Sit me up, watch me slip down cosy! (ELC Blosson Farm Sit Me Up Cosy)

Member Name: mummyB

Product:	ELC Blosson Farm Sit Me Up Cosy
Date:	22/02/09 (102 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: soft and comfy for newborn, vibrant colours lovely toys & cow face, useful when baby can sit unaided

Disadvantages: bad instructions, second stage terrible (sitting support)

When our son was born I started to look at different nests we could lie him in for play time. You can imagine my delight when we were gifted The Blossom Farm Sit Me Up Cosy.

The Blossom Farm Sit Me Up Cosy is available from the Early Learning Centre and bought new costs £35. It is suitable for birth to 12 months. This cosy comes in 3 parts that can be joined together in different ways to suit different ages. There are 2 inflatable cushions which each have a lovely soft felt covering. One has a cow's head attached to the top. Each has Velcro at the ends as well as ties to allow them to be connected. The other part is a flower shaped play mat which attaches to these cushions giving the baby something soft and comfortable to sit or lie on. It has Velcro on each petal of the flower on which a toy can be attached (a cow, chicken, sheep and mirror are provided).

When I opened this product up to assemble I was initially very disappointed with the instructions. There were only a few very vague pictures to show you what to do, no specific instructions. I realise it's quite an easy thing to construct but as a new mum with a very precious few week old baby I wanted to make sure I wasn't putting my baby at risk by lying him in an inappropriate or dangerous way in the nest. There was no mention of at what age each stage of the nest was suitable from or how to place them in it. (Generally baby products give very specific instructions so I was surprised ELC had allowed this).

Once I got over my worries and was happy with the nest we tried it and boy did our son like it! It was very soft and comfortable, defiantly living up to it's cosy name! The colours are very vibrant and the little toys are very cute. My son and I spent many fun hours singing "Old McDonald", using the toys as props! He was quite happy to just lie in it often and sometime had a little doze!

Once he got a bit bigger and we wanted to use the cosy at its next stage we encountered another problem. The 2 supports were sat on top of each other to offer support for baby in a sitting position. They were meant to be connected by tying them together at this point. We found this very insecure and they would often move. We also found as the cushions were filled with air they were not heavy enough to stay stationary while baby was leaning on the cosy. Obviously not ideal, especially when your baby isn't able to support themselves yet.

At this point I gave up on the cosy, although I continued to use the play mat. I didn't really give it another thought after that, until my son started sitting up by himself. He was able to do this quite well, but used to get fed up and throw himself backwards so he could roll about which worried me as I was scared he would hurt his head. I used to have to put all our cushions round him to try and prevent this, and it was while I was doing this one day I remembered about his cosy again. I looked out the cushion with the cows head and sat it behind my son. It was perfect as it offered something cushioning and as he wasn't leaning on it it didn't move. He now loves his cow seat and often sits in it. He also loves to play fight with the cow's head now he can knee up. Although this isn't the way the cosy is technically meant to be used, it has worked wonderfully for us!
We did have quite a mixed experience with the ELC cosy. I feel it's quite expensive for what it is and probably wouldn't spend the money on it myself. It is, however, a lovely present to receive and has, surprisingly for us, turned out to be quite a hit with our son!

Summary: Quite a mixed review. Great for newborn and older baby but not so good for helping baby sit.