Are the features worth the money? (Safety 1st Gentle Vibration Bouncer)

Member Name: Jacey

Product:	Safety 1st Gentle Vibration Bouncer
Date:	08/06/01 (227 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to clean, lightweight

Disadvantages: Extra features not used, Are the extra features safe?

We've had this chair since our baby was born. Although it is said to be suitable from birth, the chair is quite upright and there is no headhugger; therefore her head tended to flop to one side, so we didn't start using it until she was about 2 months old.

The vibrations of the chair made our baby sick, even on the lowest setting! This isn't the only thing which makes her sick, but needless to say we stopped using the vibrating option!

The light and sound bar caused some concern to us. The lights are very bright and flicker very quickly, accompanied by loud sounds (apparantly supposed to be music!) They are activated by moving the middle toy on the bar, and continue for what seems like ages! The bar is very close to the baby's face, and we're not entirely sure that this can be good for the baby. Everyone we have shown this to has agreed with us. Even the health visitor seemed amazed, although she said that it must have met some safety regulations!

Our baby did enjoy playing with the toys, with the lights and sounds switched off, for a short while. However, she quickly became strong enough to push the bar over, onto her legs, resulting in someone having to continually hold onto it. So we stopped using the toy bar altogether.

We have found getting our baby into the chair quite difficult, as the harness only opens on one side, therefore you need to slide the baby into the side which does not open. An identical clip on the other side of the harness would be all that was needed to correct this.

Having said all this, we have found the chair very useful. The blue teddy bear material is nice to look at and wipes clean easily. Even the straps, which are white, have had sick (and worse!) removed quite easily. The chair is very lightweight, and can therefore be carried from room to room at the same time as baby. Now that our baby is a bit older and can hold her head better, she is very happy in this chair and see
ms more comfortable than in her car seat.

We would advise anyone looking to purchase this chair to think carefully about whether the features (the vibrations, lights and sounds) are worth the extra money when compared with other bouncy chairs on the market, as we do not use any of them.

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