Swinging or vibrating baby seats- are they worth it?

I’m planning to get a few things for our new baby while the [name_u]January[/name_u] sales are on, and I’m wondering whether to get a swinging/vibrating baby chair or whether to make do with the basic manual bouncy chair that [name_f]Juni[/name_f] had. It was one of the things that I regretted not getting for [name_f]Juni[/name_f], but i was hoping some of you Mamas could tell me if they really are a great, can’t-live-without-it piece of kit or whether it’ll just be a waste of money and space!
What are your experiences of them?

Thanks!

  • [name_f]Freya[/name_f]

The swing was a lifesaver with our first, since she hated to sleep on her back she ended up spending a LOT of nights in the swing… mama needs her sleep, am I right? The bouncer I think we could have easily lived without, and just sat her on the boppy nursing pillow thing, but it was convenient to be able to strap her in there & she could sit in the bathroom if I needed to hop in the shower or something.

Swing yes, vibrating chair no.

We have a vibrating chair/bouncer, and as far as I could tell, she didn’t notice that her butt was vibrating at all. It did nothing. So it was all about bouncing her with my foot… for hours.
My sister invested in a swing for baby sitting (she’s super keen that one) and swore by it. My little girl loved that thing!

I really really want to get a mamaroo bouncer for this next baby, because sitting on my bum and bouncing with my foot isn’t going to cut it around a toddler… and it looks really awesome… but I know it’s just not going to happen!

Thanks guys, that’s really interesting. I’m really interested in having something that makes naps easy- [name_f]Juni[/name_f] never napped well, (although she was alright at night oddly) so i always had her napping on me, which isn’t going to work this time, or i was walking the streets in all weathers trying to get her to sleep in her pushchair. I never found the bouncer that useful because I had to sit there and bounce it the whole time- I’m looking for something that requires a little less participation, ahem, lazy me!
[name_f]Katie[/name_f]- I did occur to me that it could be a lifesaver if this baby’s not a night time sleeper- mama absolutely needs her sleep!

Mirimouse- I suspected that about the vibrate chairs, sounds like the swing is the way to go. I’ll check out the mamaroo, thanks for the tip.

Some babies are swing babies, some babies are bouncy seat babies, and some babies just hate everything. Our son hated the swing, but was okay in the bouncy seat while I took a shower or during dinner. My sister’s baby loves the swing and hates the bouncer. My friend’s baby hates both, but does okay in a Bumbo- we think it is because she can sit up in there and look around better.

I think the best course of action is to borrow these things from someone and see which one the baby takes to. If that is not possible, I would say buy them used off Craigslist with the plan of reselling them. You use these things for such a short time- really three to six months. But they can be a lifesaver during those months!

There are some swing that both swing and vibrate (one at a time, or both together.) It’s really a try-and-see kind of thing. Some of my kids loved it, others didn’t want to be in it for even a short time.

Never bothered with any of mine and we survived. I use a sling if they need motion, but all of mine have slept in a moses basket or just a regular chair.

While I don’t have any babies of my own (yet) I was visiting a friend last night who has a 7 week old baby. When I got there he was soundly sleeping in his vibrating swing. My friend said he absolutely loves it and it works like a charm. She lets him nap there all the time and said some of her friends let their babies sleep in it overnight. It really seemed to work out for her, but I think it would just depend on the baby.

We had both and they didn’t get much use with my son but I used them a lot more with my daughter. My son is a very demanding child and he liked for me to play with him and put the baby down. I also had to help him using the bathroom, not something I liked doing while wearing the baby. It was nice to be able to put her in the swing or in the bouncer. You can find them used for fairly cheap. Also when my daughter was still waking up several times at night and my son still napped I would feed her after he went to sleep. Then stick her immediately in the swing and lay down on the couch for a bit of a nap for myself.

