Noodad Product Test Drive: Bumbo Baby Seat

You love to hold your newborn but after awhile, it gets to be a pain in your neck…and back and knees.  Not figuratively but literally.  The constant rocking and bouncing experienced in the first couple of months is a repetitive stress injury in the making!

Occasionally, you'd like to put baby down just for a few minutes so you can take a whiz, make a sandwich or look for the remote without creating the "pillow fortress" on the rug or strapping them into a swing, bouncy seat or other contraption which let's face it, after they start to get some strength, is like trying to wrangle a marlin.  Enter the Bumbo – a piece of foam rubber injection molded into the shape of a baby seat. 

The Bumbo is more than a seat though…it's primary selling point (and what differentiates it from anything else available) is that its design allows baby to sit up (like a big kid) long before they can on their own.  This feat made the Bumbo a revelation in the ReviewDad household!  Almost equally central to its utility is its one piece design.The shape of the mold supports baby in all the right places to make sitting up possible (as soon as baby has neck control) and it provides the security of a seat without all of the straps. Baby's weight and the center "post" keeps your progeny glued to the seat like you to the TV during the NCAA Tournament (…able to move a bit but not really going anywhere).

Testing in the Noodad Test Labs highlighted several other benefits:

• Portability – it weighs almost nothing and is one hand transportable to the kitchen, bathroom, grandma's house, wherever…

• “Washability” – it's non-porous and wipeable which means no covers to launder…which is a big deal because let's face it, trying to put the cover back on a bouncy seat frame sucks

• Durability – it suffered no damage after an accidental tumble down the stairs (no baby was involved in the incident) and then a few more deliberate ones for good measure (we at Noodad take our testing seriously!)

• Solid Colors – a welcome break from the Fisher Price Aquarium theme or Graco's plethora of putrid plaids patterns (say that three times fast!)

The Bumbo can really only be faulted on two counts:

• Limited Window of Use – the manufacturer claims it to be “suitable for babies from as young as six weeks (or as soon as they can support their own heads unaided) to an age of approximately fourteen months” but in reality, the utility of the seat seems to be much shorter because as soon as your kid begins to crawl, he/she will be able to get out of the seat and from that point on, is unlikely to be content to sit in it

• Cost – at $33-$49 (depending on where purchased), its not cheap given the limited amount of time you'll likely be able to use it

Conclusion:

Do you need another baby “containing” contraption?  Probably not but the Bumbo can definitely make your life easier.  And your baby may prefer sitting up to reclining…and you can’t put a price on a happy baby, right?!  Its design and portability make it usable just about everywhere and its durability means it's something that can be used across kids and be shared within family and friend circles.  Noodad Test Lab testing suggests that money spent on Bumbo will be money well spent.

ReviewDad Rating: 4 noos (out of a possible 5)