Mothercare Spring Bouncing Cradle

OK value for money, think it's the cheapest you can buy. We got it because we weren't sure whether DS would like being in a bouncer, as we knew someone whose baby wouldn't go in their bouncer chair at all. So we played it safe. It was fairly easy to put together, the instructions were a bit wrong but it wasn't too difficult to work out what to do.

As it happens DS likes it well enough, he has sometimes fallen asleep in it for a short nap, and it's handy for when I need to put him down while doing something in the kitchen. I can clip toys to the strap or clip a Tiny Love arch across from the sides for him to play with or use as a book / picture frieze rest!

DS tends to sick up a bit if he bounces too vigorously in it, even if it's a good while after his feed, so I tend to lean the back of the chair against something so it doesn't bounce too much.

A downside for me is that the material is quite cheap and coarse, so I always line it with a fleecy cover for where the head goes, and something soft folded over the feet rest part especially if DS has bare feet - I wouldn't want to be rubbing my bare skin on this material for more than 5 minutes so don't see why he should. Also the strap is just a cheap canvas type, like on a rucksack, so not sure this is so comfortable against bare arms. A more padded strap would be better. But then you get what you pay for!

Basic and simple, but what we wanted. DS would sleep in it after bouncing himself to sleep. Even used it for the first stages of weaning until we got a high chair. We never left DS alone in it, especially when he was big enough to sit up with no assistance, because he would have tipped it over with enthusiastic bouncing!

This was difficult to put together and, when assembled, the back of the chair is almost vertical making it unstable. The straps are very short and no longer fit my three month old. Worst of all, this poor design resulted in my daughter falling forward head first, luckily, onto carpet.