 |
Bright Starts Fun on Safari Portable Swing
by kat1234
Before I had my son and I was buying baby equipment, I decided against a swing. They were pricey and I thought we'd see how we got on with the bouncy chair before we forked out for something like this that we would possibly not need. However, after we had had him a couple of weeks, I really thought that we should try one as we were ... having trouble settling him for naps and I thought that a swing may relax him (and me) and help him to get the sleep he needed.
After looking around online at various reviews, picture and prices I opted for this Safari swing from Bright Starts. This was for a number of reasons. It was priced somewhere in the middle of the range for swing (it was on offer at the time for £45 - it now prices at around £59.99). I had also purchased things from Bright Starts previously and been impressed with the design and quality of them. Finally, I felt the design of this was very attractive. It was largely an aqua blue colour - ideal as I had a boy - with brightly coloured animals on and a toy bar featuring a rattle and a lion. The swing is suitable for babies up to 11kgs.
The swing is easy to make up, with white metal legs that support the swing. The seat has a wire frame with a cushioned, washable seat cover. There are buttons on the side to push to start the swing up and control the volume of the melodies it plays and a timer so that you can select how long the swing goes for. There are 6 speed settings for the swing. There is also a strap for keeping baby in place - a cushioned one for between the legs as well as shoulder straps that all click together. It requires 4 x C batteries to operate (which are not included). The dimensions are H63cm x W23cm x D23cm. It also folds flat for storage.
My son fitted nicely in the swing. By the time we had bought this he was a decent sized baby though - I am not sure if a newborn would fit in quite so comfortably as the seat is quite deep and rounded and there is no head support provided either. He instantly took to the swing though and loved the motion of it - the higher speeds seemed pretty fast though so we stuck to the lower settings. These were soothing to him and some of the melodies were too, although I found these to be a little too loud and stimulating when trying to relax him or get him to sleep so I often used the swing without these. My son really wasn't too fussed with the toy bar either - there isn't much to it - and I would usually remove it as it was really just in his way.
As to whether it did the trick with regards to the napping - this was hit and miss. Sometimes it would rock him gently to sleep but other times we would have less success. However, he would always spend the time in the swing happy and enjoy the motion of the to-ing and fro-ing. It also meant that I could have 20 minutes or so without having to hold him, knowing he was safe and happy - it was invaluable in this way.
Overall, a very good swing that was easy to pack up and take with us if we were visiting others too. It also has a higher weight limit than a lot of baby swings so I probably got a bit more use from it. I would definitely recommend this and I will be using it again should we have any further additions to the family.
Read the complete review |
|
|
Fisher Price Newborn to Toddler Rocker
by scooch12
We'd looked at this rocker lots of times in Mothercare and in Babies R Us and it was always the front runner after reading lots of great reviews. I just wanted to make sure we made the right decision so we left it until right until the last minute to buy it. It was on sale for £54.95 in Mothercare, that was a special offer price down ... from £64.95 so we eventually got it the week that my daughter was born. That was around 9 months ago and the price seemed fairly reasonable to us, because it looked well made and durable, more so than other ones available. It also was the nicest looking model we found. Having been to Mothercare and Babies R Us recently, this chair is no longer on display but there is a similar looking chair available at a similar cost by Fisher Price.
BASICS
The rocker comes in a pre-packaged box and in two parts, the seat area being slotted onto the main rocking frame when putting together. The whole thing is made of sturdy plastic with a seat made of material - the seat being fairly smooth so easy to wipe clean with a cloth. The material feels almost like a soft suede, although the tag says it's '100% polyester fibre batting'. We've found that ours has kept clean by wiping it with a cloth only although there are instructions underneath the seat for the washing machine if desired. The seat is reinforced with a metal hoop at the top that isn't visible normally to keep the shape of the seat in tact. This hoop can be taken off by clips at the side of the seat if the cover needs to be removed. Also under the material, the main seat inside is reinforced of what feels like very thick and flexible board. There is also a strap that clips together to keep the head of the rocker in place. The seat has clips all around it, all of which can be unclipped to remove the seat cover if desired.