My experience, i would recommend the swing. My mother loved to put my daughter in there every time i left the room because “she likes it” (her excuse for for a 1 month baby falling asleep). But it did the trick & she got used to the ritual much more than I liked. So every time she was cranky or tired or I needed to do something it worked, which was great because that’s the point. (I personally just didn’t like her sleeping in it, personally).

The chair? I didn’t care for, I rarely put her in it & i wouldn’t buy again. It might be nice if you need to sit her in smaller areas like the kitchen for cooking or something. One plus I noticed is the little vibrating would lead my daughter to a dirty diaper quicker in the day.

I did notice in the store a seat that swayed vibrated went up & [name_m]Dow[/name_m] was adjustable & all kinds of crazy stuff (looked modern), it wasn’t that big compares to the swing & maybe only 30$ more (from what I paod). I would say to look into that but I forget the name.

The swing was a lifesaver for us. At 6 months I’ll still put her in it to nap on days where she’s having a hard time getting settled.

It was a lifesaver for us. We had twins and were on a tight budget. I was confident we didn’t need any high tech gadgets, but my aunt sent us a bouncy chair and I was so grateful to have it. It was a safe place to put one baby while I needed to change the other etc. We used it daily.

It really depends on the baby. It’s something that can be lived without, but it’s nice. The daycare I worked at when I was pregnant donated a swing that had 6 speeds, played music/rain sound/ocean sounds/ and animal sounds, has a mobile and a dome light. [name_f]Persephone[/name_f] hated it for the first 6 months but now she loves it. That’s the only way I can get her to sleep sometimes.

When she was younger, she really loved her fisher price rocker seat. It lays back and sits up and vibrates and rocks. She loved that. I only ever buy my stuff from consignment sales and things like that. Good stuff for cheap. That way, if the baby doesn’t like it, I didn’t waste a ton of money on it.

I love my Graco Sweet [name_u]Peace[/name_u] Newborn Soothing Center. I like how it has different seat and recline positions. I know my baby’s comfortable in it and the vibrating seat is just a plus. It’s rated #1 here Best Infant and Toddler Baby Swings 2015 | HubPages .

[name_f]My[/name_f] son loved his bouncy/ vibrating seat. He spend hours in it.
We never had an infant swing, but I am sure he would have loved that too.
I say if you can find them at a good price, go for it!

We bought one that converts into lots of things as baby grows up: it starts off almost like a bassinet that swings itself and plays tunes for when the baby is newborn (great for putting her in when I’m sat on the couch because it’s perfect eye level), then you can change it into a bouncer seat, a swing or a sort of chair. Right now we are using the first setting because she only little. [name_f]My[/name_f] grandmother also bought us a more generic vibrating bouncer seat which [name_f]Nettie[/name_f] loves!

It’s definitely worth the money and my daughter really likes them, she seems to like the converting on more than her actual bassinet that we use for the nighttime.

Like another poster, my daughter did just fine in a [name_m]Moses[/name_m] basket. She was not a fussy baby though, so it probably just depends. I don’t plan on buying any high tech seats with my next baby, but it is something I’ll consider if she cries every time I lay her down. I have seen really nice ones for $20 at Once Upon a Child.

After I composed this response, I saw it was an old thread, have you decided what to purchase yet?

You probably know way more than me, as I’m a first time mummy and haven’t even had my DS yet! However, on my baby shower registry (I live in the UK same as you, and I know showers aren’t the ‘done’ thing over here but I also had it as a gender reveal) I put three different swing/bouncers on my list (only thinking I would get one- hopefully from someone who knew which was best) and I got all three! I’ve got the Graco Sweetpeace swing, MamaRoo bouncer & BabyBjorn bouncer. I think I’m going to tactically place them throughout the house, or many pass them on to other mums/see if I can return them if DS doesn’t seem to get on with a certain one. I just wondered if you had looked into these? I can’t speak for their effectiveness, but I did a huge amount of baby product research for my shower registry and it seemed like these were the most popular. I’ve also LOVED the initial plays, can’t wait until maternity leave (in just under a month) to have a proper experiment with them!