Description: Always fancied a go at parachuting? Well, this won’t help, but for a brief second when you first see your baby strapped into one of these contraptions you can wonder what it might be like to jump head first from a Hercules at 15,000 feet and imagine that all that’s getting in the way of certain death are some lengths of material sewn or fused together by an under-paid machinist in Burnley. Still want to sign up for that red-letter day?
Door bouncers are fantastic. So simple, yet, if your baby likes them, they can be the source of many minutes and hours of entertainment. Once you have attached the rather powerful spring lock to the doorframe, insert your baby and let them get on with it. The spring-assisted straps allow baby to taste the wonders of bipedal existence a few months before their little leg muscles are able to take the strain. The gentlest of movements sends them bouncing up and down – and sometimes from left to right – and into fits of giggles and broad smiles.
Pros: There’s no real proof that a bouncer will lead to your baby standing and walking any faster than if you don’t use one, but there’s no denying that encouraging the use of the leg muscles must be helping to strengthen and prepare her for her first steps. Once we introduced a door bouncer at about five months, we found our daughter was less clingy thanks to her experience of ‘assisted independence’. She would bounce for about twenty minutes a day.
Cons: Do leave it for a while after milk or meals otherwise you run the risk of baby being sick. Be sure to only use a bouncer when the door frame sticks out proud from the wall above otherwise there’s a risk that the downward motion could pull the spring from the door, which wouldn’t be much fun at all. Door bouncers don’t work for every child. Our daughter loved using it, our son preferred to do anything but.
What’s it all about? Bouncers are a bit like a mini-bungee experience for kids. They store away after use and as long as you don’t start trying to catapult your son or daughter across the room, they’re completely safe.
Bloke’s Rating: Let them earn their wings.