The pattern on the rocker is part of a jungle theme - there is a big picture of a cute looking lion on the back of the seat and a plastic bar with a hippo and a monkey on for baby to play with. The rocker is finished in a bright light blue and green colour, which may sound a bit boyish but we thought it was definitely suitable for a girl too. We have everything pink and to be honest, it makes a nice change! It also features a vibration setting and when this is set to on, the seat moves very slightly. I assume this setting is designed to sooth baby when needed. We found that this didn't really sooth our daughter though, to be honest, she didn't seem to notice it was there! Once the 1 big battery (size D) it takes for this feature had run out we just didn't bother to replace it. We also found that we'd pick her up out of the chair and forget to switch the vibration setting off - then ten minutes later wonder what the little vibration noise was - by this time the chair had rumbled it's way halfway across the room!
The seat is, as it's name suggests is suitable from newborn and should last until their toddler stage - the back of the seat states that in it's recline position the babies weight should be no more than 9kg, in it's upright position, the babies weight should be no more than 18kg. With this in mind, the price seemed reasonable for the weight that it covered.
POSITIONS
The main seat has a thick piece of fabric (also made of material that can be wiped clean) and two thinner straps that come from the back of the chair. When the straps are clipped into the thicker piece of fabric, baby is fastened in place, around their bottom half and legs. These are easily adjusted to be bigger/smaller by the clips on the straps to adapt to a growing baby. The main frame has settings that can be used at different stages. It can be set where the seat has a recline position, in a rocking position too and when baby gets bigger, the seat can be easily be moved upwards to make it into an upright position by pressing two big round buttons at the back, halfway up the frame. It can be placed back into the recline setting at any time. The rocking position can be changed to a static position by folding out four pieces of plastic on the frame that keep it from moving. All adjustments have to be made before baby is placed into the seat.
STORAGE
The seat can easily be folded by unclipping the little yellow tabs at the bottom of the chair at the back. This places the chair into a flat(ish) position, but to be honest, we don't fold it as it still takes up nearly as much space as it does fully opened. We use our chair so much, we just leave it up in the living room - plus, it's her chair so why shouldn't it be in the living room with our sofa?! It measures around 60cm by 43cm, with varying heights up to around 50cm, depending on its position so it doesn't take up lots of room. The folding position is very handy if we ever transport it to other places, eg if she goes to stay at my parents house for a few hours.
TOYS
The seat has a plastic bar that is attached to the side of the frame. The bar can then be pushed to be in the eyeline of baby, with two toys hanging down - one of a hippo, one of a monkey. There are plastic rings underneath each of these toys and when our daughter got a bit bigger (around 5 months) she started to pull on these rings and move the bar back and forth herself. She adores these toys, so much so that she makes a beeline for them when she shuffles across the room in her activity centre - before we know it she's chewing away on them. They are brightly coloured, as with the whole chair, to catch her attention.
DRAWBACKS
Although we have used the chair for countless hours and it has proved to be a fantastic buy, there are a few drawbacks that we've noticed. The straps do not hold her in very well in my opinion, quite a major flaw really. They have become a bit 'too' flexible. It does states on the chair that they need to be supervised at all times in the chair, to be fair, but it should really be able to hold them in place properly on top of parental supervision. When she was a newborn, we didn't have any issues with the fastening, although the chair was brand new then. As time has passed, we've found that the material that holds her in place on the chair has become so flexible that it's become a little unfit for purpose. Even yesterday I passed her a cuddly toy to play with whilst she was sat in her rocker in the upright position and he fell from her grasp to the floor. As soon he did, she obviously wanted him back. I was with her so knew she wouldn't come to any harm, but I watched to see how she would react. She stretched to try and pick him back up and she managed, after around 10 seconds, to wriggle completely free of the fastenings, onto her belly. I feel that this is due to the material being so overused from birth that it has become far too flexible and it doesn't seem to be designed to hold a bigger baby in place once they start being inquisitive and want to move around themselves. It's also due in part to the straps only fastening around the lower part of their body.
The size of the chair is also not something I expect to last until well into her toddler stage. She is now 9 months and the she takes up most of the seat. The picture on the box shows a toddler in the seat though so we shall see!
CONCLUSION
We have another rocker, a cheaper one, in another room, so that if I'm in there and need free hands, I can place her in it for five minutes. That particular one cost £24.95 but you can clearly see the difference between the two - the fisher price one here being of much better quality and a lot more durable. It is also so much easier to keep clean - something vital with a baby! I give this rocker 4 stars overall, I think the seat is one of the best of come across but still has some flaws, the most important being the way that the baby is strapped in. I think this should really be re-designed to make it suitable for older babies who have started to move around.
Thanks for reading :o)
Read the complete review |
