Play mat and rocker help!

[december2020]

I wasn't sure what thread topic I should put this in, but hopefully this is the right one.

FTM and DS is 6 weeks today and getting a lot more active and alert so we thought it would be a good time to get him a baby bouncer thing and a play gym.

I've been looking online and reading reviews and oh my god the amount of stuff out there!! It's absolutely overwhelming!

Are there any play gyms or rockers your kids loved? Or you absolutely hated just with faff, impracticalities or poorer quality? We wouldn't need something that has every bell and whistle but would appreciate a toy bar, something a bit more scandi in design and something he could use a bit longer term than just 2-4 months.

Baby Bjorn bouncer + toy bar (get one second hand on eBay and you can probably sell it on for the same sort of amount when you're done with it). IKEA baby gym. When he was really little, mine liked the two in combination! But both have had a decent run of use. I still park him in the bouncer while I'm cooking, and he's almost 9m now.

With both my girls by the time they got to 6 months they were crawling and wouldn’t entertain being in the bouncer nor play with a baby gym. They just wanted to move. I got a baby bjorn bouncer but with DD2 I also got another bouncer for upstairs when I was getting ready - she much preferred the cheaper one.

I would just buy stuff from smoke free homes from Facebook selling pages or charity shops.

I’d say baby bjorn rocker and toy bar too. Had for second as she hated ones she couldn’t bounce herself in. Got 2nd have and sold on for only £5 less!

Play mat/gym we had skip hop woodland one which was lovely. When they were between 5-6! Months they loved the jumper op but the music still haunts my dreams 😆

I had a tinylove rocker/napper which we used as a Moses basket downstairs and can be converted to be a bouncer chair too. I used it longer with my oldest who was much happier in it than with my youngest, who worked out how to escape it quite young, but I liked that it was multifunctional, and not hideously garish.

Ah amazing thank you!!
Checking out the baby bjorn bouncer to see if I can find a good deal online or secondhand!
He's definitely perked up so much now I think he's getting bored staring at the ceiling 😬

It's crazy how quickly they develop 🥺

@Persipan

Baby Bjorn bouncer + toy bar (get one second hand on eBay and you can probably sell it on for the same sort of amount when you're done with it). IKEA baby gym. When he was really little, mine liked the two in combination! But both have had a decent run of use. I still park him in the bouncer while I'm cooking, and he's almost 9m now.

This!

The baby born bouncer and bar we used a lot from newborn, it was great. Considered a arch thing around 4 months but couldn’t get delivered and shops shut so waited.

But ds is now nearly 8 months and has been crawling around since 5 months, rolling since 4. Since the rolling started he hasn’t stopped moving. So a toy arch would have been pointless buying a few weeks before. He also climbs out the bouncer from crawling so that’s not used

Basically, both items are probably worth getting now for using, but I wouldn’t plan on them lasting beyond a few months use, so don’t spend more than your prepared for that timeframe

Just see what's near you second hand. There's not much point buying these things new as they are so expensive and go for hardly anything second hand.

Baby Bjorn is defo the best bouncer they make these days, which is a shame! I used to like the 80s style ones that looked like a pillowcase stretched over a coathanger - they were cheap as chips, whereas BB costs ££££. But the cheaper/generic ones these days are all scooped and shaped which makes them too upright for little babies and there isn't enough of an angle for them to bounce themselves.

Check out The Octopus Club... they always have second hand baby bjorn bouncers.
I agree with others that they are the best & hold their value well when you’re ready to sell

Thank you all for your invaluable posts! I've found a baby bjorn bouncer and can't wait for DS to try it out!

Definitely try the IKEA play gym - cheap, and it's wooden so looks more expensive than it is. Dd used it from about 8 weeks and still goes under it now at nearly 5 months. We just lie her on a spare changing mat underneath.

We also have the BB bouncer and toy bar - it's totally fine but she's never really worked out how to bounce herself and tbh I'm sure something cheaper would be just as good (thankfully we got it 2nd hand).

I think mine took from the bouncer the belief that any surface can be bounced if one only works hard enough at it...