.
Care Cover fabric care kit
Sold separately, and worth adding to the order. A nursing chair lives a hard life.
Fabric, colours and cleaning
Two fabric families. Leatherette wipes clean in one pass, which is why it is the choice for anyone expecting reflux. DuPont Teflon fabric is a woven finish that resists stains and scratches while feeling like upholstery rather than plastic, and boucle adds a plush texture that suits a lighter room.
Colours run through White, Ice Grey, Steel Grey, Charcoal, Sandstone and the boucle creams and greys. Light colours make a small nursery feel bigger. Darker ones hide more. Neither is wrong, and the fabric care kit handles both.
Which recliner suits you
Height decides it more than anything else. If you are over about 175cm, the Manhattan is the recliner to buy, because a backrest that stops below your shoulders will have you propped forward by the end of a feed. If you are shorter, the Vogue recliner is the more cushioned seat and the one most people find themselves falling asleep in. If the room is the constraint rather than your height, the Diva is the smallest recliner of the three and still glides and reclines the same way.
Sit in one if you can. Failing that, measure the corner, then measure yourself against the backrest heights above, because a nursery chair that does not fit you is an expensive place to be uncomfortable for a year.
Nursing chair or breast feeding chair or nursery chair?
They are the same thing under different names. A breast feeding chair, a nursing chair, a nursery chair and a feeding glider all describe a supportive chair placed next to a cot. Some shops call the same product a recliner glider, or a glider recliner, or a nursery chair with a recline. What matters is not the label but whether it has the lumbar support, the recline and the arms.
If you are bottle feeding, everything above still applies. The chair does not know what is in the bottle. What it needs to do is hold you in a position you can stay in for forty minutes without your back complaining.
Price, and what a nursing chair is worth
The price of a nursing chair sits higher than a normal armchair because of what is inside it: a glide mechanism, a lockable recline, a swivel and a frame rated to 95kg. A regular armchair has none of that, and it will not hold up to the hours a feeding chair does.
Work the price out per use. At six to eight feeds a day for a year, a glider gets used more than two thousand times. Very little else in the nursery comes close. Most families then keep the chair well past the feeding stage, because a recliner that swivels and glides is a good chair to read in.
Prices and any sale pricing sit on the tiles above, and a recliner on sale rarely stays on sale for long. Stock and order times are on each product page, and if a colour is out of stock, the same chair usually comes back on order within a few weeks. If you want to save on the pair, the chair and ottoman are always sold together rather than priced separately.
Setting up the feeding corner
Put the glider where you can reach a light without standing up, and where a small table will fit within arm’s reach. A dim lamp beats the overhead light at 3am. Keep water, a muslin and a phone charger on the table, and give the ottoman enough clearance to glide.
Leave room behind the recliner too. A recliner jammed against a wall only half works, and the glider needs a few centimetres of travel on every side to move properly.
If the nursery is tight, the Diva takes the least room. If you have space, the Manhattan or the Vogue will be more comfortable, and the ottoman can be pushed aside during the day.
Shop the range
Every nursing chair here is a glider with a manual lockable recline and a matching ottoman included. The Vogue is the most cushioned glider, the Manhattan is the tallest recliner, and the Diva is the most compact glider of the three. Shop the range above, or get in touch if you want to talk through which recliner suits your height and your room.
- Sorry, coupon "bdb6" is not applicable to selected products.
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Sale!
Vogue Feeding Glider Chair & Ottoman Boucle Grey
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Vogue Feeding Glider Chair & Ottoman Boucle Cream
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Sale!
Vogue Feeding Glider Chair & Ottoman Charcoal Fabric
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Vogue Feeding Glider Chair & Ottoman Steel Grey Fabric
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Vogue Feeding Glider Chair & Ottoman Sandstone Fabric
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Vogue Feeding Glider Chair & Ottoman Ice Grey
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Sale!
Manhattan Feeding Glider Chair & Ottoman – Charcoal
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Sale!
Manhattan Feeding Glider Chair & Ottoman – Steel Grey
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Sale!
Diva Feeding Glider Chair & Ottoman – Charcoal
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Out of stockSale!Diva Feeding Glider Chair & Ottoman – Ice Grey
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Care Cover Fabric Care Kit