Brief Start/First Impressions
There is a moment when your newborn seems to outgrow the sleepy stage and suddenly demand to be held all the time – to be fair Tobias is still at this stage (bring on crawling and walking). I knew I needed to find the perfect chair or seat for him and went for a bouncy chair. I needed something that could buy enough time for me to be able to go to the toilet and maybe make myself a sandwich and a drink every so often. We went for (what I thought) was a farm themed neutral grey coloured bouncy chair from amazon. It cost me around £30 and I couldn’t have been happier with my choice, however it needs to be said that when it arrived it looked more like safari themed animals – silly me! It requires batteries for the noise and vibration machine to work. The parts that made me purchase this particular bouncer were the fact it promoted that babies should happily bounce away in the seat while one takes a shower. Also, it was the winner of the Best Gear of the Year Award, published in American Baby magazine in October 2014.

Features and Benefits
• Thirty minutes of continuous automatic bouncing, mimicking a natural motion
• Cradling seat with removable head support and integrated bolster for younger babies
• Gentle soft beat rhythms to help soothe baby, like a heartbeat
• Eight melodies and three nature sounds
• Removable toy bar with two toys
• Batteries last up to twice as long as traditional bouncers

What Gavin and I Think
As far as bouncers go, this one is beautifully designed and it was lovely to see Tobias eventually learn how to reach out and grab the toys, helping with his development. The seat is padded, with a headrest and safety harness, so you know it’s comfortable and secure for your little one. The vibrate function isn’t in my opinion a natural motion as promoted but did come in useful when Tobias wanted movement to go to sleep when he had colic. The seat is suspended on a springy frame that means you can bounce it manually. The unique soft beat rhythms are heartbeat vibrations that provide extra soothing for baby.

Pros
This affordable bouncy seat holds up to 15lbs. It has a calming effect with the songs, nature sounds and vibrations. I love that it has nice neutral colours that can be used for a boy or a girl. The toys are adorable and kept Tobias busy when he was younger. Hybridrive technology means the batteries will last up to twice as long as traditional bouncers. Finally, the best part is that the seat pad is machine-washable, we had a few sick ups in this chair and they came out easily.

Cons
The chairs toys aren’t very entertaining when your baby gets older and more active, also the toys aren’t removable from the bar. The chairs are only suitable from birth to around five months old and not all babies are ready to be out on the floor at this age. My last con which isn’t any fault of the chairs but because it only has the one use, I would have liked to use a swing as well.

Overall Feedback
The bouncy chair is designed with parenthood in mind. Regardless of what bouncer you choose, we went for cheap with no frills which we found was perfect to use as just somewhere to put your baby down. I think I’m going to go for a swing with our next child as I was advised this may help with colic and I never want to go through colic again!

Ingenuity Cradling Bouncer

Much love
Rebecca